Petite Feet Runaway

  The thunder run is a bit of a party. Last year I got an entry a few weeks before and it was a good excuse to see my sister and in-laws. A few months ago we all penciled it in again as a good excuse to catch up. I waited until after the Great Glen double until getting a confirmed entry as I wanted to see whether my legs would recover enough for the full 24 hours or whether I should convince someone else to do the 12 hour with me. Ten days prior to the race, my older sister had just come out of hospital and was not going to be well enough to crew. Should I bother trying to get an entry? Yes no, yes no. Aye. With a week to go, I got an entry confirmation. Then wham, four days before the race, even worse news about my sister. After some frantic early morning packing and some emergency flights to Brighton booked, my giant Nathan pack was left in Edinburgh full of running gear with a huge 'MAYBE' sign plastered on it. I did not know what the right decision was. I did ...

  Date : Saturday 11 April 2015 Location: Parco Ruffini, Turin, Italy Event: World 24 hour championships, European 24 hour championships and Italian 24 hour championships.  Reason: No other pressing weekend plans and/or insanity. Course: A lap of a bouncy blue athletics track, an incline up through a tunnel out of the athletics stadium, some long straights along footpath around the outside of the stadium, some long tree-lined straights along road around the outside of the stadium, a cheeky road hairpin, some more road and then a decline back through the tunnel into the athletics stadium. Total distance = 2km (although the first lap was 1.7km). I quite liked it.  The New Zealand Team: Kim Allan, Vivian Cheng, Valerie Muskett, Wayne Botha, John Bayne, Graeme Butcher, Brian McCorkindale and myself. A good looking bunch indeed with loads of various experience.  My crew: Scott. Poor soul.    ...

This year the IAU World 24 Hour Championships are in Torino, Italy. Italy is nice. They specialise in carbohydrates too. I like carbohydrates. And a long weekend in a new place is fun.  It all sounded like a good plan at the time. In the last few months so many wee incidents have occurred that made me wonder why I am still going. Fortunately, I am insanely stubborn and didn't listen to them. Here's a snapshot, just for some hilarity... Within two weeks of returning from honeymoon I developed plantar fasciitis. With plantar fasciitis under control, I develop ischial bursitis. All exercise is suspended and I can barely dress myself unassisted.  That's ok, we roll who these things and I manage to walk/run Transgrancanaria feeling none of the above mentioned grizzles. Just to prove that the mind is an amazing  thing, they come back with a vengeance accompanied by a toe/foot injury. It must be from my epic treadmill walking (honestly, it's addictive). Then, just for a la...

    At first it was the relaxed comment at the end of a meeting with Stevie Gildea that got me committed to the race. When he mentioned a bunch of people from 2Pure were going down to the Thunder Run I should have said 'thank you for the waffles.' That's obviously how you end most conversations. Instead when he said he might do it for a bit of training I responded with 'aye, I'm keen.' Because that's exactly the training I need too. For all those race plans that I don't have. Ah well. Then it was the relaxed comment at the end of the phone conversation that got me into even slightly more bother. The very clichéd '(we'll) just do it.' With 'it' being the solo. We could just stop if we got tired if we wanted anyway. With my unsuccessful record in 24 hour races, how could anything possibly be wrong with that decision?! During the Great Glen Way Ultra I picked up...