Petite Feet Runaway

  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...

My dad had a heart attack in July and as a consequence has not done much running since. Although to be honest, he hadn't done much running in the six months prior to July anyway. Maybe it was because he felt ill with the symptoms of an impending heart attack. Maybe he hadn't been running because he was so busy worrying about crewing for his middle daughter at the World 24 Hour Championships. Or organising her wedding. Or organising the trip to Europe that would accompany the race crewing and wedding attendance. We don't have a clue what caused the heart attack...  Anyway, he's had some spare time on his hands and wrote a wee article for the Ultra Tales e-zine about how much rubbish we carry with us when we run. Scott whipped up a wee picture depicting my father running with some of his essentials but sadly Ultra Tales didn't add this into the article. They obviously don't know how famous Scott's work is up here in Scotland. So below is his artwork. Check o...

Glenmore throws a good party. Or at least Mike Adams and Bill Heirs throw a good party at the Hayfield in Glenmore. And I've had this bad boy of a party locked in for a while. I thought about packing party poppers, glittery hats and some dancing shoes. Instead a packed my wellies, some beer and every fleece I own. Everyone's party style is different and that's ok folks. People like to dress in lycra at running parties and I have an incredible amount of respect for people that wear lycra. Glenmore party racing is in it's third year now. Each year it gets a little bit bigger and there are a few more rules as the serious runners start taking part. I ran the 12-hour two years ago in it's first year and it was brilliant. My pals Nicole and Hilary came up to support, drink and get intimate with the Highland midgies while Scott learnt that camping wasn't a strong skill of mine. Last year I was meant to go back for the 24-hour. Unfortunately, I got a bit whingey ove...

Pre-Steenbergen Rambling My arrival at 24-hour running has been a bit of a whirlwind. A year and a half ago I took a train to Wales to piggy-back on my sister’s crewing position for New Zealand runner Matt Bixley who was running the Commonwealth 24 Hour Championships in Llandudno. I had no idea this running existed. The runners go around in circles. All night. You had to wipe your hands with nappy wipes so that you didn’t give Matt unnecessary germs. Ok, maybe that was just a Matt thing… There were these three Scottish lassies running; Debbie Martin-Consani, Sharon Law and Pauline Walker. Who were these people? I cheered for them because they were from Scotland but I didn’t really understand their greatness. There was just one female representative for New Zealand at this race and I figured that maybe New Zealand needed some more lady runners for their team. So essentially I started running 24 hour runs because my country NEEDED me to. What a saviour. Less than a year ago I r...