Hello blog-reading person Following on from my last post, I just wanted to quickly tell you about something else that happened in the hotel gym, in the faint hope that the act of putting it down in writing will somehow exorcise the godawful memory of what happened (it won’t). So, this was my second or…

Hola! (That’s pretty much the only Spanish I know, other than “Soy una princesa de hadas”, which I use more often than I ever thought I would). I’ve just got back from a break in the south of Majorca. Some long-overdue family time, with no worries or cares (other than the ever-present threat of being…

A tinkle. A wee-wee. Taking a leak. A piddle. A widdle. A wet hello. A gypsy’s kiss. A wazz. Watering the buttercups. Bath-time at Uncle Geoffrey’s house, Spending a penny. A piss. Whatever you want to call it, I’m sure we’ve all been caught short mid-run. If it’s a short run you might be able…

I wish weather reports would stop being so bloody vague. When they said “expect winds with gusts of up to 50mph, accompanied by heavy showers”, that could have meant literally anything. If you’ve ever seen me out running, you’ll know that I look like an idiot at the best of times, lurching haphazardly along like…

Running clubs are a great idea if you want to spend time with likeminded people, give yourself fresh challenges, stay motivated, or if you just really enjoy wearing vests. And while joining can just be a simple matter of turning up and filling in a registration form, you should also be aware that there’s a…

One of my most favouritest out-and-back routes has a particularly nasty hill at the halfway point. There’s a gatepost at the top, and I’ve developed a triumphant little ritual of high-fiving it whenever I get there. I think this sort of behaviour is quite common among runners. We like to tap inanimate objects1 as a…

When I go for a run, there are two constants. Two absolute rules of the universe that simply cannot be avoided. One:  The more wonderful it is, the more likely I am to find new and inventive ways to bring it crashing down around me. Two: If my run brings me within 30ft of a…

Why do we run races? What sets them apart from a bog standard training run, enough to persuade us to part with our hard-earned cash and queue for twenty minutes to use a toilet that smells like a family of clowns died in it? Is it the medal? The goodie bag? The cheerful bonhomie and…

There’s a hill near where I live. My town sprawls under it, and you can see for miles. It’s lovely. I sometimes just stand there for a while and take in the view. Obviously, this is mostly so that I can get an early warning if there happens to be a Godzilla rampaging along the…