I thought I best add a bit of a biography to answer that critical question - why would anyone sign up to run effectively 8 consecutive marathons over rough rocky terrain at altitude? What got me to this point and what drives me on?
I've always been active, enjoying a broad range of sports both in and outside school. Not running so much, but being outdoors, out in the forest or on the fells has been part of my life since a very young age. I started orienteering at school, about the age of 14 or 15 and instantly loved the challenge - running off road, up and down, jumping streams and hacking through undergrowth with the added challenge of navigating your own way. I suppose I had mixed results; not being the quickest runner nor the best navigator having only taken it up at a relatively late stage, but got stronger, quicker and better at the nav over the years at school and college. I took up mid-week runs to improve my fitness and gradually worked my 5km time trial down to under 20 minutes. At the time, this was a real achievement. Little did I know that 10 years on this would be my target marathon pace!
With the intention of improving my orienteering at university, I joined the cross-country club to boost my fitness and found a fantastic group of like-minded individuals, many of whom I am still in touch with today and consider to be among my best friends. I didn't race much for the club during that first year, focusing more on the orienteering but priorities gradually swung in favour of the cross-country club and I raced frequently from then on. Mostly focusing on cross-country but scattered with the odd road race too.
University provided the opportunity to race my first mountain marathon, a 2-day navigation race over wild terrain, run in pairs, carrying everything you need for 36 hrs out in the hills. I took on the 2003 Karrimor International Mountain Marathon (KIMM - now the OMM) C class over in the Langholm hills of southern Scotland with Jon, Durham housemate and long-time friend from York. We failed. It was a bloody cold one and we weren't too well prepared. Surely a summer time mountain marathon would have kinder weather and be easier on young legs? Nope, I entered the 2004 LAMM and failed again. Same reason. Well, pretty much, it's not often snow blizzards envelop even the most northerly Scottish hills in June. Still, this didn't put me off trying again and I was back at the 2004 KIMM in the Brecon Beacons. Recording a first mountain marathon finish and 20th place on the Short Score.
I've since rocked up another 29 mountain marathon starts (including 4 DNFs), gradually working through the classes and doing pretty much every event going, at least in the UK. Long may it continue - I've got some adventurous targets!
On top of this, since moving to Guildford in 2007, I've seen a gradual increase in weekly mileage, a decrease in my PBs coupled with a much more competitive position in most of my races and possibly most importantly, a tendency to run longer and longer distances. I've only one (disastrous) road marathon on my resume but do have another 3 off road marathons (including the Everest marathon) and 5 ultras, ranging from the Manx Mountain Marathon (31.5 miles) to the Fellsman (61 miles), plus numerous other fell and trail races.
So, the Transalpine is really just a natural continuation of finding ever more challenging events and pushing to achieve more and more. I've long surpassed what I thought I could way back in 2003 so there's literally no limits now....
I've always been active, enjoying a broad range of sports both in and outside school. Not running so much, but being outdoors, out in the forest or on the fells has been part of my life since a very young age. I started orienteering at school, about the age of 14 or 15 and instantly loved the challenge - running off road, up and down, jumping streams and hacking through undergrowth with the added challenge of navigating your own way. I suppose I had mixed results; not being the quickest runner nor the best navigator having only taken it up at a relatively late stage, but got stronger, quicker and better at the nav over the years at school and college. I took up mid-week runs to improve my fitness and gradually worked my 5km time trial down to under 20 minutes. At the time, this was a real achievement. Little did I know that 10 years on this would be my target marathon pace!
With the intention of improving my orienteering at university, I joined the cross-country club to boost my fitness and found a fantastic group of like-minded individuals, many of whom I am still in touch with today and consider to be among my best friends. I didn't race much for the club during that first year, focusing more on the orienteering but priorities gradually swung in favour of the cross-country club and I raced frequently from then on. Mostly focusing on cross-country but scattered with the odd road race too.
University provided the opportunity to race my first mountain marathon, a 2-day navigation race over wild terrain, run in pairs, carrying everything you need for 36 hrs out in the hills. I took on the 2003 Karrimor International Mountain Marathon (KIMM - now the OMM) C class over in the Langholm hills of southern Scotland with Jon, Durham housemate and long-time friend from York. We failed. It was a bloody cold one and we weren't too well prepared. Surely a summer time mountain marathon would have kinder weather and be easier on young legs? Nope, I entered the 2004 LAMM and failed again. Same reason. Well, pretty much, it's not often snow blizzards envelop even the most northerly Scottish hills in June. Still, this didn't put me off trying again and I was back at the 2004 KIMM in the Brecon Beacons. Recording a first mountain marathon finish and 20th place on the Short Score.
I've since rocked up another 29 mountain marathon starts (including 4 DNFs), gradually working through the classes and doing pretty much every event going, at least in the UK. Long may it continue - I've got some adventurous targets!
On top of this, since moving to Guildford in 2007, I've seen a gradual increase in weekly mileage, a decrease in my PBs coupled with a much more competitive position in most of my races and possibly most importantly, a tendency to run longer and longer distances. I've only one (disastrous) road marathon on my resume but do have another 3 off road marathons (including the Everest marathon) and 5 ultras, ranging from the Manx Mountain Marathon (31.5 miles) to the Fellsman (61 miles), plus numerous other fell and trail races.
So, the Transalpine is really just a natural continuation of finding ever more challenging events and pushing to achieve more and more. I've long surpassed what I thought I could way back in 2003 so there's literally no limits now....
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