Adam in Runderland

The start of the adventure "Adam, come quickly!" I hear Matt shout with a sense of urgency. "We need your help" It's the end of our first day attempting the Coast to Coast Challenge, a 190 mile self-supported run across northern England. Just the two of us. I've just stopped to take a leak behind a boulder. What on Earth is he hollering about? And who is 'we'? Over the course of the last hour we have been descending the steep sides of an 800m high fell. A giant rock strewn wilderness with fast flowing becks and raging waterfalls that towers over Grasmere, the location of our accommodation for the night. Just another three miles to go before we can enjoy a well earned pie and a pint. It has been a tough day with two big climbs and 38 miles of running across the Lake District from St Bees Bay on the Irish Sea. Our 10 kilo backpacks are weighing us down and blisters are already forming on the soles of our feet from the stony trails. It has been a clear ...

My knee throbbed. The pain emanated from the inside of my left leg and stretched upwards across the joint. Should I continue? Was I just making it worse? Could I run it off? With each step I winced and asked the question again. With each step the end came closer. But where would the end be? This was the biggest question of all. Twenty-six miles? Six miles? 600m? The New Year is not yet five hours old. Just twelve hours earlier I had completed a marathon. 26.2 miles across the south of London from Richmond upon Thames to my home in Lewisham. Now I was preparing to run another one. Back-to-back marathons over New Year. This had become a tradition. Book end the year with marathons. A tradition that was a year old. In other words, I did it last year, so now I have to do it every year. I wasn’t alone in this though. My equally obsessed running friend Matt Shimwell ran with me last year and is joining me again to welcome in 2025. Yesterday we had taken the train to Richmond on Thames a...

The end of another year and time to look back. At the end of 2023 I was anticipating the Lakeland 3 day and hoping to run in the Peak District and the Alps. I also mentioned strength training and stretching. Let's see how that went... The year started with a New Year's Day marathon with Matt Shimwell. A 5am start enabled us to get it done before midday. Our route was through East London, out towards Lesnes Abbey Woods and on to Erith before returning along the Thames. A great beginning to the year.  The following winter months involved lots of running but no events or travels. I was consistently hitting 250 miles a month and this resulted in the prospect of a big total for the year. I had managed to include a regular time of stretching and strengthening into each day and kept this up for a couple of months. Unfortunately I let it slip and never returned to it. I returned to the track and began to work on my pace with interval training. Running tours picked up again, as did my c...

   Here are my top running tracks of 2024 in no particular order. Click on the link to hear in YouTube. 10 -  Watch me by Biig Piig Electronic heaven. Deep bass, synth rhythms and female vocals. A massage for the ear drums.   If you like this you may also like: I'm so high by Eufoeni, Kuma Fo by Les Amazones d'Afrique 9 - Blame by Gabriels Truly epic. An incredible voice combined with soaring strings and memorable lyrics: Not a slave if I'm already free Not a captive if it's where I want to be And those high notes. Wow. Stunning. If you like this you may also like: My Lady of Mercy by The Last Dinner Party, number 8 below... 8 - Hollywood Blvd by Loren Kramar Drama. Another tune to make you feel like a giant. An anthem. A splendid, magnificent paeon to Hollywood fame. Funny too. Check out these lyrics: Move over I'm coming through Only joking but please get out of the way Who wants to live forever? I do! Come on pencil Let's show notepad what we can do. Don'...