Adam in Runderland

It has Bean a funny year After the chaos that was 2020 this year passed off without incident.... Maybe not. 2021 was another pandemic affected year with various degrees of restrictions, lockdowns and cancellations. On a personal note it was also quite traumatic. Whether this was the reason for exceeding my running goals I am not sure, but exceed them I did. My goals were to run 52 long runs, - half marathon distance or more - beat my parkrun PB and run 21 marathons in 2021. The usual aim of running the miles of the year (2021) still stood. I hit the target of 52 runs on June 11th and set a new goal of 100. My final total was 108, more than two per week. I completed 32  marathons of which 17  were ultra distances. The total miles I ran in the year was 2353.  I didn't get close to a 5K PB though. There were many memorable runs. Here are a selection of them in no particular order. 10 half marathons in 10 days. A visit to Catford parkrun by the Bald Monkeys Running Club. Runn...

I love trail running. I love running in the dark. I love nature. I love running with friends. What better then than a night-time trail run through woodland with my running group, YPOM? Ten of us met up a The Sydney Arms in Chislehurst. Head torches and trail shoes on, we headed into Scadbury Woods. It was soft under foot with inches of leaf litter and some big patches of soggy mud. Our head torches illuminated the path before our feet and lit the skeletal trees above.  It was a mild night and overcast. The moon attempted to peep out occasionally but it was a losing battle. It was silent apart from our foot steps and chatter. Funnily enough we didn't see anyone else the whole time we were running. Matt and Kelly led us on a route around the woodland. We passed several carved bears that mark the route, and stopped at Scadbury Manor ruins to view the buildings and the moat.  From Scadbury we took the wildlife corridor to Petts Wood. Here we did some obstacles such as the fallen t...

Here are my top running tracks of 2021 in no particular order. Click on the link to hear in YouTube. 10 - Run by Alison Wonderland It could have been any track by this dance music genius. She has come into her own this year and was the inspiration behind this blog title.  Check out Happy Place and F*ck U Love U. 9 - Mork n Mindy - Sleaford Mods, Billy Nomates Great song, brilliant lyrics. The dry, Nottingham drawl of Jason Williamson overlays the repetitive beats and bleeps of Andrew Fearn. Billy Nomates brings her own laid back but tuneful vibe.  "Mork 'n' Mindy, Action Man 'n' Cindy, I don't mess about, I make 'em kiss each other when my mum 'n' dad go out" Check out Nudge and Jobseeker. 8 - Megapunk - Ela Minus Colombian electronic sophistication. Hypnotic, melodic and perfect for running through the city at night. Described as Bjork having a baby with Massive Attack. This tune has a great sample of Greta Thunberg. "Yes, we do need hope...

The vertical KM involves climbing 1000m in elevation over the course of a run. The world record was set recently by none other than Kilian Jornet in 28 minutes and 48 seconds.  I joined Running Adventures for a slightly longer and slower vertical KM in the Surrey Hills. We met for an 8am start in a car park at the bottom of Box Hill. I was there with my friends and YPOM running group members Matt and Susie. The group of ten was being led by Running Adventures founder, ultra runner,  adventure seeker and Salomon athlete Matt Buck.  We started with a ridiculously steep route up wooden steps, through mud and leaves to the top of Box Hill. From there it was up and down the hill from various angles. The sharp ascents and descents had our lungs stretched to full capacity and our muscles filled with lactic acid.  Between these intense sections were pleasant runs along tree lined paths, through thick bogs, and over fields with outstanding views over the surrounding countrysi...

Time for some more Rannual Leave. I took the day off and joined Matt for an ultra run through London and across the M25. Yes, we were breaking out of London on foot. Our plan was to follow the Lea Valley north to Ware. Where? Yes Ware. Oh the hilarity. Let's just say the joke lasted the whole 30 miles. We left Lewisham at 5am as we both needed to be back for the school run. It was dark and cold. We encountered the only elevation of the entire route on the way through Blackheath towards Greenwich Park. An easy downhill to the Cutty Sark brought us to the Greenwich foot tunnel which took us beneath the Thames and onto the north bank. The illuminated towers of Canary Wharf shone above us and thousands of Christmas fairy lights lit our path across the Isle of Dogs and onto the Limehouse Cut. We decided to take the direct route through Hackney and explored some parts of the city I have never seen before and likely never will again. A mixture of gentrification and 1960's social housi...