Tougher than last year, but for different reasons.

From Hope we cross a bumpy English plain, scattered with sheep and stiles. Pigeons, grey as the day, are plentiful and the river tinkles quietly to our right. There is a concrete factory to our left that feels old and oppressive.

I navigated this one really badly and it needs to be navigated well to do it justice as a run. The hills – or rather the sides of the valleys – are big and deep and the trails that cross their sides aren’t always maintained or easy to see. At this time of year, the…

After a day in the company of machines, I feel stretched too thinly and I go running in Yarncliffe Wood in the late afternoon. The thought of emails forces me into the car, where I get annoyed that I have to sit before I can run. My mood is for trees, but instead there are…

Cratcliffe feels like an ancient place. Its got a sense of obscurity, even when its busy and the crag the area is named after is hard to see unless you’re staring directly at it. There’s a hermit’s cave cut into the rock there somehow and there are stone circles in places that you wouldn’t expect.

So far, today is a green, blue and bright Derbyshire day. Moisture is turning into vapour in the fields and there are clouds hanging low in the valley. The weather forecast showed today as a grey, featureless expanse of cloud, but instead we’re starting the day under a glowing yellow sun.

We’re high up where we are, but we need to drop down for a while into a dark, wooded valley where ice lies glittering across a freezing green carpet of grass, mud and stones. The hillsides are a dull red through the trees.

In the city, but thinking about being back inside the mist. Black streets and sodium lamps. No cars except mine.… Read More »

We’d planned to run in the Staffordshire part of the Peak District, a route known locally as The Dragon’s Back. The route changes according to who you talk to, but on this occasion I’d planned to go from Longnor to Hollinsclough, to Hollins Hill, to Chrome Hill, to Parkhouse and then finally to High Wheeldon…

There are a few familiar faces making their way through the pine trees to the start line, but names and places escape me. I put the spare bag containing the first aid kit in the wrong pile (the organisers have offered to take one bag per runner to the finish line for us) and a…

I’ve run races around here several times and they’ve all been great events. For some reason, races organised by Totley AC seem to attract very good runners and I can never get anywhere near the top quarter of the score boards.

white edge There’s an art piece of mine based on this area. You can see that here. From its northern… Read More »