Trail running to explore the unbeaten path
The North CANUM ultra is a 50 mile race following two waterways in North Wales – the Llangollen and Montgomery canals. The route starts near the Berwyn range in the town of Llangollen, and finishes in Newtown. Although the route is quite flat, along the way you get to experience breathtaking views of the surrounding … Read more
The Naked Running Band is a snug fitting carry pack with just over 2l of carrying capacity. It has a surprising number of features for something so simple. I have found that it is an extremely useful bit of running kit. Whether out for a short run, or an ultra marathon, I have found the … Read more
My Hoka One One Speedgoat 5 trail shoes have just passed 600km of use, and so I thought it was time to gather my thoughts on them so far and provide a short review. Moving from the Speedgoat 4 to the Speedgoat 5 A couple of months ago my second pair of Speedgoat 4 trail … Read more
The VOGUM is a 40 mile (64 km) ultra marathon taking place in the Vale of Glamorgan. The route hugs the South Wales coastal path, running from Porthcawl to Penarth, just below Cardiff. Having moved to West Wales toward the end of last year, earlier this year I found myself seeking out marathon and ultra … Read more
Last Saturday I ran the 2022 Blacks to the Beacons 50 mile ultra marathon. The race was 52 miles over the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons in Wales, with an elevation of about 11,000 ft (3300 meters). I finished with a chip time of 14:30:56, placing 29th (21st in my age category). It was a … Read more
Recently I upgraded from a Garmin forerunner 245 to the new Garmin fenix 7. Or is that written fēnix? While the forerunner was a perfectly fine GPS multisport watch (with music capability too), lately I’ve found myself wanting for more. With the warmer weather on it’s way, so too is prime running season, and the … Read more
I recently completed the 20km red warrior multi-terrain 2022 race and was very pleased to have placed 2nd overall in the solo series 🥈 I ran the 20km race in a time of 91.05 minutes. The multi-terrain trail race had three variations of trail. Harder packed gravel / wet and muddy patches, sandy woodland, and … Read more
A couple of weekends ago I managed to find some time to explore part of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park trail for a bit of coastal path trail running. With the last coastal path trail running route that I ran having been part of the Strumble Head circular, I was keen to try something else … Read more
Global warming is a real issue affecting us now and more so in the coming years. We see the effects to some degree already. From abnormal weather patterns, exceptionally freezing Winters, to flash flooding and prolongued droughts. Global warming is nothing new. In fact scientists from Exxon mobile knew about it 40+ years ago. Yet … Read more
On a cold and rainy December late afternoon, I ran a small section of the Strumble Head Circular coastal trail. I’m always on a mission to explore and catalog various trail running locations that are within close proximity to where I live. To find and decide on Strumble Head, I loaded up my Alltrails app, … Read more