Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category

Every summer, thousands of runners gather in Bramham Park to take part in Endure24: a 24-hour running race where the aim is to do as many 8km laps as you can within the time limit. Participants take part as solos, pairs or teams. I did the virtual Endure24 over COVID but this was my first time at the thing itself.

I turned up on the Friday and met up with Robyn for the shake out run, which is one lap of the course. It was great to catch up and see what the course is like ahead of the race. I then went home and slept in my nice comfortable bed ready for the race starting the next day.

Back to Braham Park on Saturday to meet up with the rest of my team: Grace, Jed and Matt, to take on the race. I wouldn’t describe myself as a big outdoor person (despite all of the triathlon and adventure racing) so camping is a bit out of my comfort zone. Thanks to Matt for lending me a tent.

The race starts at noon and we each did a lap before moving to double laps. The first twelve flew by: we originally were thinking an hour per lap but having the break means you can go faster than you would on a solo ultra. All speed is relative, though, and by the end of lap eight, both Charlotte and Toby had lapped us.

By around 10 o’clock we had all done three laps each and moved onto the night laps. I had said I was going to take on more of the night shift as I wanted to run when it was cooler. It got down to about 12 degrees at night, so still a little on the warm side even in shorts and t-shirt. My mood was up-and-down at night. When I first started I was thinking maybe I’ll do even more night laps after my double but by the end my stomach was complaining and I wanted to get some sleep. So, after Matt did his night lap, we had nobody running for an hour or so. It would have been nice to do the sunrise lap but I just wasn’t up for it at the time.

In the morning, we switched back to single laps and cycled through two each, before crossing the line together.

In total, we managed 25 laps as a team. We set out as a chill team so there was no target, but everyone hit their individual target of getting six laps in (48km, making it an ultra distance) and my extra night lap took us up to 25 as a team, meaning we hit 200km overall.

After the race, we went to the Endure24 pub. The event village has a pub, cafe, several food vans, an ice cream van, a medical and sports massage tent, and some retailers. And a fire pit at night.

There were some brilliant performances to mention. Charlotte completed 23 laps, finishing first lady and second overall. Toby completed 20 laps to complete the 100 miles, and Robyn crushed 10 laps for a total of 80km at her first 24-hour event. Eleanor took second in the female pairs. Well done to everyone who took part, and thank you to my teammates for running with me.

Sheffield Castle parkrun is a proper Sheffield parkrun: hilly. My watch recorded over 100m of elevation gain. It’s difficult to know how accurate that is, but it is believable that it is hillier than both Temple Newsam and Cabo. It takes place at Manor Fields park and there is no castle. Full-size castle, I should say, as there is clearly one in the picture. Everyone was friendly and they even had water on the course during the heatwave.

This is my 9th parkrun beginning with S.

A mile is pretty short for me. I wouldn’t usually run it, but I’m trying to get more involved in the club championships and also it was next to my house. All of my training this year has been for God’s Own Backyard Ultra and then for triathlon so I came into the race having done no speed work whatsoever.

Which was unfortunate because when I signed up, I didn’t really think about what time to put in; I just put six minutes because that’s what I put last time. But last time I was in the middle of a three-Ironmans in a year season shattering all of my personal bests. This year, the best I had run was 1,500 in 6:50 and now I found myself in the same heat as Dan and Curtis.

Luckily, it wasn’t all bad. One person was slower than me, and I managed to catch a second fairly quickly as well. I under-paced myaelf because I had no idea that I was capable of and managed to catch another two or three on the line. And to be fair, it is really hard to know how fast you will run unless you train for that distance. In the end, my time was:

6:23.7

Pretty respectable. That was the gun time; chip time was 6:21.8. Faster than four days previous and only 45 seconds slower than when I was on fire in 2021. Plus, it was a heatwave so take a couple of seconds off for that.

I also marshalled this year. I’m usually pretty protective about my sport time as it’s not work/parenting/charity (if you ignore the coaching and the run-leading) but as it was the club race I made an exception and had a lovely chat with Lucas while we marshalled.

Thanks to Anne for the photo. Beautifully capturing my flying feet. Bit worried about the landing angle of my foot.

It finally happened. Six-ish years ago, we started tossing the idea of doing a mixed team relay triathlon as a family. Then someone put a wedding in the middle of triathlon season. Then someone got pregnant. Then someone moved to Ireland for three years. Finally, in 2026, everyone was in the same country.

Cholmondeley Castle is located in Cheshire and the mixed team relay event starts at the very civilised time of 3pm. It is part of the Castle Triathlon Series, of which I’ve previously done Castle Howard and Lough Cutra. My dad has some special team t-shirts made up ahead of the race. 214 represents our combined age.

Pre-race was a little stressful. The water got too warm in the afternoon and they declared it would be a non-wetsuit swim for under 60s. This was my 67th triathlon and the first time ever an event organiser has enforced no wetsuits. Not ideal as I was still rebuilding my confidence in open water: the Wednesday before was the first time I had swam with a wetsuit rather than a wetsuit and tow float.

However, there were only 13 teams in the race and the field spread out on the first leg so by the time I picked up the second leg, I had the entire water safety crew to myself. The swim out to the fist buoy was scary, the second was okay, and the third one was reedy.

The bike course is a 4.2km lap around the castle with some flat and straight roads on the first half where you can get down into the aero position, before a few mild hills and some slightly more technical corners. The run is more challenging, being mostly trail straight up the hill to the castle, around the back, and then zigzagging back to the start.

A big well done to everyone who raced and thank you to everyone at Castle Race Series for organising the event.

Roberts Park is in Saltaire. The parkrun is two laps of the park and an extended bit down the river. There are a couple of choke points that slow everything down but its reasonably scenic and they had an army of volunteers. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.

I’ve been rebuilding my confidence in open water and swimming a lot at Swillington Wilds. But ahead of the open water triathlon season it was time to get back in the big lake. Lovely to reconnect with the Blue Lagoon team and get some laps in.

Six years ago, Toby had a dream: that every hour, for twelve hours, we would run three laps around Woodhouse Moor. After the psychiatrist discharged him from hospital, he set about making this dream a reality. Around the Park, Around the Clock was born. This year would be it’s sixth running.

The weather was good this year. Warm but not too hot and no rain all day. It was only a week after God’s Own Backyard Ultra meaning that if you include both weekends, ABC and parkrun, I was looking at 182km of running over the week. Luckily, no injuries, just fatigue.

The big race news was that Rich was away in the Lakes. Rich, Toby and myself were the only three to have done all twelve laps all five years and now sadly we’re down to two. There was no lack of experience, though. We worked out that Toby, Robyn and myself have now done 612 laps of Woodhouse Moor as part of this event. And probably over a thousand more if we threw in parkrun.

Loads of well dones and thank yous to give out: Toby, Robyn, Helen, Lara and Matt for completing the full thing. Naomi also completed a lap every hour. Elina for brining the picnic and Venla for getting a few laps in. My mum for completing an amazing 20k setting a new personal best distance, as did Sharron with 25k, and Donna running her first marathon/ultra with 45k complete. Toby for organising, another set of dozen facts, and the post-race pint. Everyone who dropped in and out to keep us company. And Robyn for making the trip over to provide her excellent company, despite having a 50k ultra and Windermere Marathon coming up on consecutive weekends.

A wee bit of touristing in Knaresborough. It’s a two lap course with a few short but steep hills in, and a large amount of trail. I ran into Pip on the start line. Didn’t manage to spot Paul but later learned he was also there too, so a good showing from Harriers.

This was the last “c” I needed to finish the Pirates challenge: Cross Flatts, Chevin Forest, Corkagh, Cabinteely, Carlow Town, Christie, Conyngham Hall and Roundhay.

It turns out that five days is not enough recovery time when you’ve run 107k at the weekend. The uphills were hard and the downhills were harder. Still, I made it around in:

1:03:40

Congratulations to to everyone who finished, including several Harriers who took home prizes, and thank you to Horsforth Harriers for staging the event.

God’s Own Backyard Ultra is a backyard event that takes place in Bramley Fall Woods and the canal towpath each May and November. In a backyard, you have one hour to complete a 6.7km loop. You have to be back in the starting pen on the hour for the next loop and anyone that doesn’t make it is eliminated. The winner is the last person standing.

I’ve never had a “proper go” at one. I did God’s Own back in 2022 but had to make a planned drop out after 11 laps. I then did Dublin Mountain in 2023, but with 250 metres of elevation gain per lap, it is not comparable to other races. This time, I was going to see how far I could go.

That said, I was doing it for fun, so I didn’t want to put any pressure on myself. If I went and did one lap, that was fine. If I got a PB, that would also be good. And that’s the thing about packing for a backyard. You take so much stuff and have no idea whether you’re going to be running for an hour or a full day (or more). I felt silly walking down to the race in my changing robe at in 20 degree heat, but felt very glad of it after it got dark.

Early laps were good. I used arm screens and a wide-brimed hat to try and protect myself from the sun. I also went for leggings initially, but abandoned this after the first couple of laps. The Saturday was relatively cool, peaking at 21, and much of the race is in the woods so you get some shade. I certainly didn’t envy those still running on the Sunday and Monday when it got really hot. Last time I did the race, I fell twice, so I was pleased to get through without any issues.

Once I was through 11, things changed. On the plus side, exciting things were happening. 12 was a PB, 13 was a double marathon, 14 was the first night loop, 15 was 100k, and 17k was a 24-hour PB. The only lap I didn’t want to stop on was 16. At the same time, I was increasingly hurting and not able to each as much between laps.

Food wise, pizza really worked for me. I think I got through most of one during the day, as well as some crisps, an ice lolly, some potatoes, half a sandwich and maybe a few other bits. The real food sat very well compared to sports-specific stuff. There was also a catering tent on site and I drank my way through three slushies throughout the day. I would have done more but they closed as it got dark.

The first night loop was fine. I didn’t get back to camp any faster, though. Lap 15 was hard. I was getting really sore. My hip had been bothering me since the early laps, and Andy kindly let me use his foam roller, but by this point everything was sore and it was becoming harder and harder to run. By lap 16, I decided to walk it and see how I felt. Walking was almost equally painful. I managed a little jog at the end and got back to the corral with less than a minute to spare.

I couldn’t face lap 17. And it felt pretty reasonable because 16 was the lap I didn’t want to stop on, so I think I was just empty by this point. I did cross the timing mat to start lap 17, though. This is important because is technically means I was timed out on lap 17 rather than refused to continue, and because retiring at 12:00:05, meant I can say “I ran into the early hours of Sunday morning”. Both of these things make me happy. Total distance covered:

107.289 kilometres

Five laps added to my backyard personal best and only three kilometres short of my 24-hour PB.

Loads of thank yous: to Gav and Ruth and the whole race team for putting on another great event. The marshals for keeping us safe and offering encouragement. Richard for turning up with ice lollies and orange juice. Everyone who came down and supported, it was lovely to have people cheering us on at the start and end of every lap. My fellow athletes for making it such a communal, encouraging race. And Elina and Venla for putting up with “I’m going for a run; not sure when I’ll be back.”