ERR Breakfast Run, by Rain Newton-Smith
It was a perfect morning for the breakfast run with the sun lighting up the frost-covered hills of Wytham Woods. Almost 40 runners gathered at the bottom of the endless hill up Wytham Woods. ...Broadway Marathon, Sunday 18 November, by Nick Sheard
When Salman Rushdie had a fatwa against him from the Iranian government in the 1990s he holed up at The Lygon Arms in Broadway. There is a plaque on the wall of the inn, and it was clearly the place in the UK that the British Government felt he was least likely to be tracked down and killed; Broadway is a very picturesque traditional Cotswold village. ...Hanney 5 – 14th October 2018
I’ve been running a Parkrun most Saturdays for the last eighteen months, gradually improving so I made a decision at the end of the summer that I needed to start running further and I needed a new challenge. I decided I would enter the Hanney 5, my sister Tina an experienced runner from the Brackla Harriers said that she would like to run the race with me. I managed a few weeks of training with my ‘Nike Coach’ on my watch and felt inspired and ready to go. ...Alchester 5k, August 15
Was this going to be the start of my comeback? That was my thought a day or 2 before the race. It was going to be nice, short and flat. What could go wrong? ...Hornton 6 Miles, July 21st
Checking my previous Strava entries for the Hornton 6, they all seemed to feature the words ‘hot and hilly’ in the title. This tells you 3 things: that I have very little imagination, that the race takes place at the height of summer, and that it’s about as hilly a race as you’ll find in Oxfordshire. This year’s event, the 30th anniversary, was no exception, and the Strava history had the added bonus of indicating how much slower I was than in previous years, but that’s another story. ...10 Peaks - 23 June 2018
Midges may be small but they hunt in packs. And they were hunting me, releasing pheromones to attract other midges, my carbon dioxide a magnet for them. Swarming, pregnant females biting, hungry for protein. I was hungry for flapjack at Checkpoint 1 of the 10 Peaks race in the Lake District. ...White Horse Half Marathon - April 8th
On the brink of my 13th birthday, in 1986, I retired from half marathons. A hat-trick completed towards the end of the first ‘jogging’ craze and before youth running rules were invented. Fast forward to 2011 and I did my first half marathon as a runner and a proud Eynsham Road Runner at that. It was the White Horse Half. ...Fairford 10k – 3rd June 2018
I’ve had a real issues with races lately, in particular with 10k races, despite running further in training without too much of a problem. I hit a mental brick wall at around 7km, with my head telling me I need to walk, and so I give in, kicking myself afterwards. ...