Mental Feat - ultra running explored

This year’s UTMB was cancelled due to a sudden change in weather resulting in a mudslide making the trail dangerous for the runners. Two of my fellow runners, Mimi Anderson and Martine Hofstede were in Switzerland at the time: “1….2…..3…U…T…M…B… we were off, the race had finally started – 166km of hard running and adventure [...]

There is an Ultra marathon on Iceland that many people have raved about. The landscape and beauty of the scenery is suppose to be extraordinary. Below is an account of the Laugavegur Mountain Ultra, posted on Running Monkey. “Laugavegur mountain Ultra marathon was my first ultra. It was the culmination of a challenge I set [...]

Once again I found myself waking up at 5.30am in the middle of the Namib desert on the day of the Namibian 24h ultra marathon. I was amongst the first people to wake up and the camp looked almost deserted, except for Faan’s cooks who were busy preparing breakfast. The evening before I had been [...]

The Namibia Desert Challenge is a 200km, 5 day ultra. Going through the red desert the competitors will experience the stunning scenery of the Sossusvlei, including the 300m tall “Big Daddy” dune. One of my ultra friends from the Al Andalus race in 2009, Mimi Anderson, competed in 2010. Here she tells the tale on [...]

Ahead of this year’s Namibian Ultra marathon I wanted to see if I could draw some conclusions for how to plan my race by looking at previous year’s results. I looked at each stage and the average speed, and I think I uncovered some good tips that I will take with me to the race [...]

We all met up at the Golf bar in Malaga airport on Sunday 12th July at 2pm. I looked around at the other competitors and felt very nervous; they all looked like very fit athletes. I felt a bit out of place but they were all very friendly. We were then driven to Loja where [...]

“Making a Deal with God” At approximately 4pm on the 4th September 2005 I find myself over waist deep in cold and putrid storm waters. I have just been given military strength anti-sickness tablets by my new American doctor friend 10 minutes before – who I have been helping, treat the sick and wounded over [...]

There were challenges to complete a race such as the Al Andalus Ultra Trail. There is something extra that is needed to every day get up over and over again and for five days prepare yourself mentally to the length of the course, the heat of the day, the pain in your body and the [...]

The day before the race we had to go through our race kit with the medic and race director to confirm we had all kit we needed for the run. The atmosphere in the camp started to build and there was a lot of anticipation in the air. Last session we needed to go through [...]