My Biggest Challenge Yet!

The article ‘Breakable’, which is reproduced below, was recently published in Kiwi Trail Runner Magazine. I wrote it some 9 months after finishing the High Five-0 Challenge, when I believed I was finally recovered from the ravages of that epic adventure. For the three months that followed I cautiously got back into regular running and … Continued

Chasing The Dragon – update. 

It’s now 2016, the year in which my good mate James & I were planning our 1,700km run around the perimeter of Wales to raise funds for the Mental Health Foundation in New Zealand and Mind UK. We announced this project – dubbed Chasing The Dragon – in the middle of last year, with a start … Continued

New route or old routine?

This article originally appeared in Kiwi Trail Runner (Ed 3.)  It’s just as well that the almost pathological level of procrastination that afflicts me as a writer did not desert me over recent weeks. For by sweet irony, had I not put off writing this column for so long – well past first, second and final … Continued

And for my next trick…

In the aftermath of the High Five-0 Challenge, while I was still in recovery mode, I found myself pouring over maps and dreaming up other adventures. But they were New Zealand maps and I fully expected that the next challenge, whatever it was and whenever it happened, would be on home soil again. So how … Continued

Cloudless on Cloudy

Nothing beats waking up early after a good night’s sleep in a campervan, with the anticipation of a new adventure awaiting. Except perhaps waking up in a campervan whose water pump hasn’t frozen overnight, making a cup of tea a reality rather than a remote dream! It was still pitch dark outside after I’d scoffed … Continued

Why I’m so happy

I was a fairly incongruous sight it must be said, wearing running shorts when everybody else was in ski pants, but it was more the wide smile on my face that caused the lady in the cafe to ask “why are you so happy this morning?” It wasn’t merely the prospect of a warm latte on … Continued

Taranaki Up, Down & Around

THE ‘TUDA’ – a training mission for the High Five-0 Challenge  Our pre-mission plan was simple enough – go up, come down, run around. The ‘up’ being an ascent of the North Island’s second-highest peak, Taranaki; the ‘down’, well hopefully that’s obvious; the ‘around’ being a full circumnavigation of the mountain on the legendary Round … Continued