Extreme energy hosted its first ever-single day ultra, the Chiltern Challenge Ultra on July 19th, 2014, geared towards enticing runners to the sport of ultra-running. Having previous completed the Pony Express in New Forest, Hampshire, with these fellas, I knew the Chiltern ultra would promise to be a good way to get back in the game. Continue reading
This post is available for download as a PDF by clicking here!
Prelude to the race
It’s been 11 years, 7 months and 28 days since the last time…
The months on the calendar have, of late, whizzed past and there is, as of yet, no noticeable trace of evidence vindicating this particular undertaking in my mind. In fact, quite the opposite – events, of late, are actually working in defiance of my new goal, which lies in danger of being swallowed alive by the unpredictable whims of my procrastinating habit.
Time has crept up quite stealthily during the last few years while I was busy completing my ‘transmogrification’ into a professional and responsible near middle-aged adult. Of course, it hadn’t escaped my notice that my weekend warrior lifestyle was unable to curb the relentless growth of my waistline and my acquired smarts were not serving as a suitable substitute at the local watering holes, much to my chagrin. ‘It was high time to take a stand’ – I thought to myself.
Running holds a special lure for individuals of a certain personality, which perhaps Tim Noakes puts it best in the introduction for his book: The Lore of Running. Most ultra runners, especially the ones attempting it for the first time are very misunderstood folks, often being dismissed as unreasonable or crazy and foolish. However, I believe that the reasons for most people wanting to attempt runs of this nature tend to be very deep-rooted and hardly worthy of a cursory glance. Human beings have evolved for endurance running and it’s not very hard to imagine what the mind and body can be convinced of achieving with proper training.
“The people dancing were judged insane by those who could not hear the music.” Continue reading