Pyro's Yard v2.0

[Blimey. Just realised I haven't posted on here in nearly two years! A lot of stuff's gone on since that last one, some big and some little, and most of it's gone recorded as shortform posts and pictures on Facebook or Insta. This trip I think warrants something a touch longer, so here we are...] What's the Mike Tyson quote: "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face" ? The oddly-named St Notswalds Way ride was a bit like that to start with - a trip borne out of a plan going awry. Sometime in mid-2024 I'd signed up to run with clubmates from Abbey Runners (and friends) for four days on the St Oswalds Way, from Heavenfield near Hexham to Holy Island. Until December I was going really nicely, running well, a few minor niggles but nothing show stopping, and was looking forward to a few days of long, steady, scenic trail running as a build towards other stuff later in the year. But, best laid plans and all that… January snows and Fe...

So, finally getting round to writing up the Itera race. There's been a whirlwind couple of weeks since then to let things settle and crystallise a bit in my own head, which is probably a good thing!  When I've been asked about the race in the intervening weeks, there's been slightly different answers given each time, depending on how the question was phrased, so I'm going to slightly plagiarise a format from an Alan Affleck post about The Heb (which, incidentally, has been part of the whirlwind!): "How was the Itera?" Hard, but brilliant. Some absolutely gorgeous moments throughout the whole thing: seeing porpoises and a minke whale on the opening paddle; watching headlights on the hills and valleys around us as we bedded down for a few hours on our first night bivvy; the Via Ferrata up the Grey Mare's Tail at Kinlochleven was an awesome and (for me at least) pretty chilled-out stage; even the long, straightforward road ride from Glenuig to Fort William wa...

So, the history of this one goes back a while - a decade in fact. There's lots of little branches and tributaries that combine into this story, so it might be a bit long and rambling. Grab a brew and some biscuits if you're reading - or even if you're not. Biscuits and a brew is always a good thing. Starting with the oldest bit of backstory: Back in 2010 I went from pretty much no running at all, to completing Janathon in January, to upping my distance again in Junathon (in June, surprisingly enough), to running 50 miles with 5,000m of ascent in the Grand Raid des Pyrenees in the August - a pretty momentous change for someone who hadn't really done much running since they knackered an ankle in 2004. I kept it up for a while, but a year of niggling injuries I never got treated and a DNF on a repeat trip to the GRP ended my erswhile Ultra career at 1 out of 2. A bit more recently: Sometime in 2018 I started Orienteering again. I've discovered over the years I don...

The Dirty Reiver is an event that's been on my radar since its first edition a couple of years ago. A big gravelly day out around Kielder Forest, it's had the kind of reviews that kind of appealed, in a slightly masochistic way, to my sense of humour. That said, I wasn't sure of whether I'd be capable of the 200km it entails - finishing was uncertain, and the weather turned out to be rubbish that year. I held off the first year, and vowed to enter the second. Cotic X: Ready to roll 2017 came up and in went my entry to the newly announced 'Dirty 130', a two-thirds(ish) version of the Reiver, for those like myself who didn't want to commit to the 200. All well and good, with the late '16/early '17 riding going well until the  Kielder Cross , my shakedown and fitness check event: that itself went well enough, but the weeks after were plagued with hip and lower back problems that despite stretching, physio, exercises etc, stopped me getting in any...