Book Review - "Failure is an Option", by Matt Whyman

Matt Whyman's book falls loosely into that category of "my running journey". Some in this category are classic must-reads, and are treasured members of my library: Markus Torgeby, Dean Karnazes, Boff Whalley, Mike Cudahy, Charlie Spedding. And, latterly, Damian Hall. Their books are all about more than the running, and often, in differing ways, get to the heart of the somewhat obsessive, sometimes self-destructive nature of the activity. There are many others, of course, some of which are ghost written or highly edited accounts by "elite athletes", which can be a fascinating insight into the elevated world of elite competition. But there's also a fair amount of dross out there, occasionally self-published accounts of what might have been an interesting tale by an amateur runner, or hastily written accounts by a "celebrity runner". They are best not named and shamed, particularly by a very occasional running blogger such as myself, who doesn't even edit his posts seriously.

So where does "Failure is an Option" fit into the pantheon, and is it worth a read?

It's fair to say that, like myself, Matt Whyman is essentially a running "nobody" who has wandered through life with running as a constant thread from a relatively young age. Big goals get set and obsessed about. Relative failures and successes follow. Lessons get learned or they don't when they should have been. The book has it's central theme an audacious attempt to complete the Dragons Back 6 day Mountain journey across Wales. It is extremely topical as Matt was a starter in the latest, infamous, heatwave dominated, edition of the race. This is just one of many challenges in running that Matt has set himself and prepared poorly for in decades as a runner. (Hint: Matt, if you ever get to read this, just get yourself a coach, and stop being so stubborn. It took me 33 years, but now, 5 years later, it seems so obvious.) Throughout the book, Matt weaves his running story into his private life and he gives a feel of how his family and professional lives interact with his running. There are few traumatic incidents, with one notable exception (no spoilers!), and Matt lives in "comfortable" South East England. So when I got my review copy a few days ago, I immediately suspected that the book might be "one of those".

Happily it is not, and I whizzed through it in little over 24 hours, much as I would a short novel. And therein lies the secret as to why Matt's story is well worth a read. Matt's day job is as writer, a novellist in fact, and his obvious skill in making his running book flow is to leave out much that the rest of us would include. Also his prose is sharp, and some of his insights from "middle of the pack" are thought provoking and very relatable to my own experiences as an aging (more ag-ed these days) runner. For me the book was very easy to pick up and actually quite hard to put down. I thoroughly enjoyed it and needed little time to marshall my thoughts before posting this review.

Available direct by pre-order from the publisher with a nice little discount on 14th April.

https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/books-new-and-coming-soon/failure-is-an-option/

Evolved to run. Born to run. Older, greyer, still running. Follow @Nariokotomeboy

I had a feeling 21 was going to be a good year

Nothing is for ever.

Writing this I am back in Buckinghamshire. This wasn't part of any of the plans that I blithely set out in February, and getting here has been torturous to say the least. But more on that in the next post.

Which way, now? On a 500's recce.

The Gap in the Thirlstone, by Watern Tor. A "500".

This winter into spring had all of us again back in the world imposed on us by Covid restrictions. No Parkruns, few races, but lots of opportunity to set personal challenges and take on solo projects. This is where my running went until summer. In the back of my mind was always my place in UTMB / CCC, so most of my training included hiking and hills, led by my excellent coach / mentor Natalie White. I've been with Natalie now since early 2017, when she decided to start advising a handful of runners on how to pursue their goals. Most of us focus on trails and ultra distances, and we have a group Whatsapp for mutual encouragement and a bit of banter. But I actually only ran twice with other humans 4 times before the middle of June. Virtual challenges came and went. They gave some focus and added a bit of contrived meaning to the running numbers. but it definitely wasn't racing. Looking back now, I definitely lost some performance edge over this period. 

The Triple Stone Row at the base of the steepest ascent of Cosdon Hill, my local "500"

Two significant solo projects stand out for me from this time, both of which in different ways I'm pretty proud of, looking back.

My idea to have a go at the Dartmoor 500's in late April was still pretty strong as winter gave way slowly to Spring on Dartmoor. But it got pre-empted by someone else's attempt! In the event, Robert Richards from Okehampton Running Club, Stu Walker and myself had a great day pacing Robin Upton around the 500's in around 21 hours on April 9th. Conditions were pretty much perfect: good visibility, dry and quite chilly. My own contribution was around 54 km and then some key road support late in the day. Stu was a total soldier, bringing Robin all the way back to the Warren House Inn from when we met him at Belstone. Rob handled the first section, but he and partner Wendy also came to the final miles, complete with customised medal.

Robin ticking another one off, Lydford Tor (I think)

Now on road support. Stu committing to "the rest" at Postbridge refuel.

Being involved with another low key epic day with a handful of others reminded me of that weekend in August 2019 when Stu completed his double Bob Graham round. Later in mid May I supported good friends Iain and Karen in their Coast to Coast 110 mile runs across Devon, South to North. In the event, Iain fell 25 miles short, but Karen made it through.

Early days for Iain, dropping in to Bennett's Cross checkpoint on Dartmoor

Iain refuelling next to Chagford Bridge

There will be more of this!

The second solo project was 100% solo. Even Cocoa wasn't involved. But I will deal with that in the following post.

In between these two "projects" came a proper race, preceded by another week of South West Coast path hiking with my mate, Trev. When we had tackled the North Devon and Cornwall sections a few years ago, we had finished the first week at Hartland Quay, and then started again at Boscastle, leaving a big gap on the "wreckers coast" north of Bude. At the first reasonable opportunity, Trev wanted to close this gap (I had already run this section of coast path a while back). So in late May we tackled this "Tsunami Coast", in mixed weather, spread over several days. For Trev this was a welcome "I can still do this stuff" after knee surgery in February 2020. For me it turned out to be a race recce. So on June 16th I lined up in Westward Ho! with a few other masochists for the 57km PureTrail Tsunami Ultra, heading for Bude. Two weeks before I had run & hiked the distance (101 km) and elevation (6100m) of the CCC over 4 days on my local hill, Cosdon Beacon, so I was really in the right shape. Why Tsunami? This section of coast is notorious for more or less relentless ups and downs, initially mainly in coastal woodland, and then, once the corner is turned at Hartland Point, on heavily eroded cliffs facing the North Atlantic. It adds up to around 2500m of ascent and the same of descent, often on cambered singletrack, but also with many steep stepped sections. To me it looked like another. ideal domestic preparation race for CCC. I had set myself the target of a sub 9 hour finish. I knew the route pretty well; it was my favourite distance; and I've done the hill work. Twisting my already flaky left ankle on a tree root at 9 km and taking a tumble wasn't part of the plan though. I had started a bit quickly if I'm honest, but up to Clovelly there are a few faster sections to take advantage of. At some point around half way, I decided that the ankle really was pretty painful, particularly on the almost permanent left to right cambered cliff paths. Reduced to lots of hiking and now even more tentative than normal on the downhills, I slowed down appreciably, but decided I could finish. Meeting lots of PureTrail marshalls whom I hadn't seen in ages helped a great deal, and I was even running at the finish in 10 hours 39 mins. It was very hard, but I had my nutrition and hydration nailed and this undoubtedly helped to keep me moving forward.

Pre-race optimism

"Finisher"

Evolved to run. Born to run. Older, greyer, still running. Follow @Nariokotomeboy

Book Review - "1001 Running Tips - The Essential Runners' Guide" by Robbie Britton.

If I could shave a minute off my marathon PB for every book or article I've read that claims to be an "essential" guide to running, then Eliud Kipchoge wouldn't see me for dust!

So first of all bravo to Robbie for jumping head first into this crowded space for his first book. It may be his first book, but it is far from the first time that Robbie has published his advice and musings on getting better at the sport that he so clearly loves, and is such an excellent practitioner of. Numerous articles in print running magazines and e-zines testify to his ability to keep readers interested, challenge themselves and avoid some of the classic errors that we all have made. He's also pretty well qualified in that respect. He has the letters after his name, owns the GB vests and the medals, and now has a "stable" of remotely coached athletes of all abilities who are getting the results too.

So what has he given us here, what's new, essential and worthy of our time? And will you be bored as hell by tip number 101, never mind 1001?

To start with the first one, a philosophy of "tried and trusted" and "running as a simple sport" clearly underpins the many gems of advice in this book. You may have read or heard some of the advice before, but not in a way that is succinct enough to make it memorable and almost, well, obvious.

Runners of all levels (and ages - I'm 66 in life years and 39 in running years) will find their essentials here. His range is "couch to 5 km" to Spartathlon and Lands End to John o'Groats. And if you are leaning towards the upper end on the distance curve of that range, or want to be, then this book will make you think, avoid mistakes and pitfalls, and perhaps chuckle at yourself a bit. The advice to would be and existing ultra runners, marathon and above, is some of the best, and least jargon infused that Ive read anywhere.

I would guarantee this book will not bore you if you have any desire to improve yourself as a runner. I went cover to cover as that's what reviewers are meant to do, so I got the 1001 in about 5 big doses. But that's not how I'm going to use it. This is the runners "loo book" par excellence. In fact the 1001 includes no less than 13 tips on the pre-race toilet and numerous other poo related gems! It's easy to just pick it up for 5 minutes and it will deliver a series of almost mantra-like nuggets on the running topic that may have you preoccupied. It will probably make you chuckle too, which may get you strange looks when you emerge from that essential pre-run ritual.

The format makes it very easy to pick up and put down, it is broken down into obvious category sections and it is sprinkled with some great photos. The tips are all written in a way to be remembered. Pithy and common sense focused.

But I'm not going to quote lots of the tips here, as that's not fair on the author. Lord knows they earn little enough for all their hard work these days of derisory royalties and plagiarism. So I will try to summarise what it meant to me without giving too much away.

Here you will find all the stuff that you normally have to learn from experience, mostly from mistakes, some of them very costly. It's an ultimate insiders' view, wrapped up tight, always memorable and often amusing. I kept imagining a little Robbie perched on my shoulder chirping the appropriate tip in my ear just at the right moment on a run, or during "run pondering", helping me to get it right. So he will remind me to scrunch my race number up first before pinning it on my vest on a windy day to stop it flapping around, and give me so many feeding hacks for my long ultra run that I simply cannot run out of fuel when the going gets tough.

Buy this book and you have just recruited uber positive and enthusiastic Robbie as your support crew, an area he totally excels in out there in the real world of high performance. Two examples of this stand out for me. The first was in 2016, when Robbie crewed partner, and now wife, Natalie to a superb finish in the 330 km Tor des Geants mountain odyssey in the Italian alps. And the second was his, "in the saddle" crewing of Dan Lawson to his incredible Lands End to John o'Groats record in 2020. Most high achievers in these sort of challenges say they couldn't have done it without their crew, and with this book you will get a sample of that from one of the best in the business.

I wish Robbie great success with this book, and genuinely believe he has written one of those essential books for the modern runner. Whilst it's advice is incredibly relevant "to the now" of running, it manages to be rooted to the ideas that have always worked.

If you do decide to buy it, why not give the author and publisher a boost by buying direct?

It's out on November 15th.

Link to Publisher of 1001 Running Tips

Evolved to run. Born to run. Older, greyer, still running. Follow @Nariokotomeboy

Book Review - "In it for the Long run" by Damian Hall

I've read a great many running books.

Scanning my little library, it looks like the iconic "The Complete Book of Running" by James E. Fixx was the first. That was in 1984, around about the time I began to "get serious" about my own running.

 

Some running books, including a "Damian Hall". My E reader now probably holds more.

 

It is actually hard to define what makes a good running book when you are a runner yourself. I tend to be most satisfied by those that seem to connect the world that I live in as a runner to that other world of outstanding, even world class performances, making the superhuman appear more normal. It helps if they are well written and add other dimensions that you hadn't expected. Maybe because running is such a self-absorbing activity where numbers and medals tend to dictate "success", breadth of perspective and literary quality tend to be much more rare than, say, in books written by climbers and mountaineers (the other well-stocked shelf in my library.)

Thankfully, Damian's book is one of the rare ones.

What becomes almost immediately apparent is that Damian is a writer who is describing his journey into becoming a world class runner, rather than a runner attempting to record his "story" in print. Until the last 2 or 3 years, runners who devour the content of running magazines every month will have read his many articles without ever really considering where his running journey began. Nevertheless today in the UK, Damian has become a kind of archetype for the trail running boom, with its focus on setting arcane personal goals, running further and across wilder terrain than we even considered in the 1980's. Unlike most of us, who just play at it by buying the gear and shuffling around on some trails or in the National Parks, Damian has applied himself in middle age to becoming the best he can be. He has made sacrifices and gambled with his career to do this. The book describes his accruals of expertise to help with his running form, his mental preparation and his equipment as well as his absorption of the best from several world-renowned coaches. Early in the book he gives us an insight into the period of his life where he was an inveterate wanderer and world traveller, someone who the 2021 Damian, conscientious father and environmental activist, seems to be slightly ashamed of. The interplay of these two Damians is a fascinating undercurrent to his story.

Damian first came to my notice as a runner in 2016, when he set out on an incredibly audacious attempt to run the entire 630 mile South West Coast Path, clockwise, in less than 11 days. GPS trackers and social media / exercise software such as Strava now allow us to dip into these types of experience vicariously from our armchair, and starting with that success 5 years ago, Damian has since provided pretty good value for we, his "dot watchers". This culminated in 2020 with his magnum opus, the beasting of Mike Hartley's 1989 record for the North - South non-stop running of the Pennine Way. Whilst Hartley's achievement was a typical "you had to be there" event, Damian had thousands of us following him virtually via his "dot" and multiple social media updates in real time.

The book of course focuses on the progression of these record attempts, or Fastest Known Times (FKT's) on UK trails and mountain rounds. It is here where Damian's skills as a writer are most to the fore in bringing us into his head during these long days of suffering, accompanied always by a smattering of self-deprecating gallows humour. 

Damian's other preoccupation, along with many of us flatlanders who yearn for the soaring peaks, has been with the self-styled "World Championship" of ultra trail running, the 105 mile "lap" of the Mont Blanc massif, Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc. His successive attempts culminated in an outstanding 5th place, 2 years ago. We can feel his hunger to better himself and his calculated application of mental skills to achieving another audacious goal.

I would be fairly confident that Damian has far from finished with the "long form", and I look forward to him developing further on his environmental concerns in other work, a subject which he gives lucid attention to here, but his ideas clearly need a bit of brewing time (much like his beloved tea!). Sponsored athletes have an obligation to promote consumption and I am most interested to see how Damian balances this out in the long term. Having this book published as a carbon negative printed book is a damn fine start.

The book came to me when I was mid way through Nirmal Purjah's account of summiting all the world's 8000m peaks in 7 months. I had once again followed the incredible journey via social media and was very keen to read Nimsdai's own account. I made the mistake of deciding to read Damian's first couple of pages while Nimsdai's team were descending K2 in the Karakoram. "In it for the Long Run" proved to flow so well, and be that engaging, that Damian had arrived in Edale before Nimsdai got to the next peak!

Engaging, readable, funny, sometimes surprising and, yes, occasionally inspiring. Well worth a good read.

And if you do fancy ordering it, why not go straight to the publisher? Its out in May.

https://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/books-new-and-coming-soon/books-new-and-coming-soon-in-it-for-the-long-run/

Evolved to run. Born to run. Older, greyer, still running. Follow @Nariokotomeboy

Pandemic photostream

The Thirlestone

White Moor stone circle

Cocoa, canine king of Cosdon

West Cleave Tor above the East Okement river

Bog / beck / river?

Dartmoor spring lamb

A bit breezy on East Mill Tor

Hydration is an important element in training

New life amongst the moorland gang

Woodford Green AC vest from 1986 getting a run out

On ball retrieval at Black Rock, Widemouth Bay

The occupation of the Dunnagoats

Chuffed to run with an NHS hero legend

Ticking off a virtual challenge

More hydration ideas from the training partner

Yet more hydration ideas!

Watergate Bay on a Coast Path "gap fill"

In his realm

And finally, a race!

Our river, the Taw, in spate

Waiting for the inevitable sleet shower incoming at Yes Tor

Yes Tor + military furniture

A rare snap of real winter on Cosdon

A "virtual" completion of the Spine Race

Evolved to run. Born to run. Older, greyer, still running. Follow @Nariokotomeboy

Not locked down

It's now more or less a year since the coronavirus pandemic broke on us.

I took the time early last year to study infectious disease on a free course with Open University Openlearn and to take an excellent Futurelearn course about the early days of the pandemic put on by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. As a supplement to this I took an online course aimed at training US based contact tracers. I think as a result of gaining this knowledge as well as judicious use of some qualified social media feeds, I was more prepared than most to understand the implications of the pandemic, and how to behave within this entirely new environment.

Very early on I accepted that my running might have to accept some compromises, but I was always confident that I could find new goals and challenges to ensure that I never felt "locked down". On the contrary, for much of the past year, the very restrictions that have proved so onerous to many, have resulted in me carrying on with a routine of training on Dartmoor with my daft dog, Cocoa.

The big change has been the lack of true competition. No road races, no fell races, no trail races, and definitely no Parkruns. As I reflect now, what this truly meant to me was that "slowing down" became a natural progression, and, perhaps at times, this was a little bit too comfortable a progression. I can't remember when I last truly attacked a hill by running up it, or took the risk of running fast down one. Yes, I've still run my 3000Km + and climbed the 110,000 metres in the year, but really long hard efforts have been very few. "Aggregating" has replaced quality as I slipped into the MV65 age category.

What has been really good for motivation has been to replace my occasional social runs in a group with the coming together of a group of runners who are all coached by Natalie White. Most of us share the same goals (up to a point), and although we are from different walks of life, there's quite good empathy in the group. Probably as a result of this, most of us have entered and completed some of the "virtual Running Challenges" that have been put on by race organisers who have been deprived of the income from their races. For me, these have also been "aggregations".

In order:

Centurion Running One Community 100 mile challenge. For a week in late May I put together 13 separate runs and hikes to aggregate my first ever 100 mile plus training week. This began with a glorious solo 47 km round of 27 Dartmoor Tors of 500m height or more from home.

Centurion Running Community "One Up" elevation challenge. this was another week long challenge in late July where I ascended the equivalent of the 8848m of Mount Everest on my local Cosdon Hill. This meant 17 separate outings and once more an aggregate of nearly 100 miles.

Centurion Running Community 50 mile challenge. Late November for this one so not really an easier option, and I decided to 'complete' in just 4 efforts starting on the Wednesday. Three were pretty purposeful: a long tour of the Military roads loop on the Okehampton range, 15 miles clockwise on the Dartmoor Way between home and Moretonhampstead, and an extended round of the Sticklepath Horseshoe to finish.

Ultra Britain Virtual Spine race. I spent the whole of January this year aggregating the miles for the entire length of the Spine Race on the Pennine Way. 425 km of runs, hikes, dog walks in mid winter, some in full darkness.

Centurion Running Community "One Love" 50 km. What better way to spend Valentines weekend than 35 km of frozen Dartmoor in a Siberian wind on the Saturday, and the remainder in the pouring rain by road on the Sunday? I still have the chillblains!

I also entered the Virtual UTMB for the week of Centurion One Up, completing the mileage and elevation gain on a run above Lake Zurich a week later, and randomly this gained me a ballot entry to UTMB / CCC in August 2021 as a result.

Apart from a 5 mile "permitted run" with Lisa towards the end of May, all this was completed alone or with Cocoa for company, but there was one real race.

Somehow, against all the odds, I entered and ran a 55km linear trail race on the Exmoor section of the SWCP, organised by Climb South West on October 2nd. This hit one of those windows when "socially distanced" racing became possible, and socially distanced it certainly was with a small field strung out between Combe Martin and Minehead. It didn't catch a fortuitous weather window however, with the first named storm of the 2020 winter, Storm Alex, hitting Exmoor with strong winds and driving torrential rain from mid morning onwards. Looking back this probably at once one of my most resilient and simultaneously brainless race performances. Somehow I managed to miss one of only 2 aid stations on the route, at Porlock Weir, compounded this by missing a rendez-vous with Debbie minutes later, and then had to change soaking clothes in a disabled loo at Bossington. I drank hardly anything considering 8:48 of race time, and even managed to take a wrong turn after Countisbury that saw me sweeping down a lovely wide track towards the Bristol Channel, before it ended at someone's cliff side house! However I stuck at it, resigned to the misery of my fate. I wanted a better time. But then again drier shoes would have been nice too. I've never been so wet running.

So now winter is hopefully throwing its last at us all (peeing with rain and blowing a gale as I type this) and 2021 goals are there to be aspired to.

I have 2 races in my calendar, neither of which looks better than a 50-50 chance; I've had one shot of the Pfizer vaccine, and nearly 17 million of us in the UK are now "partially immunised; and I have 3 special Dartmoor challenges on my radar.

If my running year goes how I would like to plan it, it will go like this.

It will stop raining on or about March 15th and then we will have 6 dry cool weeks.

April 4th Ooser Trail Marathon in Dorset

Around April 25th - 50 Dartmoor 500m Tors in 50 miles personal challenge. Right in that magic window of dry moor / no bracken / few ticks.

Late May - either the LDWA Virtual 100 mile on the Dartmoor Way or a non-stop (overnight) hike of the Nigel Jenkins 72 mile Dartmoor Round.

Late June / Early July - a week in Switzerland with at least 4 days high level Alpine Hiking

6 weeks solid hilly preparation for CCC

August 27th - line up in Courmayeur for the start of 100km / 6100m + UTMB / CCC. Finish in glory in Chamonix about 22 hours later with friends and family around.

What are the chances?

 

Evolved to run. Born to run. Older, greyer, still running. Follow @Nariokotomeboy

Again a year. 2020 and all bets are off

Again it's been a year.

This blog is getting like one of those fairly dreadful "what's been happening with us" letters that turn up in your Christmas cards. Aimed to make you feel that you've somehow wasted the last 12 months while others have been achieving, well, all sorts.

However, this is a running blog, sort of, and in running I get to achieve stuff still.

So I got to be an MV65, but, other than that, 2020 has been anything other than a normal running year.

I'm, of course, not alone in that!

Here's what it should have been:

January - A repeat visit to Oh My Obelisk to run the trail half marathon

February - The Lytchett 10 in Dorset, British Masters 10 mile road championships.

March - The Bath Half Marathon

April - Zurich Marathon

Depending on the Zurich result I was then going to plan the rest of the racing year, with the serious goals being for speed on the roads.

'A' goal was a lifetime PB at the marathon of 3:45 or better. If that wasn't Zurich in April, the contingency was to be Eindhoven in October.

'B' goal (and the essential for Zurich) was a "Boston Qualifier" of around 3:55

'C' goal, with a similar time goal, but different time frame was to be a London Marathon  "Good for Age" qualifier. I could only achieve this after my birthday on October 8th, hence the choice of Eindhoven, the first accessible fast and flat marathon after that day.

So, I went back to Dawlish for the fun of Oh My Obelisk. The course was wetter at the top and I was around 4 minutes slower than last year on the day. In my 65th year, there would be no MV60 win in 2020, but I enjoyed the race, felt in fine fettle and was happy with my time.

Little did I know then that this would be the last actual race for me until 9 months later.

Now it seems a bit ironic that I "lost" both my February and March races, for reasons not directly related to the Covid 19 Pandemic. The weekend of the Lytchett 10 saw the South West of England hit with one of those winter storms that gave us a "you must stay at home" rehearsal. And when it came around to the Bath Half in mid March, I was sure they would cancel (many events already had). Unbelievably, and I think very cynically, they "did a Cheltenham" and brassed it out. I, and many other runners, decided it was not fair to descend on the city of Bath as the hospitals started to fill up. Obviously that's another one off the races to do list as well.

We all know only too well what happened next. Zurich at first postponed to September, and then pretty shamefully inevitably cancelled quite close to the new date, and offered a refund of only 30%.

The "marathon year" was well and truly gone, and with it my plans for a return to competitive road running.

Once the pandemic truly took hold, so much else became important, but my running, if that's possible, became even more important. I almost invariably run off road on Dartmoor with my "training partner" dog, Cocoa. To both my cost and benefit, this has made him a very, very fit dog, and without his daily doses of energy burning, his spaniel nature can make him a pestering pain in the arse about the place. Fortunately for both of us, even when the tightest restrictions were in place, our running habit was a permissable activity.

Evolved to run. Born to run. Older, greyer, still running. Follow @Nariokotomeboy