Friday 23 November 2018

Over and Out

I sat down to write a story about my recent run around the White Rose Ultra course, a nice enough event on a fine but breezy day. I had a good time, the course was good, the organisation fine and I got round a few minutes faster than the previous year without incurring too much stress. It was doubly enjoyable because my son John was running his first ultra and a pretty good job he made of it too, finishing in joint seventh place in a field of over two hundred.

But, I thought, I've told this sort of story so many times over the past few years that it doesn't really bring anything new or interesting to this particular party so what have I really to add?

I've had a pretty reasonable year, completing 10 events including a couple of marathons, three fairly tough 50 milers, the 95 mile West Highland Way and the 235m Deadwater adventure, along with a number of shorter ultras. I've failed to finish two others and I've just pulled out of the Cheviot Goat, which I was looking forward too but finally admitted I'm in no shape to tackle competently at present.

I'm still enjoying my running when I can get my knees to co-operate, and next year I'm hoping to complete a Hardmoors Grand Slam, something I've been meaning to attempt for a number of years but never really got around to, along with a few other projects such as getting back to Chamonix again if I can make it.

But in terms of this blog, I think any race reports would just be more of the same, and on all the other running topics that interest me I've had my say more than enough over the years. I posted my first piece on 1st July 2009 and since then have done 230 more, with a total number of views over the years of around 150,000.

So I think it's time to call it a day. Never say never, as they say, but I don't expect to be posting again anytime soon. It's been fun, and, if you have, then thanks for reading my pieces. But for now, it's over and out.

8 comments:

John said...

Good luck and thanks for all your posts.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear that. I've really enjoyed your posts over the last 3-4 years. Hopefully you'll change your mind!

Anonymous said...

thanks for the writing; enjoy the running!

Sue Walker said...

I've really enjoyed reading your blogs over the years and in particular, your posts on engineering topics.

Rob said...

Let's hope that, now and then, you'll feel the urge to put words together again, not so much on any particular event but rather standing back and reflecting on some aspect of our strange addiction.

Pete O said...

Really enjoyed them hopefully you'll change your mind. As well as enjoying them I've found them useful for deciding whether it's the kind of event i would like and where the potential tricky bits.
Hopefully you'll change your mind even if just for first time events.
All the best.
Pete

Pete O said...

Really enjoyed them

andy_s said...

You've built up a great reference work Andy - packed full of commonsense and great feel for a range of events - entertaining, informative and educational.