Long runs are an essential part of any running program whether running a 5k or a 100 mile race. As ultra runners, the long run becomes especially important to allow us to practice fuelling, ensure kit works and sits right in our vest/pack and to simulate race conditions through elevation/terrain.

It’s Feb 20th at around 9pm in a hotel in Whitehorse, Canada, and I’m in my underwear (from sweating so much) trying to bend my sled back into shape to attach its wheels. We have our kit testing day in the morning and this is not how I envisaged the stat of my Arctic Ultra.

Everest Base Camp (EBC). A destination on many a person’s bucket list. For most, it’s the closest you can get to feeling like you got a slice of the 8000m+ peak and walk in the footsteps of people who have conquered it.

After taking a recent poll on social media it seems a lot of people lack confidence in running downhill. I totally understand it and just telling people to ‘disengage their brain’ or ‘just let gravity do the work’ won’t help to build that confidence either. So, I wanted to cover some points I think can help you build the strength, skill and ultimately confidence to run downhill effectively.

Ultra-marathons have been gaining in popularity for some time now. As people rack up the marathons, they find themselves asking ‘what next?’. And so for many, ultramarathons (any distance over 26.2 miles) have rapidly become the logical next step, with the most common race distances being 50km, 50 miles, 100km and 100 miles.

COVID. A word immediately associated with 2020. From a runner’s perspective, it meant a premature end to the racing season for many. Or so we thought. Once we were allowed to ‘play’ outside again, there has been a flurry of elite runners breaking records and ‘fastest known times’ (FKTs) up and down the country. How can you not be inspired by this?

Training for multi-day events doesn’t differ a huge amount from typical run training for marathon/ultra-distance. The demands are the same overall and can be summarised here.

Uphill running. It’s definitely a love-hate type of running. I’ve been there. Staring at an intimidating incline, already fatigued and wondering how I’m going to overcome it. Here are some other tips I would recommend to helping you run uphill like a boss.

The Spine Challenger has a pretty extensive compulsory kit list and carry out thorough checks at registration. I’ve summarised the kit list below before giving a brief layout of what I used and how it performed.

The Spine Challenger race which is the ‘fun run’ version of the epic 268 mile race along the Pennine Way. However, this race had a little more at stake for me than normal having DNF’d my last two races, so I’m still proud of what I have achieved. I really needed a win to prove to myself that I’m actually a competent runner and overcome a tough couple of years suffering with mental health issues.