Author: Ray Poynter

A World Team Bronze

On Saturday, 3 September, I participated in the World Masters Mountain Running Championship in Clonmel, Ireland. I took part because I wanted to experience a World Masters event, and I wanted to find out if I was good enough to take part in events at this level. I have been to Ireland before, but every previous trip has been to Dublin, so this was a great chance to see more of the country.

The event was quite a big affair. On Saturday, there was the World Masters race and an open race on Sunday. In the World Masters event, there were over 400 runners from a wide range of countries, including Japan and the USA. Because I made my mind up to take part quite late, the local accommodation was booked, and I ended up staying about 30 minutes away from the event (by car).

Blog

A ‘good for age’ week

I had a very enjoyable running time during the week commencing Sunday, 14th August, so I thought I’d share it.

Sunday 14th was the British Masters Marathon, which was held as part of the Isle of Man Marathon. In the context of running, Masters refers to runners 35 and older. In terms of this race, the age categories were in five-year intervals, so I was running in the 65 to 69 age group.

Tags Isle of Man, Marathon, Masters

Running

Running the Dream

I have just had a great weekend. The weekend was focused on running but I also managed to include some culture and history. For the foreseeable future, this sort of weekend is part of what ‘the dream’ means to me (my dream might be quite different to your dream).

The British Master Trail Running Championships
On Saturday morning, I took part in a trail race in the Forest of Bowland, in Lancashire. The race was the English Masters Trail Running Championships for 2022. BTW, ‘Masters’ just means for people over 35 years of age. There are categories for every five years, which means I run in the MV65 group, male veteran aged 65 to 69 years.

Tags Fells, Masters, Racing, Trail

Running

Running an eight-hour challenge

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date July 17, 2022
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Two days ago, I set out to see how far I could run in eight hours. The conditions were not great. In the UK, we are having a heat wave, and it is less than three weeks since I finished the 268-mile Spine Race. But Friday was the day I had picked, so I gave it my best shot.

The background to this challenge is that it is my own challenge. It is completely unofficial, it is based on trust, and there are no fees and no prizes. The rules are simple, pick a day, start running (or walking) and see how far you can get in eight hours. You can stop as often as you like, but the clock keeps ticking.

Activities Blog Hiking Running

Learning about Outdoor First Aid

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date July 10, 2022
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Wow, that was an intense weekend. I have just finished a two-day (two 8-hour days) Outdoor First Aid course run by Will 4 Adventure.

I feel much better prepared now for being able to help people if needed. The skills the course included: CPR, tackling wounds and breaks, and in particular dealing unresponsive patients (i.e. unconscious).

Running

268 miles in 5 and a half days – the ordinary guy is even more extraordinary

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date June 26, 2022
8 Comments on 268 miles in 5 and a half days – the ordinary guy is even more extraordinary

Two days ago, I completed the 268 mile (431 KM) Spine Race from Edale in Derbyshire, along the Pennine Way, to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland, I completed the distance in just under 153 hours (about 5.5 days). If you had told me 18 months ago that I could run that far, I would not have believed it.

Charity Running

Preparing to Run 268 Miles – for CoppaFeel!

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date June 16, 2022
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In three days, on Sunday 19 June I will be setting of to try and run 268 miles (425KM) up the Pennine Way as part of the Montane Spine Race. I have 6.5 days to complete the course.

I am raising money for a fantastic charity called CoppaFeel! who do great work in promoting breast cancer awareness – particularly amongst younger women.

Running

An ordinary person, doing something extraordinary

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date April 27, 2022
2 Comments on An ordinary person, doing something extraordinary

A few days ago I ran 270KM (168 miles) in just under 3 days. I consider that extraordinary – but I don’t consider myself extraordinary. Here is a post about what I did, and what I learned about ordinary people and extraordinary goals.

The event was the inaugural running of the Pennine Bridleway Trail Challenge (you can read about next year’s race here). Because it was the inaugural race and because of a few dropouts, we started the race with seven competitors. The start was at Middleton Top in Derbyshire, which is the start of the Pennine Bridleway. (In the UK, a bridleway is a route that is permitted for people, cycles, and horses.)

Running

Britain’s Most Brutal Sprint Race

Post author By Ray Poynter
Post date January 20, 2022
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This post is about taking part in the 2022 Montane Spine Sprint Race.

If you already know about the Spine Race, you can skip this paragraph. The Spine Race is held twice a year (January and June) and currently comes in four versions. The full race is 268 miles (about 431KM) along the Pennine Way, from Edale in the Peak District to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland. The runners do their own navigation, the route is a hiking path (with some scrambling) and is hilly. In the Winter the runners have seven days to complete the course, this drops to six-and-a-half days in the Summer. There are also: the Challenger Race (108 miles/ 174KM) which I ran last Summer, the Challenger North Race (160 miles / 257 KM) and the ‘Sprint’ which is ‘just’ 46 miles (74 KM). The winter version of the Spine Race is referred to as ‘Britain’s most brutal race’.

Tags Running, Spine

Running

Today is my comma day!

Among people who have a running streak, your comma day is when you have run everyday for 1,000 days. For me, that was today.

My current streak (there have been other, shorter, steaks before) started on 31 December 2018. During the last 1000 days I have run every day, always 2 kilometres or more. My total distance over the 1000 days is 9,692km (6,022 miles), that is an average of 9.7km a day (or 6 miles a day). The longest single run was 108 miles in Junes of this year (but that took 38 hours, so it was two days’ worth of running).

Tags Running, streak