At 48 I have been running for a fair while, about 10-12 years now. I live in South Shields but running trails especially in the mountains is what I enjoy the most and I love perusing an ordnance survey map searching out good routes across the hills.

As this blog’s title suggests though It has been a bit of an uphill struggle keeping my weight down to a decent level. This is mainly due to consuming real ale, red wine and food in far greater quantities than is good for me ! As this blog commences at the beginning of 2015 I am a few pounds over 14 stone, approximately 4 stone over what might be considered my not overweight, weight.

Despite this I would not consider myself unfit. To the contrary I liken it to enforced training with a 4 stone fridge strapped to my front and feel that if and when I manage to lose weight I will have some seriously strong legs to keep me going !

This brings me to the Ultra bit. After completing more than a few marathons my interest has been taken with longer distances sparked by reading an article in the economist a couple of years ago about the spartathlon in Greece that was aptly titled “the lunacy of the long distance runner”  This lunacy is something that I really want to embrace this year.

Of course being an ultrafatrunner means that a post and quite possibly pre-race session on the beer is an essential part of the weekend away and some of these ultra’s do not lend themselves to post race revelry, finishing as you do in the middle of the night or worse sometime the next morning.

That is why events such as the inaugural 72 mile Great Glen race stand out for their appeal. With a 1 am start in Fort William there is no reason at all why one can’t be enjoying a few pints of Orkney skullsplitter or some other strong ale later that afternoon or evening at the finish in Inverness. I take my hat off to the organisers and can’t wait to sign up !

Henry