MY 1000-MILE YEAR
It's all dsownhill from here!
Big trail races, a UTMB debut and the World Masters Championships... TR editor Paul Larkins might be staring down the barrel of a bus pass, but he’s certainly been making the most of 2022!
Next year marks a few significant milestones in my running life. It’ll be 37 years since I ran my first sub-four-minute mile, 44 years since I started running, and in that time, I’ll have run approximately 70,000 miles. Oh yes, and I’ll be 60.
So, with the clock ticking I thought 2022 and my Run1000Miles adventure should be exactly that – an adventure, something my mother could tell her friends at the pensioners’ club to prove her son is still bonkers. But, more importantly, it would be a year in which I’d test myself with a few challenges that I’ve skillfully avoided thus far. I’ve run at the World Champs on the road, the Europeans and Worlds on the track, clocked 28-minute 10Ks in a variety of exotic locations, and even sprinted 200 metres in less than 23 seconds. But, until 2022, the UTMB, the pinnacle of all trail runs, had not been on my radar. I’ve been, watched it and consequently said to myself – “Not a hope, I cannot do this” – but here I am on the line of the MCC ready for 2600 metres of climbing over 41km testing kilometres.
How it started
I’ve always been a fan of plans. They sort of focus you for the year. True, our Run1000Miles challenge does a good job of that, but I think it needs a little more. A target. Hence the UTMB. I wanted that medal, but I also wanted to get around in one piece and be moderately competitive. So, it all began with a trail half marathon around Rutland Water in April, just a few weeks before birthday No.59. I needed to see where I was and what I needed to do. So, I found the hilliest trail half marathon in the area and tested the water. Not too bad; Luke warm in fact. I ran a course record for over 55s, almost broke 90 minutes but – and this is significant – Ihad to walk in the final kilometre because it was a bit too hilly. A race around a lake too hilly? Hmm. I needed to do something about that.
Which is why, on my birthday, I found myself running up Skiddaw in a vertical kilometre at the Keswick Mountain Festival. For anyone who hasn’t been, it’s a fabulous weekend of trail running in the Lakes where you can run anything from the 8km ‘sprint’ I chose, to 50km around some spectacular scenery.
I can report I didn’t walk at all in the first mile. Not even a stride, despite the fact there was a steep hill onto the bridge across the bypass, which in the past I would have called a stiff climb. No, it barely registered on my pain scale as I knew there was much worse to come. In fact, just how bad it wo
