About

Location

Barnstaple, Devon


Birthday:

October 24


How many years have you been running?

2


What is your goal race for the year?

Making it all the way from Barnstaple to Bristol


What is your greatest running accomplishment?

Running 75 miles in one day


What is your "ultimate dream" running goal?

Being able to run all day


Week 130 - Ben on Foot release!


Ok, so if you'll forgive me, this is the pretty much obligatory post to let you all know that my book, Ben on Foot, is out now! For you guys who pre-ordered the limited edition first print, they're on their way :)

It's about how I went from a complete non-runner, to running ultra distances in about a year, culminating in my showdown with a self-planned 130-mile jaunt across south-west England. It's not a training guide, more of a personal account with a few lessons sprinkled throughout…

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Week 124


How do you help someone who doesn't want any help?

Possibly an unusual question to ask in a blog about running, but bear with me - I've been thinking some about a run last weekend and I reckon it's a question I'd like to open up to you guys.

Sunday morning, around 4am, was the start of my latest run to a nearby(ish) local beach, at Saunton. This is the same route that I wrote about here,…

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Week 123


I'm feeling a lot better.

Not that I've been feeling ill, or anything like that necessarily - just that now I'm feeling better.

I mentioned in my last blog post that once worrying about the b-word is all done and out of the way, I'll be able to relax and actually think about just running again and you know what? I think it's starting to happen. As far as the whole literary thing goes, I've set all of those wheels in motion and aside from occasionally lubing them over the…

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Week 121


Now, before I start this post at all, I really want it to be more 'telling about', rather than 'advertising' - I hope that it ends up coming across as such. On the one hand, I hate (in other forums and sites, thankfully) spammy, adverty posts... on the other hand, a lot of you guys here have asked me about the progress on my book, about my journey from non-runner to fledgling ultra-runner.

I'm hoping that this will be interesting to at least the guys who've…

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Week 115


Pursuit. If I had to sum up what made this last weekend's race so amazing in one word, pursuit would be it. I suppose it means different things to different people, at different times too - sometimes the metaphorical pursuit of an ideal or goal is a great thing, sometimes the pursuit of the runner in front of you can drive you on.

Sometimes, being chased by a horse is exactly what you need on a blazing Saturday afternoon.

Last weekend, I went with Clare (my…

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Week 107.5


In a bit of a break from the norm, sort of, I want to post up what is technically, I guess, an old running story. I thought I'd share as it's a chapter from the book I've written about how I went from not-running to running pretty far - I'm virtually ready to publish now, so I guess if anyone is interested in reading the whole thing, then it'll be around soon enough :)

I hope it's ok posting it here as a kind of toe-in-the-water to see if you guys like it. Anyway, here…

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Week 104.5


Two years. Two years.

104 weeks since I decided I'd make a bit more of an effort with what used to be a very alien pursuit for me. I've gone from being a panting mess that struggled to make it a couple of times around the local park to running literally thousands of kilometres over the last twenty-four months. I've run through the night, I've run for hours to see the sun rise, I've headed out to find peace and time to think. Sometimes, I've done it with hundreds of…

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Week 101


I'm not sure whether this is entirely running related, but more sort of me-related, I guess.

One of the reasons why I've been quieter on the blogging front is that I've been spending the last few months writing a book about running - specifically, how I spent a year going from a complete non-runner to someone able to comfortably run marathons and even run ultra distances.

I figure there might be people out there who want to read about an ordinary guy's experiences and…

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Week 96


So, yesterday was the day of my return to a nice little 10-mile race around the local area, the Braunton 10. I ran the race last year, just as I was starting to get my eye in on racing in general and it was great to come back a year later, knowing a bit more of what to expect and how to go about tackling it.

The route is all on-road (that is, mud-slicked, flooded road at this time of year) and is more than a little undulating - in particular, there are two significant category 4-5…

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Week 95


I was wondering what the small pang in my heart has been over the last couple of weeks and I've eventually realised what it is: It has been an absolute age since I've posted here. This is a situation I intend to rectify, so for now, a very brief bloggy update:

  • I'm wondering whether to drop the 'how many weeks I've been trying to be a runner for' titling of my blogs, since after my twenty weeks in the 'wilderness' of not-blogging, I have returned actually considering…
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