At the end of the GUCR 145 mile race in 2008. Waiting for my Guinness to arrive.
Not the best ultra runner in the world, but the most enthusiastic. Well actually that may not be true either but I aspire to be the latter rather than the former.
I like running just for the sake of it. The longer the better, hills are always welcome, mud and rain are my friends too and did someone mention cake?
I've been running regularly for about 4 years now. The first 2 of those I was part of the Marathon PB rat race, train train train train train race train train train train train race. For 2 weeks of the year I felt quite stressed, for the other 50 I was really bored.
One day, not long after a "successful" marathon which was the culmination of some focused training I decided to leave my house and see how far I could run before I got bored. I set out from my house in Ealing, West London at about 10.30 and headed west. I passed some lovely sights, Heathrow Airport, Hounslow, The M4 (twice) the M25, Slough (with a toilet stop in the biggest Tesco in the world) and then along some A road. Before I really knew it I was in Reading, 36 miles from where I started, at about 4pm. I could have continued or I could have run back, but I had a party to get to.
As I sat on the train watching the road that I ran down I thought about what just happened. Along some of the most uninspiring roads I am ever likely to run along my running world just changed. I realised that I didn't really care about results, times or comparisons to others, I just liked running.
My first proper ultra followed a month later and soon I was running marathons every week. About 18 months after I arrived at Reading I arrived in London at the end of a race that started in Birmingham. From that day on I lost all fear for anything that was out there.
This is what I do now, run for fun. Run cos it gets me to work, run because I get to meet new people, run in places that I would not otherwise see and sometimes I'll run just because I think there is a chance I might not make it to the end. When I do it is exhilirating.
I don't follow training plans, I don't care for how fast my heart beats, I don't even know what a Lactate Threshold is? So long as I'm out there running and feeling good I'll carry on doing it. The day I start obsessing about what others are doing and how fast they are doing it is probably the day I'll jack it all in.
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James Adams - Fun Runner