Blackford on...The New York City Marathon... "Given that I dislike New York and loathe marathons, I enjoyed the New York City Marathon immensely. It started well – I managed to avoid getting peed on from the upper deck of the Verrazano Narrows

I’m writing this in the hope that it may help in some small way to hasten the progress of sports medicine. Perhaps some hapless researcher out there, trying vainly to comprehend the intricacies of the human mechanism, will glance at my poor scribblings. And who knows? Perhaps th...

You can tell a lot about a country by the quality of its roadkill. In Britain, for instance, it consists mostly of pheasants – slow, dim birds, imported from China because English aristocrats were too slow and dim to hit anything of local origin. I’ve run in countries where the...

Into the hills: leaving Malvern on Day OneIt was 6pm. The sun, relenting after a scorching assault upon the day, cast a benevolent glow upon the golden stone of a handsome Cotswold church – and, in its peaceful graveyard, upon a small, nervous group of ultrarunners. Rory Coleman,...

(yes, 54) miles, 10 milesCheckpoints and water stations roughly every six miles. It costs £749 (£786.50 by credit card) including six days of meals, tented accommodation and a hotel at the end.As RW columnist Andy Blackford said in 2003: "The MOB does

recommend the Blackford Diet to anyone except hardened masochists and the criminally insane. By next month, of course, I may feel different.

of Blackford has been synonymous in Mauritania with colonial exploitation of the worst – or more accurately, the wurst – kind. For me to attempt to enter the country would be suicide.Actually, you may be surprised to learn that none of that is true. I invented

and sacrifice. Blackford, they said, you must run up-country, into the very heart of darkness, and persuade Seaton to give himself up.For days, I jogged along forest tracks with no sustenance except two pieces of string and a sackful of unpronounceable medicines

as fast as today’s sorry bunch.“Ah! Good morrow, Mister Blackford!” At least Norman managed a semblance of cheery bonhomie. Harry just grunted at the dog, and Big Ron barely raised a grimace.“You’re slow today,” I replied as I tagged on to their flank

Given that I dislike New York and loathe marathons, I enjoyed the New York City Marathon immensely.It started well – I managed to avoid getting peed on from the upper deck of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. I’ve always maintained that during the early stages of a marathon, it’s ad...