The Camino de Santiago (Way of St James) is an unusual beast. A near infinite fractal network of long-distance hiking routes across France and Spain (mostly), it’s also an ancient historical pilgrimage to the town of Santiago de Compostela, and … Continue reading Mini Camino del Norte: Irun to Bilbao
I’m an enthusiast of diving but also, perhaps oddly, of true stories about diving disasters and near-disasters. Years ago when I first learnt to dive at a conservation outpost on a tiny Fijian island, one of the few books lying … Continue reading Film review: Last Breath
I recently came across a campaign on twitter, trying to promote ‘legal wild camping’ by facilitating arrangements with landowners where you book and pay to camp on their land in a designated location. Now, some might say that if you … Continue reading Wild camping in England and Wales – some law and some advice
A few weeks ago I noticed that someone I follow on twitter, Kev, has been hand-making some great chalk bags from old pairs of trousers. I have seven handmade chalk bags all awaiting new homes. At just £12.50 each grab … Continue reading Custom chalk bags for climbers
Some of you may have been hearing about, or watching, the London Marathon this weekend and wondering how hard is it for you to get a place in next year’s race? You may have heard that it’s difficult to get … Continue reading How to get into the Virgin London Marathon
Ok, let’s get the main point out of the way: I didn’t make my target time of sub 3:30. In fact, I didn’t even quite get a PB, missing out on that by just under a minute. I’ll come … Continue reading Brighton Marathon Race Report
An interesting story bubbled into my twitter feed on Wednesday, as I started to see people talking about LetsDoThis.com, a website that I had in fact recently used to enter the Surrey Half Marathon. The website is one of a number that provides a means for people to find races in different locations and of different distances, and then to enter that race. The benefit to users is a clear, consistent and secure way to find and enter races, and the benefit to race organisers is exposure and not having to worry about the logistics of taking payment and handling … Continue reading Race entry websites embroiled in plagiarism claims
I’ve done very little training in Week 14, so instead I’m going to use this post to revisit an old post from just before I did the San Fran marathon, about the panic I was feeling at the time that … Continue reading Brighton Marathon Training Week 14: Undertraining Panic reprise
Week 12 of training I spent travelling and only managed two short and not very interesting runs, so I decided not to do a specific post about it, and just roll it into this. Week 12 total: 9.2 miles I … Continue reading Brighton Marathon Training Weeks 12-13
There are a lot of reasons why I, personally, am pro-Europe. European regulations have benefited and protected me both as a small-business owner and as an employee. A decade of working alongside European colleagues in every single job I’ve had, … Continue reading Adventure Embassy is proudly pro-Europe