Life

August was my lowest mileage month of the year at just 130.7 miles, thanks to work travel and festivals, but September brings the Apperley Quarter Marathon and the Great North Run.

A year after my first race, the Apperley Quarter Marathon, I look back on 13 races, including the Great South Run, a muddy Grim Original and a Disney 5k with my daughter.

I ask whether taking walk breaks still makes you a real runner, using my own Edinburgh Marathon walk and the cramp that stopped me on the Isle of Wight.

Cramp locked both my feet on the Isle of Wight’s hills, so I pulled off my shoes and ran the last mile in my socks to finish in 1:59:44.

Reading Phil Hewitt’s account of the hilly Isle of Wight Marathon just days before my own half marathon there, and why the timing of that chapter felt uncanny.

For a bloggers’ debate on whether juice cleanses are healthy or hype, I shared before and after pictures showing how juicing helped me lose over five stone and clear up asthma and IBS.

Seven months into my 2013 miles challenge, I’d run and cycled 1,307.7 miles in total, including 210.1 miles this month after completing eight races so far this year.

Looking at whether a 10k race is worth £50, using the British 10k as my example: the free photo and technical tops that justified the cost, and the poor organisation that means I won’t do it again.

I finally ran through the streets of London at the British 10k, finishing in 52 minutes and 46 seconds despite a crowded course with no grouping by ability.

A year after London 2012, I looked at whether the Olympics really did ‘inspire a generation’ to get active, the evidence against it, and the irony of the games’ biggest McDonald’s.

Running 14 miles of hills and trails before breakfast on the last day of a juice only detox, and why I had more energy on juice than on my normal diet.

During a 7 day juice detox, my wife and I stopped at The Core Swindon, a juice bar and holistic lounge, for lunch and a massage instead of the usual coffee shop fare.