Parkrun may well have saved my life

I’m also documenting my recovery journey on Instagram - head over to @flatcapspraggs I'm going to assume lots of you already know what parkrun is. A free, weekly, 5 kilometer run/walk on a Saturday morning, at 9AM. There are hundreds in the UK - most likely one very near you. Anyone can go. You don't …

2022 review – ‘racing/training’ summary

I started writing this thinking it was going to be a summary of misery, but it's actually really interesting, alongside highlighting how much of a stupid moron I can be when it comes to battering myself into the ground. Read on for more. I've written one of these every year for the last 9 years, …

2021 review – racing/training summary

So here we are again, at the end of another year already. This will be the 8th annual summary! We're through an entire Harry Potter series worth now (with a similar number of fans, I can only assume). The epic back catalogue can be found here; 2014201520162017201820192020 2021 started off in a similar fashion to …

Big Half marathon – 01/03/20

Two posts in a week! My fingers are smoking from typing so much. The main positive from signing up to some races (apart from getting fitter), is providing more content and opportunity for me to put myself in a compromising or unfortunate situation, which is usually what people find the most entertaining. No pointless pre-amble …

Cape Peninsula Half Marathon – 16/02/20

Good morning/afternoon sports fans. Yet another slightly longer gap between posts. Not me being lazy this time, just no real races of note to report on, and nobody wants to hear 'I ran x miles on Monday followed by swimming x miles on Tuesday etc etc' - people only read to hear about me making …

2019 review – racing/training summary

2019 is already well and truly in the books, but I've been enjoying my Christmas pudding and mince pies far too much, so there's been a short delay in publishing the much anticipated 'how much training and racing does a semi-mediocre 'athlete' do in a year' post. For those of those of you bored at …

Ride London – 04/08/2019

This weekend saw a return to 'racing', with SS Flat Cap sailing east at an ungodly hour on Sunday morning to take part in Ride London for the 2nd time (2015 report). As my ship is completely rudderless at the moment, after Paul Burton jumped overboard to pursue an attempted ascent of the north-west Surrey …

Owler middle distance triathlon – 21/07/19

So, sports fans. I left you all on tenterhooks right at the very end of my Challenge Roth report (assuming anyone made it that far), when I finished with; 'With that in mind, I definitely won’t be doing a half-ironman in 2 weeks’ time…' It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to work out that this could well …

Challenge Roth – 07/07/2019

Challenge Roth is one of the biggest triathlons in the world. It’s been running since 1984, taking place in the small town of Roth, near Nuremberg, in Germany. Ever since I started triathlon it had been on my bucket list of races to do, and when I got the chance to sign up shortly before …

Edinburgh half – 26/05/19

12 years ago, I ran my first half marathon, venturing across the border to Edinburgh. It wasn't pretty and I didn't have a Scooby Doo what I was doing, but I got around. That evening, we went out for a celebratory meal, discussing whether or not I'd ever do another one. Consensus at the time …