(report by Pete Mackrell) 

Whilst Sweden is best known as the home of Ikea, meatballs and ABBA, it also holds several large marathons and it was probably for this reason that Chris "The Trojan" Norman traveled to Stockholm – the Swedish capital – last weekend. This was Chris's third marathon following Amsterdam in 2011 and Berlin in 2013. Coincidentally these are all Olympic cities with the Amsterdam and Stockholm races finishing inside Olympic stadiums, whilst Berlin has a warm-up run the day before which finishes inside its Olympic Stadium. read more

Friday night in a small, wet Northamptonshire village may not seem the obvious way to start a bank holiday weekend but this year there were over 400 people who travelled to Blisworth for their annual 5 mile race. The numbers were boosted a little at the event last year when it was added to the East Midlands Grand Prix Series that includes the Silverstone and MK 10K's amongst their ranks, but it was 2014 that saw a strong contingent of fifteen journey up from "The Buzz" as it was the club's selected 5 mile championship! read more

Cader Idris advertises itself as one of the toughest fell races in Wales. Starting in the town of Dolgellau at sea level, the race climbs almost 915m (3000ft in old money) to the summit of Pen y Gader. It claims to be 10.5 miles in length but locals believe it to be more like 11. To the fell runner, the race can be described as AM, ER, PM, LK, NS (it’s steep, experience is required, the course is partially marked, local knowledge is an advantage and navigational skills may be required). AM (A, meaning that the climb will be at least 50 metres per km, M, indicating a medium length race between 10-20km) were the only letters I was interested in and these were used erroneously to gauge how long I’d be doing the race. I found myself doing it in the first place as I’d done one AM race before and needed two more to qualify for the Ben Nevis race in 2015. But as I found out, not all AM races are cut from the same cloth. read more

By Glen Turner

On Sunday 18 May I made the trek to south-west London for the Richmond Trail Marathon. The entire 26.2 mile course is set within the beautiful surrounds of the Richmond Park Nature Reserve, the largest of London’s eight royal parks and the biggest enclosed space in the capital at 2,500 acres.

The course is a hilly mix of gravel paths, dirt tracks and grass trails, with the exception of one half-mile section where an enormous herd of angry deer forced us out onto a road! It’s no secret that my favourite events are off-road marathons, and the website description of a “demanding and challenging course” certainly whet the appetite. read more