This is a challenge which I have set myself, the idea is very simple; to try to run 1 mile each day, everyday for 2017. I fully accept that some days may well be slow or ill and there will certainly be bad weather but it is also achievable. I’m going to try to blog and track it as much as possible, come along it should be fun
In order to try to do some good along the way and to provide the incentive when times are tough, I have decided to do this for charity. If you feel like sponsoring me please do, and no worries if you don’t! If you do all the money will go to The Cleft Lip & Palate Association (CLAPA) who provide services all across the UK to support people affected by it.
Now available to purchase as a published book.
For more information please click here.
***On a slightly serious note, some of the stuff I am doing (like running solo in the mountains, or along sandbanks at low tide etc.) is potentially hazardous. If you feel inspired to go and do this stuff, brilliant, but please make sure you tell someone where and when you’re going, have the right kit and above all, knowledge.***
OK, thanks to a lot of wonderful people the total raised for CLAPA has just gone through £2,000. I don’t know what to say…at the beginning of 2017 I’d only hoped for £100…Thank you… I’m opening the wine NOW!
Day 365 Mile 365: Fun At The End “I’m not good at many things in life but I am a fair hand at drinking tea” (It’s Not Tea). Well! today is the last day of the year and brings this challenge to an end. I can now say that I have run at least a mile everyday this year, for me, and to raise money for the Cleft Lip and Palate Association. Between everyone over £1.5k has been raised, so far beyond the £100 I was hoping to get that I cant articulate my feeling properly. I woke up this morning to a wonderful tweeted thanks from CLAPA which was a terrific suprise and is watchable here. 
On a not unrelated note I was given some running socks by my family for Christmas (i.e. yesterday). While under normal circumstances I would have scoffed at socks as a gift almost on the level of a lump of coal for someone who lives near a wood, they were brilliant. Thank you 🙂
Day 356 Mile 356: Run Run Rudolph! Today finds me visiting my Mum in the village of Hawridge. It’s a beautiful place with leafy commonland and a deep rural history which belies its apparent sleepiness. As it is coming up to dusk and the common is covered in steep slidy mud following the snow I took a run along the main (and pretty much only) road.
Day 355 Mile 355: Solstice Skyline. As with the 
Getting up to see the dawn is considerably easier at this time of year but much less likely to be the same spectacle. Today the Sun is directly overhead of the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere and is closer to the horizon than at any other time in the year reaching its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees. Given that we live at 53° north that leaves only about 7½ hours of daylight. It is not as bad as some parts of the world but if you are not careful it is very easy to go to work or school or have a lazy day and not even see the sun at all.
Day 354 Mile 354: It’s Grimm In The Forest At Night. On this day in 1812 the first edition of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s book Kinder- und Hausmärchen was published becoming known in English as Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Their affect on culture cant be understated, exerting influence on fields as varied as film, ethnography, pantomime, psychology and the kissing of frogs.
Day 352 Mile 352: On Running, Violins, Incremental Gains and Chicken Soup. Apart from running around in ill defined ellipses one of my other passions is music and today gave me an usual chance to combine the two. I’ve played the violin since 1987 which makes it one of the corner stone activities of my life, something which I do, it may go in peaks and troughs of activity but it is something which is always there, whether actually in my hands or just rattling around inside my head.
Day 351 Mile 351: 2 weeks to go, 1… 2… 3… Soggy Santa Dash! Today we had the chance to do Llanfairfechan Santa Dash as a family. The weather is typical for North Wales in December in that it is grim! Amazingly everyone is still completely up for it and given the inclement climatic conditions we end up with race numbers 1 2 and 3. I can’t see that ever happening again!
Day 349 Mile 349: Run for Dad. Today marks two months since my Dad took his life. While things are getting easier I still miss him. So today I thought I would do something positive to keep some of the memories of things we shared together.
Day 348 Mile 348: Racing The Bus To The Moon. On this day in 1972 Eugene Cernan of the Apollo 17 mission became the last person to walk on the moon. I found this out at about 6:30 this morning, it was still dark and the moon was out, a crescent cat-claw, milk-saucer-rim against the black of space and the buffeting clouds. It is almost due south above the starless black of the mountains having risen at around 4 am, traversing a late arc which is just to tempting not to go out and see.
Day 347 Mile 347: Head-torch Run After Work. Some days going out running seems idyllic, an opportunity to see amazing places often in glorious weather and other days are like this one! Having been at work all day, and far too lazy/disorganized to have gone out during lunch or first thing today’s run is crammed in, in the dark along the prom in borderline snow and sleet.
There is still snow and ice on the ground which makes the going more tricky and significantly slower but it certainly adds to the sense of excitement and challenge. The thin flakes of frosted ice jangle underfoot falling away with a sound like flakes of acrylic as feet lift off the turf behind. The views are spectacular looking down into the village of Capelulo and across to the sea and the Isle of Anglesey. Out in the sun it is surprisingly warm, even though in many places the path is still icy but once the path dips into the shadow of the hill the cold begins to nibble at the fingers. Out in the light, the colours seem to be very vibrant and yet almost monochrome in the shade, held into even starker contrast by the laying snow and ice.
Day 345 Mile 345: #InternationalMountainDay and a Published Article 🙂 It’s International Mountain Day today, so that seemed a bit like too good a running opportunity to miss, in-spite of it being very cold and my being in work all day. However while checking emails before going out over lunch I also discovered a wonderful surprise.
These are delicate and important places that provide nourishment for both body and soul. Aside from the obvious benefits of water and land and climate that the hills bring history is peppered with people finding a deeper and more spiritual side to this landscape. Whether it is from approach Taoism, or extreme sports, or anywhere in between; the mountains continue to exert a significant pull in the imaginations of many people. For me they have always been places of great stillness, even when at their most violent and chaotic; where you are temporarily removed from many of the external factors of society. The mind ranges out in the wider space and folds back in upon itself, the outward freedom and expanse in which to experience and be, in turn affords a greater capacity and space to consider one’s own thoughts.
Day 344 Mile 344: Three Weeks To Go – Sand, Sea and… Snow! Wow, the weather forecast for today predicted snow, but I don’t think that anyone quite believed it. I mean, the BBC gave it a full house of snow on their weather app but we live right by the sea… in Wales! OK I was wrong, I woke up, took one look out of the window and grabbed my stuff to go out for a run.
It’s a slippy-slidy chaotic sort of affair, with several inches of snow in place and the village has turned white. What really drove my curiosity and was if there was any snow actually on the beach, so I slithered my way down the road, cycle track and the (well named) slipway to find out.
The rest of the run was a picturesque jaunt around the village with feet “crump”-ing and “squelch”-ing in equal measure. The intrepid handful of people that were out all waved a cheery hello and carried on about their chilly businesses.
Day 342 Mile 342: Snowing in the Mountains. Today the country is experiencing Storm Caroline and many thousands of children have woken up disappointed at the lack of snow at low levels and the still functioning nature of the education system. However if you are an adult and blessed with transport or have the misfortune to live in one of the harder hit areas of the country there is certainly more than enough of the white stuff to be found. So, seeking adventure I took a drive in my lunch break up into the mountains for today’s run.
Day 341 Mile 341: Squeezing In A Late Mile Before Chicken Pie. The title of tonight’s run says most of it really and my nocturnal outing was squeezed in after a busy day between the hail storms before sitting down to tea. On my way back I even bumped into a friend by the front door who took one look at me in trainers, blue combats and a hoodie and declared it ‘took cold to be out in pyjamas’! I fully expect to be asleep ten minutes after I finish eating… Night night all 🙂
Day 337 Mile 337: Over £1000 Raised!!! Today is something of a milestone in that the fundraising part of this challenge has just gone through the one thousand pounds mark! To say that I am shocked is something of an understatement. When I started this year of running I hoped to raise £100 for the Cleft Lip and Palate Association by running at least a mile a day, but that target was quickly achieved. AS a result of the kindness and generosity of friends and strangers alike the total raised now stands at ten times what I hoped to raise and there is clearly time to go before the end of year!
Day 336 Mile 336: Penmaenmawr Santa Dash. So often the real pleasure of going for a run is not necessarily the running itself, but rather the things that happen around it. This run is an absolute case in point.
Day 332 Mile 332: Hail-Storm in the Sand-Dunes. Today’s run took me through the sand dunes that lie between the headland of Penmaenbach and the Conwy estuary. It is an amazing habitat and home to a wide variety of rare fauna and flora as well as having some astounding views. Unfortunately today the air temperature is a chilly 5° with a strong breeze from the west and every so often it belts it down with a mixture of rain and hailstones! This, combined with sand in the wind and the refrigerator temperatures is somewhat inclement. Today’s run has therefore been hard work and more than a little uncomfortable,but oddly quite exciting to see nature throwing out a day which is distinctly “un-average”! 
Day 331 Mile 331: Quay, Castle and Cob. Today’s title says most of it! A wonderful jaunt from Conwy Quay, past the cast and over the cob which crosses the river of the same name 🙂
Day 330 Mile 330: Exploring Up. It is wonderful to be out in the hills again. The 120ft. waterfalls at Abergwyngregyn are relatively well known and attract thousands of tourists and walkers every year, however if you don’t turn off at the carpark there is an unpromising road which snakes its way between drystone walls and up onto the mountains.
Day 329 Mile 329: A Winter Heart Warmer. Today’s run feels like the first of winter. There is a sugaring of hailstones on the ground, the sky is a deep slate grey and when not occluded by cloud the mountains away to the south loom white through the mist.
For this morning’s outing I am joined by my daughter at Penrhyn Parkrun. Today will be her eighth 5km Parkrun and she is determined to complete ten by Christmas, thus winning a free t-shirt! It is interesting to find that as this year of daily running has progressed it has (especially recently) become a lot less about pushing myself and more about helping others. That may be because my own capabilities have increased during the year; or perhaps my expectations have changed, or I’ve just mellowed and become a bit kinder. Whichever way it is, it seems like a good thing, and there is always tomorrow for trying to go fast.
Day 328 Mile 328: Going For A Run with Emma. Today is a rare chance to go for a run with the wonderful Emma. As someone who has tolerated my particular brand of madness for over ten years with good nature and stoicism in equal measure it is a real privilege to join her on her run around Llandudno this evening.
Day 326 Mile 326: Soaked in Seconds. There have been quite a few runs this year which have been in adverse weather conditions, but what tonight’s cover photo doesn’t really convey is that this is probably the wettest so far!
Day 325 Mile 325: Post-Penguin Perambulation. Today we had a family trip to Chester Zoo. Trying to run everyday is sometimes a hard thing to fit in with family commitments, so here is one quick single mile dash around the outskirts of Hoole and Chester!
Day 322 Mile 322: Happy Birthday Castle Run. Today we all ended up at Penrhyn Castle Parkun for its 3rd birthday. It was a great event with a 5km run through the castle grounds followed by tea and birthday cake. It was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with some friends and my daughter managed to set a new PB while chasing other mates with kids on shoulders. I didn’t get to run fast today but that was not really the point and a fantastic time was had by all. Yay! As ever thanks to all the marshals, volunteers and organizers.
Day 321 Mile 321: Lights in Llandudno. For today’s run I am accompanied by my better half Emma, sneaking in a rare shared jaunt. The Victorian seaside town of Llandudno has already got its Christmas lights up and is having its festive fayre over the long weekend. While it feels very early in the year it certainly seems to suit the place. The mix of festive victoriana and chintzy seaside brashness fits with the bold colours and tinkling lights of the evening, and adds another layer of excitement to an already fascinating town.
Day 319 Mile 319: Along the Beach at Dusk. This morning I woke up with an unaccountable twinge in my right calf so wasn’t quite sure how today was going to go. However having left today’s run until the evening it seems to have resolved itself a bit, and can now be put down in the massive list of random things that happen as a result of ‘sleeping oddly’. 
Day 318 Mile 318: Mum Said Don’t Run On Top Of The Wall! As the year and this challenge gradually draws to a close, there are a few runs and routes left which I have had in mind to do before time, opportunity, daylight and the weather gives out.
Day 316 Mile 316: Jam Sandwiches and Jerusalem. Today I’m driving back from South East England to North West Wales between one bit of family and another. This presents massive opportunities to stop off along the way; so I thought I would go for somewhere a little unexpected and where I had never had cause to venture before.
Day 315 Mile 315: Misty Moo Cow Run. Today it’s really misty. This adds an odd sense of excitement to Tring Parkrun, possibly one of the few events in the Western Hemisphere to have its’ own ‘Cow Marshalls’!
Day 314 Mile 314: Rocky Castle Run. Berkhamsted Castle was built during the Norman conquest of England in 1066 after William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings he advanced from the coast, across the Thames Valley and north into Hertfordshire. The Archbishop of York formally surrendered England to William in Berkhamsted, possibly on this very spot, and William ordered the construction of the castle before proceeding south into London. Subsequent kings granted the castle to their chancellors and it was substantially expanded in the mid-12th century (probably!) by Thomas Becket.
Day 313 Mile 313: There was a pirate, a grand house and a narrow boat… Today’s run starts at the famous Pendley Manor house and covers the full spectrum of historic English rural life. Pendley Manor was built in around 1472 although most of what remains is now in a Victorian Neo-Jacobean style. The run leaves the grounds of this placial dwelling with its topiary trees behind and heads along the road to the other end of the social spectrum. The Grand Union canal runs just outside the manor premises and links Birmingham to London built between 1793 and 1805 it played a vital part in the industrial revolution and the movement of goods even up as far as WWI it is also a very picturesque place in a totally different way to the manor house.
Day 312 Mile 312: Sometimes Hard Work Pays Off 🙂 Today’s run takes me around the old town of Chesham. There is archaeological evidence of the earliest settlement during the Late Mesolithic period around 5000 BC in East Street, Chesham where a large quantity of Flint tools were found.
He was a man who you could fly your kite so high with, that suddenly you could find the end of the sting was free from the spool and helixing skywards, and somehow, he got it back. Some children go around thinking that their Dads can mend anything, in my Dads case it was quite close to the truth, unless it was a computer, in which case you have absolutely no chance!
Day 309 Mile 309: 5th Nov. Hope and Perspectives. Today is the 5th of November where the UK commemorates Guy Fawkes and his conspirators almost blowing up the houses of parliament in 1605. It is a beutiful clear day with an air temperature of about 3 degrees centigrade. Bonfire Night’s history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plotters, was arrested while guarding the explosives which he and his co-conspirators had placed beneath the House of Lords. Celebrating the fact that King James the First had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London, and months later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot’s failure.
Day 307 Mile 307: Along Old Ways. Llangelnin Old Church sits high up on the Welsh mountain Tal Y Fan, some 1000ft above Henryd, the nearest village. In the 6th century the Celtic saint St. Celynnin built a church around a well here as a refuge for weary travellers. The well was believed to have restorative powers, especially for ill children, and chimes so much with the pre-Christian Celtic beliefs, that it suggests that this has been a holy place for a very long time. The well and the church are there to this day.
It’s an amazing place and was unlocked today. Inside is almost like being outdoors. There is an old feel, a sense of beauty that has arisen through love and sanctity, and the kneading of surfaces by time beyond lifespans. There is a place for splendour and modernity, but sometimes things can be crafted more profoundly in adze-scarred wood amd limewashed walls. If you find God in the hills and sky, then this is as close as I have found which benefits from a roof!
Day 306 Mile 306: Totemic Lions Stole My Trousers. The Britannia Bridge links the Isle Of Anglesey/Ynys Môn to mainland Wales and was designed and built by Robert Stephenson (of ‘Rocket’ fame) to carry the railway that linked London to Holyhead and hence by ferry to Dublin. It was originally a tubular bridge of wrought iron rectangular box-section spans, but during the evening of 23 May 1970 the bridge was badly damaged when boys playing inside the bridge dropped a piece of burning paper, setting alight the tar-coated wooden roof of the tubes. Due to the difficulties of fighting the fire, all that was left was the stone structure which was eventually rebuilt with two decks; the railway underneath and an upper deck carrying road traffic.
These musings made I carried on my journey following the line of the bridge towards the sea between the road-rail and the powerlines. In the occasional gaps between the traffic this morning it is possible to hear the crackle of the power through the pylons. With the potentially ancient concept of the lions in my mind the transport of people, ideas and literally power through these modern lay-lines of least resistance seemed completely plausible. So, it was at this point I decided that looping back around and uphill was a good idea.
Day 305 Mile 305: ‘Ever flourish the Enchanted Isle’. A couple of days ago, purely on a whim, I downloaded a an audio performance of The Tempest, which is believed to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote, and arguably the pinnacle of his craft.
Day 304 Mile 304: Hallowe’en Ghost Run. Today is Halloween, and sometimes living in an old part of an old country has its advantages, especially when it comes to ghost stories. Conwy is an ancient town siting at the point where the river of the same name meets the sea. The town walls and castle date from the late 13th century but there has been settlement here for even longer.
Moving further down the quay we come to the smallest house in Great Britain, a heady 72 inches across. It was built in the 16th century and was lived in by fishermen until 1900 when it was declared too small for human habitation as its then occupier (a Mr Robert Jones who measured 6’3’’ tall) had to sleep with his feet sticking out of the window. These days it is a tourist attraction but often smells of cooking fish and salt water when opened up in the mornings….
Day 303 Mile 303: Sensory Sunrise Run. With the change of the clocks it is once again light in sufficient before the start of work to be able to sneak a run in. Today sees a beautiful sunrise with the iridescent colours of petrol and roses over the sea. Down the road by the Motorbike Shop the Jackdaws are reeling like slivers of coal knap against the butter-icing sky as one of them shouts his heart out on the non-functional lamp post that marks the end of the forecourt.
The book was illustrated with pen and ink sketches, which not only provided a fun insight into the concerns and imaginations of the author and illustrator, but also no doubt kept production costs down. I suspect that photos, even black and white ones my have been prohibitively expensive with the technology available in 1970 for such a small run book. Viewed through a 2017 lens where photos are two a penny the book almost seems better by their absence.
There has been a River Conwy for millennia. The valley floor has been made rich and fertile by the deposits left behind by the retreating ice sheets of the Pleistocene era, but the river and the valley were forming long before then. Way before the ice came that water had already found a natural line of weakness between the Silurian bedrock to the east and the older, harder Cambrian rocks found to the west.
Day 300 Mile 300: Three Hundred Days of Running So Far. Well here we, are day 300 of running at least 1 mile daily throughout the year for 
Day 299 Mile 299: Time and Space at the Witch’s Lake. Today finds me back in North Wales. After the leafy homeliness of Buckinghamshire it is a real privilege to get into the open space and quiescence of the mountains.
Day 295 Mile 295: A Run Around the Horseblock. It is always interesting revisiting places where you grew up, not least because a lot of the things which you perceived as completely normal because they were just always there turn out to be quite unusual. In the case of the lanes around there I can completely understand the nomenclature of Stoney Lane and even take a guess at Pound Lane, but Horseblock Lane seems a bit of an odd one.
Day 293 Mile 293: Windmills and Toads. According to contemporary maps a windmill has stood on Cholesbury Common since roughly the 17th century. The Hawridge Wind and Steam Mill was a smock mill constructed in 1863 by the Norwich Wind and Steam Company, who also installed a steam engine and built an engine house with a tall chimney. The smock mill was bought and sold at least twice; on the second occasion, in 1881, together with the related properties it raised a heady £600. However it appears not to have been profitable due to; its design, faults in the construction, and the cost of coal. It was demolished in 1883. Another mill was built on the same site in1883. This was a tower mill, thought to be one of the last of its kind built in England. It was built by Hillsdon’s of Tring. The next year the tall chimney associated with the steam mill was brought down and grain store was added shortly after. The original mill owners struggled to make it profitable and it was leased as a going concern when a more experienced miller took over. He remained in charge until the mill finally ceased operation in 1912. It became a private residence in 1913.
Towering over the village is the dominating Beacon Hill, with its grassy mound and lone tree, iconic amongst the Chiltern Hills when viewed from within the Aylesbury Vale. It is also the site of Cymbeline’s Mount, also known as Cymbeline’s Castle, referred to in the Shakespeare play Cymbeline. In reality, the name refers to the British King Cunobelinus who, alongside his sons, is said to have battled at this site against the Roman Invasion of the British Isles.
Day 291 Mile 291. ‘Heaven is a (Iron-Age) Half-Pipe’. Cholesbury Camp is on the borders of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. The ovoid plateau-fort is protected by two banks and a median ditch, with an extra bank and ditch on the south-east and west; entrances were on the south-west and north-east. The fort has been reasonably dated to the 1st/2nd centuries BC thanks to Iron-Age pottery fragments found within the interior. Cholesbury Church was built within the ramparts of the ancient fort.
Day 288 Mile 288. Dedicated to the memory of my Dad who passed away this morning. A kind and clever man whom I am grateful to have shared my life with. If there is a hurricane tomorrow I’m blaming it on you!
Day 287 Mile 287: There are worse ways to spend a Saturday morning! Today I went and ran the 5k Penrhyn Castle Parkrun, and amazingly chalked up my second best time there! Before anyone asks, yes I have been more than twice! It’s a really lovely event which has grown in popularity with a scenic course past a castle and though the grounds with mountain fit runners, kids with parents and overexcited dogs thrown in. What is not to love?
Day 286 Mile 286: Unsurprisingly Wet. If you travel between two place for long enough eventually those pathways seem to become ossified; it is easy to engage with life at points A and B and simply ignore the space in between as a conduit in space and time linking those two nodes.
Day 284 Mile 284: Chasing Leaves. Today the wind is reportedly gale-force. I’m not completely convinced about that yet, but I know that the wind coming from behind me is propelling the leaves along faster than I can run.
Day 282 Mile 282: Autumn at the ‘Weird Bridge’. Part of what I enjoy about going running is the opportunity to see new places and satisfy curiosity. Sometimes this extends to delving into the odd corners which get overlooked everyday and occasionally this turns up something quite exciting.
Day 281 Mile 281: The Clue is in the Title! Several years ago a friend of mine once challenged me to a race up here. He’s not a bad lad, but he has the strange fitness which seems to get bestowed upon people for whom ‘morally right’ is very definitely separate to ‘strictly legal’ and has probably had one two many amphetamines over the years. He is one of the kindest people I know, but I’m also aware that I would never be allowed to forget it if he beat me either!
Day 280 Mile 280: Brain Rain. Today is one of those days which looks grim. The cloud is low, there is intermittent drizzle and the roofs, roads, walls and mountains all blur into an algae greased melange of British Racing Green and Gunmetal Grey. 
Day 279 Mile 279:1 Mile Smile for #WorldSmileDay. Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Massachusetts, is recognized as the earliest known designer of the smiley face. In 1963 the State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, Massachusetts (now known as Hanover Insurance) had purchased Guarantee Mutual Company of Ohio. The merger resulted in low employee morale. In an attempt to solve this, Ball was employed in as a freelance artist, to come up with an image to cheer everyone up. In less than ten minutes, Harvey Ball came up with the simple yet world-changing smiley face. The simplicity of the image brought smiles to the faces of the executives, who paid him $45 for his creation. That image went on to become the most recognizable symbol of good will and good cheer on the planet.
As the years passed Harvey Ball became concerned about the over-commercialization of his symbol, and how its original meaning and intent had become lost in the constant repetition of the marketplace. Out of that concern came his idea for World Smile Day. He thought that people, should devote one day each year to smiles and kind acts throughout the world and that the first Friday in October each year would henceforth be World Smile Day.
I had tried to work it out to get a perfect smiley by putting a stake in the middle and running around with different lengths of string to get perfect circles and arcs; the outside edge being 12 times the diameter of the eyes, the smile 9 times and the eyes themselves 6 times their own diameter out from the center.
Day 278 Mile 278: The Dr Will See You No! 55 years ago to the day the first Bond film was released, and let’s face it playing at being 007 has to rank up there with getting away from zombies as one of those silly bits of fun which occasionally goes through my mind when running! With many of the Bond films being based in the UK working out of Pinewood Studios, Snowdonia National Park features heavily as a backdrop for many of the iconic moments showing up at length in: From Russia With Love, Tomorrow Never Dies and The World Is Not Enough and incidentally in many other movies.
I’m running a mile each day everyday for 2017. If you feel you can sponsor me please do, as all the money raised will go to the Cleft Lip & Palate Association (CLAPA) who provide services all across the UK to support people affected by it.
Day 276 Mile 276: Afanc River-Monster Mountain Run. High on the east flank of Snowdon lies a lake, carved out by the actions of tectonic motion along with the weight of ice and custodian of a fantastic story.
All in all, an amazing experience!
Day 275 Mile 275: Modular Synth Run. One, or possibly two, of my many passions is making music and tinkering. Modular synthesis fits this remit admirably, falling somewhere between hard science, serious composition, electronic noise making and building steam engines.
Day 274 Mile 274: Running on the Wrong Side of the Night. I have just got in from playing a gig. I am still wired and awake, this will probably not be the same in 7 hours time. Therefore as the clock says that we are already into a new day, I have run my mile for CLAPA now; one mile for every day this year, no one said where abouts you put sleep in that equation!
Day 272 Mile 272: Crepuscular Scamper. The morning is distinctly autumnal, with an overcast sky lending an inky blue tinge to the daybreak. Here and there lights are going on and off, as the nocturnal street lamps hibernate for the day; with curtained kitchens and kettles beginning to power up the twilight.
Day 271 Mile 271: I Must go Down to the Seas Again #NationalPoetryDay. As the title might have suggested, today is National Poetry Day. Living in a land of bards and oral history, combined with working in a seat of learning it seemed only appropriate to mark this day somehow. Rattling around the university, there was a plethora of inspiration; ranging from texts in books or stone engravings, through to places where the great and good of the past had studied and written.
It is also really nice to get out and see actual people including friends and colleges in passing. Not so much in a ‘look at me I’m running’ but actually just nice to be able to smile and wave and say hello to someone you know. It doesn’t happen very much up on the hills for obvious reasons!
Day 269 Mile 269: A Preposterous Undertaking. Living less than a mile outside a national park, nature provides an innumerable trove of attractive routes, silly challenges and visual marvels. Next to the road into the nearest town, there is a hillside which rises steeply skywards by around 350 ft. onto a ridge which surveys the sea, the mountains and the castle. It is such a ridiculous line that for years my brain has been screaming at me to try and get up it, so today is that day!
Day 268 Mile 268: Making the blood run. On 25th of September 1818 in Guy’s Hospital (London) James Blundell successfully carried out the first recorded blood transfusion, thus saving a patient’s life. Blundell was the son of a successful draper in London, but on his mother’s side he had John Haighton, a leading medic at Guy’s, under whom the young man studied. Blundell was a practical medic, a specialist in obstetrics, and his actions 199 years ago today saved mothers life; using four ounces of blood extracted from the woman’s husband, and injected into her with a syringe.
Day 267 Mile 267: Gladstone 5k. In the middle of the village there is a statue to WE Gladstone (1809-1898) and in the neighbouring village of Dwygyfylchi there is a pub that now bears his name. As an important (albeit at times controversial) historical figure the fact that he spent so much of his time in a relatively tiny place is both endearing and intriguing. So given that the loop from home to statue to coaching inn and back is almost exactly 5km it seemed worth a go!
Day 265 Mile 265: Reflective Equinox. Today marks the autumn equinox, the point when day and night are the same length, on the way towards winter. Living 53° north this has a significant effect on everything, as there is roughly 9 hours difference between the amount of daylight at the height of summer compared to mid-winter. For the 
Day 264 Mile 264: First Head-torch Run of Autumn. It is a sure sign of autumn when the need for a torch sneaks back into daily life! Today marks the first time in quite some while, apart from deliberate nocturnal adventures when I have needed a head-torch to go for a ‘normal’ run.
Day 263 Mile 263: Conwy Rivers Project 9/10 Afon Porth-Llwyd. Today has been dramatic; a combination of helping-out vulnerable individuals starting a new life at university, and looking after a great friend who has recently fallen ill. As a result some downhill therapy was called for.
Day 262 Mile 262: Talk Like A Pirate Day Run. Weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen! Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day, so a run in fancy dress be certainly called fer.
Day 261 Mile 261: Dr. Johnson runs around for Fresher’s Week. On this day in 1709 Samuel Johnson (often referred to simply as Dr. Johnson) was born. He was described by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as “arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history”, having made a name for himself as a writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer.
Day 260 Mile 260: Crags, Castles & a Cloud Inversion. Today’s run took me up and over the mountains towards the historic castle-town of Conwy. After a while of running on prepared roads and paths, with other people and in organised events it makes a refreshing change to be out in the hills by myself; another part of the rich tapestry of life.
The route winds up and across Conwy Mountain, through the heather and broken rock, glimpsing southwards down the valley towards the higher peaks of the Carneddau. The wonder of being out, especially for a while linger than usual is that it affords the opportunity to notice more.
Somewhat distracted by this spectacle I started my return journey and in so doing took a wrong path which, rather than leading me around, took me to the top of one peak. Getting there I realized I had stumbled into Castell (Castle) Caer Seion, a Roman Hill-fort, and somewhere I had never been before! Castell Caer Seion is a stone walled fort excavated in 1951 on the summit of Conwy Mountain. It extends over an area approximately 330m from west south-west to east north-east by 100m, having a ‘citadel’ at the western end. There are some 24 hut foundations ranging from 3 to 10m diameter located within the enclosure. All in all quite impressive! The commanding vista of the citadel also made it easy to spot a way back down and to work out where I had gone adrift. *Stay safe in the hills kids!*
Day 258 Mile 258: “Secret Plans and Clever Tricks”. After yesterday’s run to the lighthouse and the consequent blog title referencing that event and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (which features a lighthouse quite prominently), my writing has returned to its usual standard of intellect by nodding to Roald Dahl and his Enormous Crocodile.
Day 257 Mile 257: The Edge of the Brave New World. This morning finds me at Pont Yr Ayr, the northernmost tip of mainland Wales. Today it is living up to its location, with a strong breeze coming in from the west, and a wall of rain rippling across the sky, cascading like Cthulhu’s tentacles on the hills to the south and east. The inclement weather seems to add to the grandeur of the landscape as I find myself amongst the rolling sand dunes, working towards the lighthouse and the sea.
Day 256 Mile 256: Windy Up Top. After a blowy night the wind has started to die down somewhat, but it is still rather wild on top of the hills; which therefore seemed a perfect opportunity to go and air some cobwebs before starting the day. Alltwen is a peak that forms the eastern edge of the amphitheater of hills embracing the village as it looks out northwards to the sea.
Day 255 Mile 255: Roosting in Llanrwst. Having spent a very agreeable day playing music with a friend today’s run has been left rather later than planned. Using an electric violin and modular synth while your someone else plays feedback on mixing desk where the outputs are routed back around to the inputs; to make experimental electronic noise, at high volume levels, in a barn in a barn in the hills is great fun, but does not instantly facilitate much exercise beyond carrying speakers!
Day 254 Mile 254: Conwy Rivers Project 8/10 Afon Lledr. Today the weather has ranged from the miserable to the torrential. It is not as bad as the conditions faced by those on the other side of the Atlantic at the moment but it is none the less not exactly conducive to the idea of going outside!
Day 252 Mile 252: Family and Friends Run. Today we went and did the Penrhyn Castle 5km Parkrun as a family. 
Day 251 Mile 251: Numbers, Blocks and Bach. As the title would suggest it is the 251st day of the year. Once you get this far through interesting numbers start to become fewer and further apart however 251 is the 54th prime number and the smallest number that can be formed in more than one way by summing three positive cubes.
Day 249 Mile 249: Sunrise Over the Mountain. This morning I put the kettle on and went for a quick run out of the end of the village and out around the headland. After the rain of yesterday the sky has cleared, leaving only a strong breeze from the west. There is a piece of local weather lore that holds with the concept that bad weather in North America takes about ten days to echo across the Atlantic and turn up as poor conditions (although with less energy) on these shores. Given the weather of the last few days there may be a grain of truth in it!
So I set out, running into the wind and feeling a bit slow, and a chance moment of looking over my shoulder gave the opportunity to see the sun rising over the mountain. Not much else of note happened today, apart from waving to a neighbor as he rode his bicycle to work and experiencing the joy of running back home with the wind behind me. Sometimes it’s nice just to chill a bit!
Day 248 Mile 248: Conwy Rivers Project 7/10 Legends of the Afon Crafnant. Today’s run finds me (on the way to Aberystwyth) at the head of the River Crafnant, where it first emerges from the lake that bears the same name where it then drops by about 600ft to meet the river Conwy and hence the sea.
Day 247 Mile 247: Winding Down from the Weekend. The first Monday in September has arrived and like many people it finds me staggering around the house in the early morning, wondering for the first time in a while if it would help to turn the light on in order to find a pair of socks! While the change of seasons is by no means total, it has gone with a noticeable click in the last fortnight and now seems to oscillate on an almost daily basis between a valiant attempt at the end of summer and a fairly average winter’s day.
Day 244 Mile 244: Two Thirds Of The Way! Today is the first of September, which means I am (approximately) two thirds of the way through this year of running a minimum of a mile each day!
Day 243 Mile 243: Gorsedd Stones & Soggy Socks. On the banks of the Menai Straits lies a field, un-built on and crossed by footpaths leading down through the trees to the sea. Ashley Jones was a prominent Bangor solicitor before the Second World War; on his death, his executors fulfilled his wishes in making bequests to the City Council enabling them to acquire the Fields for the use of the people of the City. During the Bangor Eisteddfod in 1931 a stone circle and table were erected there as part of the celebrations.
Day 242 Mile 242: Duvets & Woodlands. I am probably not the only person who notices lots of interesting things on their way to work, which some days seem infinitely more appealing and distracting than doing what you are supposed to be doing. As a direct result of this whim, I stopped off on my way and went for a run through the woods.
Day 241 Mile 241: Running Sans Moustache. Today it happened, I actually took the plunge and had a shave! This may not seem particularly relevant to a blog which purports to be largely about running, but in a sense it is absolutely vital.
Today is my last day in Buckinghamshire and an early morning must is giving way to a beautiful hot day. It will be sad to leave, but great to be on the next stage of the adventure 🙂
Day 237 Mile 237: Common Land & Chocolate Brownies. Today finds me visiting my parents so I have the wonderful opportunity to run around Hawridge Common, where I grew up. 
Day 236 Mile 236: Soggy Seaside Shamble. The title says it all for today’s run really! Even the jackdaws perched on the larger rocks where the beach meets the path are resolutely huddled in their feathers; heads tucked right into their bristling boa shoulders and beaks turned to face out of th wind.
Day 235 Mile 235: In Numinous Fields. Bryn Celli Ddu (the Mound in the Dark Grove) is an impressive Neolithic chambered tomb, probably the best-known prehistoric monument on Anglesey, and is ‘one of the most evocative archaeological sites in Britain’. Like other prehistoric tombs on Anglesey it seems to have been constructed to protect and pay respect to the remains of ancestors.
The passage tomb consists of a narrow tunnel that leads to a polygonal stone chamber. Human bones, both burnt and unburnt, were found in the passage of the tomb. Other finds were few, but included quartz, two flint arrowheads, a stone bead, and limpet and mussel shells.
Day 234 Mile 234: Jackdaws & Gulls on the Offside Castle. Conwy Castle is an amazing structure, completed in 1289 it dominates the head of the Conwy valley, overlooking the river and encircling the town with imposing walls of protective stone. It is hugely popular and with good reason, and is a world heritage site as well as being very cool!
Day 233 Mile 233: Looking Forward and Reflecting. Over the last few days the gradual turning of the seasons has been noticeable as summer gives way to autumn but today this does not necessarily feel like something to bemoan. Early this morning I went for a run along the prom. The tide was a long way out leaving puddles of mirror glass to reflect the cotton-wool sky. The air is completely still, which is a rarity for this part of the world, particularly right by the sea and lends an atmosphere of expectation to proceedings.
Day 232 Mile 232: Voyaging Around the Pale Blue Dot. On Sat, 20 Aug 1977 Voyager 2 launched start of the Voyager mission. The Voyager probes are still running, out there in space, and hold the record for the fastest and furthest away objects ever made.
Day 230 Mile 230: Conwy Rivers Project 6/10 Staying Downstream of the Goblins. The Afon Dulyn (the Black River) is a small river cutting its way down off the mountains from Llyn Dulyn, yes you’ve guessed it, the Black Lake. It makes its way down the west side of the Conwy Valley gouging a deep cleft through the Cambrian strata that marks out the far boundary of the Carneddau range and thus tells of a very old history.
The run up the gorge feels close, and the river feels dark under the trees and particularly ancient rocks and woodland. The path is narrow and at times precarious and it is easy to see how people became so suspicious of the lake that feeds this water-course.
Day 229 Mile 229: ‘Rainy Day Running #12 & 35’. Today’s run picks up on a route suggestion made by a friend of mine ages ago, which I have now finally had the chance to take up. It’s a great one, once again on the billiard table that is the middle of the Isle of Anglesey/Ynys Môn but with the added excitement of potentially getting a good soaking if you put a foot down wrong!
The Afon Briant meanders languidly across the green flood plain, down to the south end of the Menai Straits where it meets the sea. About a mile upstream there is a large line of stepping stones, set high enough to remain navigable on all but the most extreme of tides.
Day 228 Mile 228: Running Along Behind my Great-great Grandfather. In one of those weird loops of fate it turns out that during my time at university (roughly 250 miles from home) I moved into a village on the coast, where, unknown to me my great great grandfather and several other members of his (and by extension my) family had lived well over a century ago!
Day 227 Mile 227: Chilling with the Mountain Ponies. Every so often you come across the bit of magic in he ordinary, today was one of those days.
Day 226 Mile 226: Lunchtime Escape Run. Today’s run goes through beautiful woodland at the bottom of the Ogwen Valley just outside the village of Bethesda It starts by the entrance to the Penrhyn Slate Quarry although with the trees in leaf it is almost impossible to see any of the massive piles of rock only a few meters away. The quarry was first developed in the 1770s by Richard Pennant, later Baron Penrhyn. From then on, slates from the quarry were transported to the sea at Port Penrhyn on the narrow gauge Penrhyn Quarry Railway built in 1798, one of the earliest railway lines. In the 19th century the Penrhyn Quarry, along with the Dinorwic Quarry, dominated the Welsh slate industry and at the end of the nineteenth century it was the world’s largest slate quarry; the main pit is nearly 1 mile long and 1,200 feet deep, and it was worked by nearly 3,000 quarrymen. It has since been superseded in size by slate quarries in China, Spain and the USA.
Day 224 Mile 224: Penrhyn Parkrun + Precipitation = PB! Today I got the chance to return to the Penrhyn Castle Parkrun. It is very wet but the atmosphere is fantastic as the grimness of the climatic conditions seems to bring out a grinning spirit of camaraderie mixed with an alloy of ‘whose idea was this anyway?’!
Day 222 Mile 222: Quercus-Caucus Race.
The European Turkey Oak – Quercus cerris gains it’s name from one of it’s native source Countries. It was introduced to Britain in 1735 as a substitute timber for the English oak – Quercus robur which was, at that time, the main timber provision. However it proved disappointing with it’s wood being poor quality and brittle and only being good for panelling, gaining it its other name of ‘Wainscot’ oak. It’ s popularity stemmed from its fast growth, adaptability and strange mossy acorn cups, or more correctly, cupules. It grows to a height and spread of 30m.
The Cork Oak – Quercus suber, is a medium sized evergreen oak native to South West Europe. It grows to 20m in height and is identifiable by it’s thick rugged spongy bark, or cork. It is this cork that made this tree so popular, with the bark being harvested every 10 to 12 years primarily for the wine trade, growing specifically in those regions, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, amongst others, with Portugal being the main source, with the industry producing in excess of 250,000 tonnes each year, a vast quantity considering how light cork is.
Day 220 Mile 220: 300 Miles Actually Done So Far! I’m running a mile each day everyday for 2017 to raise money for the Cleft Lip & Palate Association (CLAPA) but I realized yesterday that as I have been doing at least a mile everyday that means that today I have run more than 300 miles this year!
Day 219 Mile 219: Margot’s Marsh. A few days ago a friend of mine (named Margot) recommended a run around the Cors Ddyga Wetland Reserve, and, due to working near there today I took up this recommendation.
On a plus side the only cows I encountered were also on the other side of one of these ditches which after my last exploits running through a cow field was something of a relief.
1 mile 365 days 