JIM RICE

ME.

Old punk. Love the outdoors, trail running, hills, books, maps, vinyl and anything analogue. Hate road running, texting, social media, computers etc. Loner, outsider…black sheep of my family in every way. Until the middle of last year I l had lived constantly with the black dog for about 25 years. After years of saying no to medication I finally succumbed and it has changed my life so much for the better.

WHAT DO I WANT TO ACHIEVE?

“..to be the best version of me..” as KR suggested. And do the things I want to do now, not put them off until never. The clock is ticking, but right now I’m lucky enough to be fit & healthy so need to make the most of it while I can. One criteria for becoming a black sheep is getting out of your comfort zone and running does that to me – I never find it easy, and the longer I run for the harder it gets, so I want to find out how far I can go.

WHAT CHANGES AM I MAKING?

I want to become 'a runner', and I want to do Ultras. Have done marathons, FD, Paras 10, 5ks, 10ks etc etc but still don’t think of myself as a runner - I’m just blagging it. I want to understand what I am doing and be a bit more scientific (but only a bit) in terms of prep, nutrition, hydration, navigation, training, pace times etc. May even buy some new, proper, kit. I am also binning ‘Load bearing’ and just going CF now. I know that’s not very hardcore but I’m a “bit scrawny” according to my wife and lugging a huge weight around (my Bergen not my wife) is killing my back.

MY PLAN FOR 2018 AND BEYOND.

Train like a b*****d: Running, conditioning, Pilates. at least 1000 miles on trails. To return to the Woodhouse and actually finish it (managed to do 20 miles on it last time and still DNF…..work that one out! clue – I did go past trig 642 twice..)
To do the Suffolk Coastal Ultra in October
To do the Pilgrims Way Ultra (both days) in Feb 2019

MY PERSONAL PROMISE.

Just that I will get to the start line of these races, that's difficult enough. And then see what happens after that.