Steve Chilton's Blog: Goodreads Author's Blog, page 5

Marathon du Mont Blanc 2022

I was watching a replay of the stream of coverage of the 2022 Marathon du Mont Blanc the other day and was struck by two things: how well a couple of Africans performed and how the race (ie the podium positions) changed throughout the 42km event. The event has over 2500m of height gain, is based in Chamonix, and is now part of the Golden Trail World Series.

Photo: Golden Trail Series

The race was eventually won by Jonathan Albon (centre, UK), from David Magnini (left, Italy) and Ruy Ueda (...

MapMen – on running and maps

My running and life as a cartographer are briefly highlighted in an article recently published in The Fellrunner. It was also interesting to compare (and contrast) both those aspects of my life with the similar/differing pathways of a fellow running cartographer. Andy Ford is a far better (fell) runner than I ever was, but I do think I may have taught him a thing about cartography and data visualization. [Awaits rebuff on that idea from Andy]

The full 4-page article can be read here [PDF ...

New women’s Rivington Pike course record after 35 years

A description of the early Rivington Pike races (in the late 1880s) suggested that: “tricks of all descriptions were played on the runners in the old days, and that it was impossible to win unless ‘well in’ with the Horwich people.” I have no idea whether Sarah McCormack is ‘well in’ with said Horwich people, but she certainly had no such problems when winning the Rivington Pike fell race this Easter.

Photo: Victoria Wilkinson

She floated over the 5.5km in a new course record of 19-11, beat...

Surprises at the National Cross Country Champs at Parly Hill

Watching the National Cross Country Champs at Parly Hill yesterday I was struck by something. That was the identities of two runners in the top 10 in the men’s race. This was the crowning race of the cross-country season, on a tough and muddy course at the ‘home of cross country’. Yet in 3rd place was an Olympic Triathlete and in 7th a leading fell runner. They were both running on surfaces that you might not expect them to be on, and in a race that you might not expect to be in their respec...

Ten running books read in 2021

I like a good running book. These are the ten best books on (or around) running that I read last year (but which were not necessarily published in 2021). These are my reviews from my Good Reads pages. Four 5*, five 4* and one 3* this year. Despite working on my fifth manuscript all year long, I got some good reading in – always the best alternative to writing when you need it.

A Quarter Glass of Milk: The rawness of grief and the power of the mountains – Moire O’Sullivan (O’Brien Press, M...

Blog 2021: most visited pages and most downloaded content

It is time to review the blog after another weird year. I did fewer blog posts over the year, less than two per month.Two other stats: referals came from Facebook at a 7:1 ratio over Twitter (compared to 5:1 last year). This surprised me, except that Twitter is one account, whereas I can post notifications in a number of FB Groups). Visitors came from 70 different countries, with USA and Ireland once again being distant second and third places behind the UK.

MOST VISITED PAGES

The third mo...

2021 data for BGR completions

Bob Wightman has released the figures for Bob Graham Round (BGR) registrations, completions, male/female split, direction of travel, etc. for 2021, which as always make interesting reading, and that I have commented on before. [eg https://itsahill.wordpress.com/2020/01/08/bgr-completions-2019-update/]

I have updated my spreadsheet, and the graphs of several aspects of the data, which are illustrated below with a couple of comments on each.

This first graph shows the data just for completio...

Some thoughts on physiological testing of athletes

A three-page piece I wrote recently about physiological testing of athletes is now available for download [as PDF]. It explains why I ended up not getting an athlete in for lab testing.

Go to: https://itsahill.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/physiolarticle.pdf

Also available for download (as two PDFs) is a two-part profile of fell running icon Gavin Bland from me that appeared in two issues of the Fellrunner magazine in 2021. Go to my CV page for the link to those.

Gavin Bland was ...

Books are ideal presents

Books make ideal presents, and all four of my books are available from good book suppliers (in person or online), including Sam Read (Grasmere), Fred’s of Ambleside, Bookends (Keswick) and Pete Bland Sports (Kendal).

Signed copies: As well as that I can offer signed copies of the paperback of ‘All or nothing at all: the life of Billy Bland’, despatched to anywhere in the UK for just £9 (see below for purchase details).

The following are some quotes from the reviews of each one of the ...

Six running/sport book reviews

Relentless: Secrets of the Sporting Elite
by Alistair Brownlee 5*

Alistair Brownlee (and his named co-author) have compiled a very interesting account of what drives people at the top of their sport, and all the hard work they have to put in. He has used his priviledged position to interview many top sports people, some of whom may be something of a surprise. The two most interesting chapters for me were on Kilian Jornet (and how he has balanced his love of different sports and life itself...