Hello! Thanks for taking a look at what I hope will be the first of many blog posts! As good a place to start as any – who am I and what’s this all about? Well, I’m Matt Bevan, a 32-year-old reformed heavy drinker/smoker/unfit binge eater turned Ultra Marathon runner. I’ll fill you in on the details of that particular part of the journey in another post as today I wanted to focus on a couple of things. 1) What is an Ultra Marathon? and 2) Why am I writing this blog?
An Ultra Marathon is, quite simply, a foot race that is any distance beyond the traditional marathon distance of 26.2 miles. The beauty of these types of events is the varied terrain you cover, the stunning places you run in and around and, most importantly for me, the unrivalled physical and mental challenge they present.
This year, I’m taking part in the ‘Grand Slam’ of UK Ultra Marathon Running. These are four 100 mile races organised by the superb Centurion Running, starting with the Thames Path 100 in May, followed by the South Downs 100 in June, the North Downs 100 in August and the Winter 100 (starting near Reading) in October. This is by far the biggest challenge I’ve set myself so far and I’m determined to succeed.
I’m delighted that the Holbrook Club have agreed to support me during the year, it really will be massive help. Over the next few months I’ll be blogging about my training and nutrition strategies and I hope through these posts, I’ll be able to inspire some of you to slip on some running shoes and to get out for a run! If you’ve got any questions running related (or otherwise!) then you can grab me either on Twitter (@Ultrabevo) or email me Ultrabevo@gmail.com and I’ll answer the best questions via the blog.
Until next time Horsham…