About

Welcome to The Peaky Finder

And a small congratulations for finding the site. The Peaky Finder does not have an Instagram page, it is not advertised on Facebook and I do not pay for Google ads, or whatever it is that I should be doing. In fact, this website isn’t advertised anywhere. I haven’t even told any of my friends and family about it. So, if you’ve found these pages, than you’ve do so organically.

In which case, we must share similar interests, and therefore we are now friends. Welcome!

I’m not an influencer. I’m not here to ask you to “come on a long run with me” (ugh!). I’m not going to show you how you should change your running form, and I’m not going to tell you to load up on beetroot juice before your big race. I’m not going to try and sell you generic training plans that you could write yourself and I’m not going to ask you to buy me a coffee “to keep the content coming” (double ugh!).

So, “what am I doing here”, I hear you ask. Well, that’s a very good question.

I am a middle-of-the-pack road runner, who enjoys an occasional day out in the hills or mountains, whether that be running or hiking. My road times would be considered modest to some, amazing to others. Running is so relative and we all, me included, get so hung up on times and what we are running compared to others that we often forget why we started running in the first place. I have been chasing times for years now, smashing out interval session after interval session, trying to hit my own, personal running goals and, quite frankly, I am getting a bit bored of it all.

“Once I’ve achieved my time-based running goals, I’ll start to run for fun rather than for times.”

Since my early days of running, those goals have been to run a sub-20 minute 5km, a sub-40 minute 10km and a sub-90 minute half marathon. Upon speaking to a coach once (I purchased a very reasonably priced plan from them), they suggested that, given my history of training and trajectory, I “could definitely go sub-19” for a 5km. And besides, if you’re running a sub-40 minute 10km, then you’re likely running a lot faster than 20 minutes for half the distance. So my 5km goal changed to sub-19. The only one of those that I have achieved to date is the sub-90 minute half. I’m sat at around 19:30 for 5km, and around 40:30 for 10km. Despite the fact that everyone else seems to be wearing them, I refuse to purchase a set of carbon-plated super shoes to help me over the line. I set out these goals before Vaporfly’s were a thing, and I’m determined to achieve them without using a pair. I’m not against them, and will likely own a pair at some point, but not before I’ve achieved all three of the above targets.

It goes without saying, that regardless of times, pace, size, shape and desired running surface, you are more than welcome here.

I have a slight obsession (my girlfriend, Rebecca, would say that’s it’s probably more than a slight obsession) with hills and mountains. Some time ago, I set myself the goal of summiting all mountains in England. An investigation followed into what, exactly, a mountain is and it was discovered that there are 192 six hundred metre mountains (Simms) in England. Living in the Midlands, summiting them all is actually quite a logistical challenge. As of July 2024, I have summited 66, and the next-nearest to where I live is now a 3+ hour drive away.

Anyway, mountains, love them!

As boredom with chasing times on the road sets in; choosing flatter and quieter races to improve PB chances, I’ve decided to combine my love for running with my love for the trails. Eureka! The thought process started with committing to some trail races, and potentially even some fell races. Running in the hills and mountains isn’t new to me, but racing around them is. However, there’s been an itch lingering for some time now that I’d love to have a little scratch at.

During a recent anniversary hiking trip to the Lake District, I verbalised the idea of a Bob Graham Round attempt to Rebecca. Now, if you’ve not heard of the Bob Graham Round, have a search around the pages on this site, or give it a Google. It’s epic. 66 miles, 8,000m+ of elevation, to be completed within 24 hours. I am currently some way off from the fitness and endurance required to complete such an undertaking, but we all start from somewhere, right? I remember a time when I couldn’t run for three minutes without taking a walk to catch my breath, and now I’m hiking around the Lakes for 8 hours at a time and completing 5-hour trail runs around the Peak District. I believe that anything is possible with the right level of training. The response that I got back from my suggestion was more positive than I was expecting. The only stipulation was that I don’t die in the process. I assured her that death wasn’t a part of my plans and set about dreaming of the ceremonious setting off from Keswick’s Moot Hall.

She asked if I planned to document my journey in some way, from half marathon road runner (I’ve still yet to run a marathon) to mountain ultra runner. I love writing and spent my teenage years wanting to be a journalist, albeit a football one. In the end, given the level of competition in journalism, I opted for engineering instead, but I have had several blogs over the years to keep my writing brain switched on. So, I thought, what better way of documenting my journey than writing a blog about it.

And so The Peaky Finder was born.

This explains why there is no social media, no advertisements and no funding requests for the site. This is about me and my journey. If no one finds this site, and no one reads these pages, fine. This is for me to look back on and see where I came from and how I’ve got to where I am today, wherever ‘today’ ends up. If you have found your way here, expect more than just running, more than just trails. There will still be some road running, as I continue on my quest for the aforementioned race goals, and there will be plenty of hiking too, as I continue to tick off the Simms.