John D Burns

Marathon Men

September 18, 2013johndburns 10

Now this is going to hurt. I think you can say, with some certainty, that if you sent off from the little seaside [...]

September 15, 2013John D Burns 16

As I wake from the cocoon of my sleeping bag, the first thing I do is feel my legs. Sure enough, they remember [...]

August 26, 2013johndburns 6

Over recent months I’ve taken to the road heading about the Highlands on my road bike. Here’s one of my favourite runs from [...]

August 23, 2013John D Burns 24

The next thing I know I’m sprawled on my back in the heather. A few moments ago, or so it seems, I was [...]

August 12, 2013johndburns 2

Something is coming towards me through the mist, I can see the figure of a man, easily nine feet high, striding in my [...]

There’s only one thought in my head now, “Keep pedalling!” I know they are after me. My legs screaming and my backside feels [...]

There is magic here. It’s in the way the wind whispers in the trees, it’s in the gnarled trunks of the old woodland, [...]

July 22, 2013John D Burns 4

If you are in the Scottish hills one winter’s day and you see a Victorian climber step cutting his way up an ice [...]

July 9, 2013John D Burns 7

I’m getting soft, I realise, as I stand looking at the icy waters and contemplating the idea that I may actually have to [...]

June 12, 2013John D Burns 2

Almost 90 years ago George Mallory, Britain’s leading climber, and Sandy Irvine, a young powerful oarsman, vanished into the mist close to the [...]