I've always dreamed of photographing a sports event but every race that I've attended, I competed in them.

In April this year, I got invited by Catarina, to Peneda-Gerês National Park in north Portugal to watch and support her compete in a multi-stage Trail Running event (PGTA) organised by Carlos Sa over the course of 100 miles in five days. 

The first day was pretty uneventful as I got bundled together in the spouses/partners/family group who were a little more senior non-competitors. We were brought to watch the start of the race and it felt really weird not to be at the start line with adrenaline rushing through my veins whilst waiting for the race to begin. 

Day 2 got better as we managed to walk along certain parts of the race where we got to see our loved ones running (suffering). I decided to photograph the participants as they ran past our group. The feedback I received from the few photos I took were quite supportive and Catarina prodded me to ask the event organiser if I could tag along the official photographers for the remaining of the event. To my surprise, they okayed it and right there and then, I managed to unofficially document the event that brought so much amazing memories and became part of the PGTA family!