I recently entered the Shropshire Shufflers’ Severn Bridges 10k in Shrewsbury (after a little bit of a kerfuffle where it wouldn’t accept my affiliated club name) and ran with Gaz to celebrate his birthday. Never expected Gaz to choose a 10k to as a birthday celebration and yet here we are; I like to think of it as my good influence as a long time runner 😎

Katie, at lifeofamissfit, has some good tips for getting into running if you ever feel equally inspired by my awesomeness (hahahaha). Don’t ask me for tips, I haven’t figured it out myself yet.

Anyway – the 10k. The weather forecast on the day was optimistic – wet first thing but drying out in time for the race start – but it ended up being absolutely awful; I think it might have been the wettest race I’ve ever done, definitely the wettest 10k (and I’ve done a few). There were parts of the course where water was flowing down the roads and paths like a river and puddles so deep they were shin-level. Not a single inch of me was dry by the finish and I think it shows in my face in this photo taken near the end. 😂

Still, weather woes aside, it was a fun course and I’d like to do it again.

Before that though… the next race I have my sights set on is Newport Marathon. If I can complete that in April 2025, that will be a marathon completed in England, Scotland and Wales and one step closer to my “marathon in every major UK city” 40TBIF goal. Although I still haven’t actually defined what a “major city” is, and what to do if one of these so-called major cities doesn’t have a marathon; maybe I should do that first. 🤔

I have to confess that I’ve never been much interested in watching sports. Odd perhaps, for someone who participates and competes in three separate disciplines, but – aside from catching the odd snippet of a big Euros game or highlights of the Olympics shared on social media – watching other people ‘play’ has just never… read full entry »

Last week I successfully climbed Scafell Pike, England’s highest peak, as part of item 3 on my 40 things before I’m forty challenge. I’ve been fascinated with the idea of climbing mountains since I saw a talk by Ed Viesturs (first American to climb all 14 of the “eight-thousander” mountains, and the 5th person to… read full entry »

I travelled to Turin, Italy for WordCamp Europe 2024 with Gaz last month. This was the first time we’d spent any meaningful amount of time together since our separation – not counting hourly taekwon-do lessons – and so I thought was going to be interesting. Turns out it was fairly uneventful, insomuch that it was… read full entry »

Got “recognised” by two different people on reddit yesterday as “that blogger” and god, if it hasn’t made me miss the olden days of blogging. Write any old crap that comes to mind, publish, receive immediate feedback and support from peers and friends. Do it all again a few days later. I’m not sure at… read full entry »

It is now approximately 2.5 months since Gaz and I mutually agreed our relationship was no longer viable as it was, and just over a month since he moved out. I found the first few days after he left sweet AF. Could have crowned me the Queen of Smugdom as I woke up easy breezy,… read full entry »

Just over a year ago today I blogged that a change is as good as a rest as I confirmed that I’d be taking on a part time role with a local agency in addition to running my own business. My logic felt sound: supplementing my own income while I expanded Ultimately Better so that… read full entry »

In my previous post, in which I announced the separation from my husband and likely impending doom of trying to buy him out of the mortgage, I joked that I might have to do Project £20k again. I probably shouldn’t have tempted fate, because as it turns out that this is the number that Gaz… read full entry »

Long term readers (are there any other type now? pretty sure I don’t get any new ones these days 😂) may recall that in 2014 after splitting from my ex – the children’s father – I launched “project £20k” to raise funds to buy my ex out of our joint mortgage. Well, as it turns… read full entry »