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 ๐
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. ๐
Me, questioning my life choices up until this point
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. ๐ค
I recently started reading 80/20 Running by Matt Fitzgerald. The general gist of the book (so far) is that most people too fast in their training runs, and should slow down: 80% of training runs should be done at a low intensity level. At the same time, I’ve been reading more and more about zone… read full entry »
This is the next post in a series I started after realising recently that my apathy and laziness was causing weight gain and a relapse of my more severe PMDD symptoms. You can read the rest of the posts here, from oldest to newest: Lockdown Weight Woes Lockdown Goals: Week 1 check in Lockdown Goals:… read full entry »
As it’s a local race, and Shrewsbury Half Marathon was a personal best setter for me in 2018 (even with its hills!) I felt obliged to enter this year’s race as soon as entries were opened. Despite promising myself I’d remain marathon fit after completing Edinburgh marathon back in May, I had let my long… read full entry »
I currently have several posts in the works about specific aspects of my training — my macro counting, my latest runs, my weights progress — but I don’t quite have enough time or energy to give each their due, and so have fixed that by writing nothing. D’oh. To prevent an extended writers block I’ve… read full entry »
I first tried to take part in Juneathon in 2015, and managed to just about drag myself to day 7 before pitifully failing and never mentioning it again. (You can see how it went over on my other blog, but it’s not inspiring.) Of course, I’m a tad more active these days, so it seemed… read full entry »
If you’d have asked me this time last year whether I’d ever be able to run a marathon, I’d have probably laughed in your face. Not because I didn’t think I was potentially capable of running 26.2 miles, but because I knew that to do that sort of distance I’d have to train, and my… read full entry »
I run in barefoot shoes. Vivobarefoot, to be precise. Now, to describe a shoe as “barefoot” seems somewhat of an oxymoron, but barefoot shoes — shoes with a flexible, minimal sole with generally a zero drop between the heel and toe — are designed to give you that barefoot feeling but with added protection for… read full entry »
I am now about 2 weeks out from Edinburgh Marathon, with my last long run programmed for this weekend (20 friggin’ miles?!). I’m dreading this last long one, although I’m not sure why. As usual, I have full support of my running club who’re pacing me around different segments. Despite not having run the marathon… read full entry »
I’m less than 4 weeks out from Edinburgh and I’m currently sitting here having a bit of a mini breakdown. I knew that training for a marathon — and doing so while working, keeping on top of my strength goals, raising kids, volunteering etc — would be hard. I knew it would take up lots… read full entry »