Somehow, there’s been time this weekend to write up blogs on the past two month’s races, where there has not been time before.
Hope you enjoy travelling to the past, to the Summer, when it was still warm and sunny and we had ice-cream every day.
You can start with June, move into July, before relaxing all through August. Enjoy it while it lasts, Autumn approaches..
Running for me is mostly a solitary game. I like waking up on a Sunday morning, having a lazy long lie, a lazy breakfast and a lazy jog along the Parkland Walk near my house. This year has marked a bit of a departure for me as a runner: now I’m regularly involving other people in my running, travelling with me/letting me visit for runs, having friends running alongside me and even blogging about my escapades in a public forum.
As I have shared, this year has also been quite a hard one on my physical and mental health, and I wanted to write a post to thank my support team, who’ve got me through and kept me on track in my resolution and in my life:
David and Fran, my housemates, have been both friends and family to me since I moved in with them last year. Secretly inspiring me with their commitment to badminton, I feel guilty if I haven’t been for a run in a while. As well as countless meals, drinks, heart-to-hearts, belly-laughs and good times.
The next members of my London family are my wonderful work friends, Catherine and Lisa,
These girls are my Monday to Friday, 9 to 5pm, and give me a whole lot more time besides. I am so lucky to have found a job I enjoy, with colleagues I can call good friends. Many an encouraging word and text have gone between us three, thanks girls!
Claire and Sarah are a mix of old and new friends in one, and together we’ve gotten through more bags of crisps and white wine than is entirely healthy. They’ve cooked me more hot dinners than I can shake a salt-shaker at and are great at late night shift chat- every girl needs a friend on night shift to call sometimes.
This lady is technically not London family, but Amanda has been the patient recipient of many a phonecall and has an incredible make-up collection to borrow from. And she’s aka. Geraldine.
Another hybrid, dear Lydia has been housemate and friend to me over many a year. She also cooks me hot dinners. There’s a theme here. We’ve been up, we’ve been down; we’ve been around and about; Scotland, England; north, south and saaf. Long may it continue.
So, London family, take a bow and take it from me- I couldn’t have done it without y’all.
I can hardly believe that I am two-thirds of the way through my races in different places, and I’m delighted to say I’ve made 7 of 8 races! I’ve been up and down, well and unwell, motivated and fed up, into it and over it so many times over the year, but very happy to have made it this far- mostly intact.
Unfortunately I missed my May race, too much madness and sadness that month to get to Berlin for the big 25km race. I’d say I was sorry to miss it, but I was definitely not up to running that far that weekend! However, since than I’ve run in June, July and August and today I booked my place in the Prague Metro 10k race for September.
So it’s back to jogging and blogging for me, happy reading peeps.
Another race run, in the midnight sun! More to follow soon… with love from Reykjavik xx
So things have been a bit quiet here of late, and as the title suggests, have been a bit stationary as well. Since March both my physical and mental health have taken a bashing and have impacted on my running and resolution.
My health has been a little touch and go for a frustratingly long time- I have a chronic sore throat and the doctors can’t work out what’s causing it. I’ve had tonsillitis, laryngitis, pharyngitis, gum abscesses and chest infections; I’ve had cameras down my nose, down my throat, down into my stomach; I’ve had antibiotics, anti-virals, anti-fungals, anti-emetics and antacids.
The upshot is that sometimes I can’t run due to another infection and this April it meant missing my race in Slovakia (and I have another appointment with another doctor in June to try and make sense of my throat..) However, I did complete the Electric Run at the end of the month, so I’m technically still on track for a race a month.
Alongside my ongoing physical mystery, I’ve had a recurrence of depression and not been able to talk myself into a healthy jog. Depression is a tricky thing- as I know running helps my mood, and I know not running frustrates me, but when I’m feeling down it’s hard to convince myself that getting my trainers and running in the rain will help. The last few weeks have been particularly difficult and I had to drop out of my race in Berlin- I changed my flights and had a lovely weekend at home in Scotland with my family instead, which made me very happy.
With a combination of medication, talking therapy, great supportive friends and a little determination I hope to get back out on the trail soon and am looking forward to my next big running adventure to Iceland in June!
Morning runners, from the Continent! I’m in the Netherlands this weekend, for Loop den Hagen- but not before a day of sightseeing and people-watching in Amsterdam, fuelled by decaf lattes and blue sky sunshine.
I’ll be writing more about March madness later, but why not have a read about last month’s adventures, here – tot ziens!
Leaving London, take two!
The UK is in the midst of the worst Winter in a generation. Homes flooded, roads washed away, power outages.. and yesterday a new storm front hit and caused chaos across the south.
Unfortunately for me that meant a cancelled flight to France and missing my race in Nice. And leaving my friend Penny alone on the Cote d’Azur, as she managed to get a flight out ahead of my cancellation.
However, I’ve got 12 races to run this year, and I’m not losing this resolution at the second hurdle! So after hours of angry easyjet phonecalls, internet searches and reorganisation, I am now heading to Bournemouth, on the south coast of England, and a 10mile race tomorrow morning.
I’ll let you know how I get on soon, as well as bringing you a special report from Penny, who is holding her own and racing alone tomorrow too- good luck to us both!
I kicked off my new year’s resolution by entering the Spiritløpet in Stavanger. Truth be told, I was pretty nervous- this was my first race since my injury and also the first time I’d travelled somewhere abroad completely alone.
Of course, I needn’t have worried and I had a great time in beautiful Norway…
I’ve updated my Calendar page with a new easy-to-read planner and map, so you can see where I’ll be and when.
Take a closer look here
In 2013 I made a resolution to raise some money for one of my favourite charities, Mind– the mental health charity.
I raised a staggering £1358.00 for Mind, through my JustGiving site and was in…
RUNNING RACES, IN DIFFERENT PLACES 