FOMO? Oh No!

So we are in the month of February (just) and all my running buddies are clocking up the miles, the long mile runs are getting longer and I'm in a reflective mood thinking about last year when that was me and I can't help wonder if I'm suffering a little bit of Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)? 

But as my "long" run of 10 miles loomed yesterday and the snow, sleet, rain and wind battered my window I decided that NO, there was definitely no FOMO. There was even some bargaining with myself that, as next a half marathon was not until May my run could even be shorter, as there was no 'real' reason to run 10 miles!! 

The miles ticked by, the weather was still deciding between snow, rain, sleet or all three and then the turning point loomed on my run, I could either turn for home (with 7 miles in the bank) or carry on and get the 10 ticked off... Being type A,  already being wet and cold, I thought how bad could it be!! 

10miles later, with the help of a great audiobook the 8th instalment of the Peter Grant series and quite smug of my multitasking by ticking another book of my 20 books in 2020 challenge,  I was back shivering at my front door dripping all over the mat and looking forward to a hot, steamy shower and a nice cup of tea! 

Finally, I thought it would be a good opportunity to update on how my Dad is doing for anyone who has either followed by rambling for the last year or had the pleasure (cough) of running with me in the last couple of yeats will have known that my dad was diagnosed by with Bowel Cancer in late 2018. He went through very tortuous treatment with enduring both radiation and chemotherapy, which was why I decided to run Edinburgh marathon last year to help fundraise for Bowel Cancer UK. 

His initial scans after the treatment were encouraging and he was put on a watchful waiting list; this means scans every 3 months to ensure that cancer remained in remission. 18 months on Dad is star patient, he remains cancer free and back to his usual fit, healthy and of course annoying self and we would not want him any other way!! 

Both him and mum are looking forward to the weather picking up a little so they can get back in the van and touring around the UK and Europe chasing the better weather. 

Thanks for turning in to my ramblings

Me a PB surely not!

My last race of the season was in November and I got a PB to boot, the race was the Derby 10 mile. The other 10 mile races I have done are; Flying Fox 10 which is a beast and very hilly and Castle Donnington which was around the race track which was also decidedly lumpy in places, so I was looking forward to a ‘nice’ flat race for a change.

Training had gone well,  with being back at home there is a new morning routine as my familiar running routes are on the doorstep and  the need to run on the treadmill has gone. But with coming home my normal once a week treadmill interval session had ceased; before you start yes I know these could now be run outside….but I can’t find the motivation to do this outside at the minute.

November in the UK was a decidedly wet with record rainfall fell during the month which saw record floods across many parts of the UK rain, which included Derby!  But the Derby race director and team in the week leading up kept everyone up today with what was going on via email/Facebook about the state of the race route and they were confident that the race would run, but the route may need to be tweaked.

The alterations needed to ensure we kept out of the floods meant that course it was going to be rather dull; a couple of out and backs with a loop through a park or two. Although it can be quite dull at times out and back the nice thing about it is that you have an opportunity to see friends which does help to take your mind off things a little. 

The miles were ticking by nicely and the legs were feeling fresh and they had plenty of miles in them, I kept a healthy pace of around 8 min miling, on the first out and back it was an opportunity to look out for Sean and it was great to see him just around the 2 hour pacer, which I knew he would be been pleased with. 

We pushed on through the park and out along the dual carriageway which was the second of the out and backs and the front runners coming back towards us. There was no clear indication of where the turnaround was and all I could see ahead of me was runners so there was only one thing for it, to keep pushing on.  

When we did finally hit the turn around point there was a cheeky downhill, under the dual carriageway u-turn and back up the cheeky little hill before heading off back down the road.  This was my next opportunity to look out for Sean, which help massively to distract me and kept pushing me on, then he came in to sight and he was now in front of the 2 hour pacer which was brilliant, with shouts of encouragement and high five I pushed on the to the finish.

Having worked out the maths, I needed to keep going at this pace or a little quicker to get a 80 minute finish time.  The legs were definitely feeling tired now but each time I passed someone it felt like I gain a little more energy and it was the last corner just before another sneaky little hill and the finish line came into sight…my finish time 80:47 seconds.....BOOM…a PB by around 2 minutes 💥 and Sean finished his run in 1:49 well under the unofficial target of 2 hours 👍. 

What a great way to finish off the year!! 

Running around Bilbao city at night!

As promised here is my recap on the Bilbao half marathon, this will be my 2nd night time half marathon, the last one was 3 years ago in Las Vegas.  Most would think that running down the Vegas strip with no traffic would be amazing but I was in my "I don’t like running funk" so it was all a little bit meh which was not helped with me being ill at the end of it.

Anyhow....Sean found night time half marathon and flights were only a couple of hours, so we signed up and hoped for good weather, surely in Spain, the rain stays mainly on the plane right…

Following our arrival on Friday evening, on Saturday we found ourselves exploring this quaint City as we used Sean's soon to be patented "Google-Zen-maps" for the Race Expo and scoped out the race start…no it's over here or is it here.  Once we finally found the start area and got it locked in for later we headed off for a nice cosy Italian to help fuel us for the evenings run and replenish us from this morning's roam around the city and 13,000 steps!!!

Not necessarily the right preparation for a half marathon, but it was done, so we meandered our way back to the Airbnb for a quick relax, with the dark skies looking very foreboding.  As we dressed for the race and made the decision to catch the tube to the race start to save our legs and stay out of the rain for as much as possible, we emerged from the tube in a haze of deep heat to the race start area which was heaving and bumping out Queen way up to 11!

After a long queue in the short loo line, we said our goodbyes and headed off to our race starting pens. The rain had been coming down in fits and starts although, it seems to stop just before we headed off, which I hope would be the case for the rest of the race. They released the fireworks and flames over the starting arch we were off. I wasn't sure what my race strategy was going to be, the GNR had gone better than expected and felt that a sub 2 again would be on the cards again Then the first mile clicked by 8 min🤔 a little quick, slow down or the wheels may come off.

As we ran through the city streets my pace did settle down for the next couple of miles and it was lovely to see people out cheering us onwards and upwards with Vamos and rapido, the City looked very different at night and now in the rain, we pressed on. 

Only now as I'm reflecting on my pace and race, it's clear that after halfway I sped up considerably, I don’t remember it being a conscious effort on my part but quite clearly, from the splits I had decided enough was enough and let's get this over with.  However, there was the realisation at around 11 miles that I might be able to actually break 1:50 for a half which has been unheard of in the last 4 years!! Although, as the bleep on my watch signalled 13 miles,  then 13.10 miles the finish was not in sight and then as I rounded a corner I could see the finish and the clock said 1:51:47 my official finish time.

But its raining!

So how do you start writing a blog post…for me it's about having something to write about, quite often during a run a subject heading pops into my head or an interesting question (dependant on your viewpoint) creeps into my brain.  During the run the foundations of my blog take shape, then it gets beaten into submission and we end up with a blog post. 

Why am I  telling you this, well you may have noticed that there was no blog post in October; I was running and even ran my fastest half marathon in quite some time in Bilbao so why no blog?  Well there were a number of things but the biggest was the uncertainty of my previous contract; I won't bore you with the details but there were 3 weeks of uncertainty and a lot of my free-thinking time was taken up by all that noise. 

Anyway we are through it all now, currently looking for my next contract and wondering where I will end up next, which means there is plenty of time to think, run and write....which leads me to the subject line of this actual blog.

Imagine if you can, you are rudely awoken at 4am in the morning with the rain bashing against the window and it sounds like it's settled in for the duration, your training plan says 10 miles and your alarm set for 5:30…joy! You drift off back to broken sleep periodically you wake up and hear the rain, check your watch and start to contemplate your life choices…..

Well that was me last Thursday morning, as my alarm went off at 5:30am I lay there thinking I have to run BUT IT'S RAINING, and so the bargaining started between brain and body;

• Body: why not go later it may stop raining later,
• Brain: quickly checks the weather, there is a yellow weather warning for your area, no it isn't going anyway
• Body: you could go tomorrow  
• Brain ou have made plans to go out with Liz before you head of to Wales for a girls weekend
• Body: you could do 5 now and 5 later 
• Brain: great get wet twice…genius 
• Body: you could not do it 
• Brain: it's on my plan what heresy is this
• Brain:  get up buttercup and put on your big girl pants it is only rain, you won’t melt or shrink! 

Needless to say I did get up and ran 9.50miles  in 1:26 in the end so 95% of my plan was completed, oh and the rain stopped around 1:10 in my run, so I should have gone later!!!

Postscript, its Monday and a very similar conversation happened this morning, this time I did delay my run till around 12:00.  The sky had been clearing from the rain earlier, it was looking windy but there was some sun earlier! First, 4.5 of my 6-mile run was dry and breezy..then it happened a few spots, to begin with, and just before I was into my last mile the heavens opened and I was soaked through the skin....and all I could hear was some faint giggling. 

Any excuse to shop

This week it is clear that the weather has definitely turned autumnal and someone is arsing around with thermostat; one minute it's hat, gloves and long tights weather and next it's shorts and t-shirt weather again.  

One thing is for certain the wind and rain is back! I heard the other day that one town in England had a right down pour and had as much rain in 12hrs than they would have expected in the whole month! From one extreme to the other; driest September since records began and now wettest so far.....

The best thing about the change in the weather is that we get to buy new running kit, which helps us both stay warm and stay safe. I never need

an excuse to buy running kit and the new seasons kit helps to fuel my addiction.

Social media was all a buzz the other week with the launch of the Aldi kit and I for one was waiting at the door at 8am the other Thursday. Armed with base layers, compression tops, black socks and flashing lights I made my way to the till.  My next biggest challenge was where on earth was I going to put it all, perhaps it is time to sort out my running draws, switch over my summer running kit to my autumn/ winter kit. Gone are the shorts and vest tops and in come the long sleeve tops, 3/4 tights and full length tights, gloves and buffs are the new standard.

As well as an opportunity to shop and buy new kit, here are my other reasons to like autumn/winter running:- 

• Running in the cold/wet and dark makes you feel hard core 

• How amazing you hot shower/ bath feels after your run 

• Cozying up on the sofa after your long run feels more justified 

• The natural rosy glow you get after your chilly run

• Running in the snow makes you feel especially hard core

My parting shot is that no matter what the weather; red hot or pouring with rain, it is definitely getting darker so make sure you can been seen. The best quote I heard the other day was "your never heard of a Christmas tree getting run over" well they do have a point. 

So remember be bright and be seen

South Cheshire 20 – Personal Best 3:00:26

Short report for this on I am afraid as it has taken to me too long again to update my blog!

The weather was awful actually it was bloody awful, it was a week after the London Marathon, which again had a lovely running weather and then for the following week it did nothing but rain . In a way it meant that all my training in preparation had been in the cold and wet so I was use to it.  But on the morning of the run it seem to be windier and colder than it had been in ages!

I decided that I was going to dress for the occasion, long tights, long sleeve top, Potters Trotters top and jacket  and I was lovely and toasty in the car on the way up there. Saw Sharon as I turned into the sports centre and she was wearing 3/4 and a short sleeve top, all I could think was “boy she was MAD” and then I saw that Laura Thompson from Trentham was wearing a crop top and shorts eeek!!!

The field was very small only 95 ish runners, I ran with Sharon for a little while but by mile 3 she was heading off into the distance.   I could see her in the distance for the 1st 8 ish miles and then the route got twisty and turning and I lost her until the finish.  For a large amount of the race I was running on my own with NO MP3!! at 1st I thought that I would really struggle, as I normally run with Music or an audio book, however I found that it was fine and didn’t get bored!  

All I wanted to achieve was a better result than Stafford, which was a disaster! I just wanted to put it behind me and move one, for the last mile I was at 2:52 and thought if I knuckled down I would make sub 3:00  . However after spending the last 2:52 minutes been battered by wind and rain, I didn’t;t have it in me, especially when they evil  race organisers had a twist in the tail….the finish was passed the sports centre sand then across the field .  I finished in 3:00:26 so although it wasn’t sub 3 hours it was still miles and minutes better than Stafford.

Don’t tell anyone, but I was actually enjoying the race, I am sure that I would be enjoyed it more if the weather was slightly better, but it gave me a much needed confidence boost and to top it off I WON a 1st in my age category which was a real shock and a very nice surprise.

The other nice surprise was that I got 50 points for the race, YIPPEE