Much ado about nothing

Well I haven't blogged in a while mainly because there has nothing really to report!  But on reflection in 4 months I have run 6 races, entered 2 more half marathons,1 10miler around Donnington Park 1 5k in Dublin (running for bling!)

Maddog 10k, the 1st race of the year.  It is a great race early in February so the weather can be rough! And this year was no exception; basically we ran in to a head wind for the 1st 2.75 miles then you turned and run back with the wind behind you for the last 2 miles.  You can see from my mile splits the effect the wind had (8:30, 8:37, 9:14, 8:23, 7:51, 7:18)

Angelesey Half, my first race of many races which are going to take me outside of England (I know that this is a bit of a stretch, but we call it artistic license :) ) I had no plan going in to this race other than enjoy it.  I was that laid back about the race as I was still in the line for the Loo as the gun went off!  I took my time and jumped on to the back of the field and just ran the race steady, it was quite night nice picking people off as you through the field.  The race was very scenic you start on the world famous Menai Suspension Bridge and then along the coastal road in to Beaumaris Castyle and beyond, then a switch back and back along the coast road and finish in the town which means you get to see the dragon twice!!

Stafford Half, I hadn't planned on running Stafford Half, I haven't run it for a couple of year now, not really sure why as it is a great race which starts and finishes in the town centre and you had great support, but I kinda feel

been there and done that.  But I had a couple of friends who were running it as part of team Lucas (in memory of a very brave little boy call Lucas Williams, who was taken too soon)  so I had agreed to run with them and support them on the way round.  It was Sarah's first ever half marathon and was my pleasure (as her coach) to run with her and make sure she had everything she needed.  I had the most fun not only supporting Sarah but everyone who was in my orbit was getting some much needed Coach K help!

Dougie Mac 5k, Sean loves running this race and this year they had brought it back to the original route, which is out from Wedgewood, around the village and back.   This year I deceiced to join him.  As I am in Marathon training I decided that I would run the race easy and then add extra miles on the end. Little did I imagine that I would win it, which was a very nice surprise.

Market Drayton 10k, this has also been a firm favorite race of mine and it is fast becoming a firm favorite.  I think this year there was 5,000 runners taking again it is one of those races were the weather can play a big part, this year it was very very warm, but again I do like to run in the sun.  I hoped to get under 50 minutes but with the weather it wasn't going to happen!! It would be have been nice to beat my Maddog 10k time, but unfortunately I didn't have the wind helping the pace.  With great organisation, brilliant support and a fantastic goody bag it had been voted as one of Runners World best 10k for the last 4 years and you can definitely see why. 

Liverpool Half this is my most recent race and the 1st of my 3 Rock and Roll half marathons of 2016. Again it was another warm day out.  I have run a half in Liverpool before but this was a bit of a different route; we had longer in the city which was nice although I am sure there is a hotel with a statute of Billy Connelly I am sure that it isn't but I can't remember the hotel name so I can't even check.   Then as we were trotting along, we disappear up a little side street and a rather short switch back and I thought why are we going up here, surely they could have just move the start and finish a little…then as I reach the top of the switch back and there was music blaring out and then the penny dropped…you might be there before me but yes we ran up and down Penny Lane.  The finish was long coming but I managed to put the hammer down at the finish and made it under the 2 hours.

Work wise I have moved contracts, I seem to have left London just as the city was coming to life..... thats about right !!  But I am now working closer to home which is nice, I get to sleep in my own bed every night, see my other half every day and get to run with the club again! The commute is pretty simple and a little tedious but it is only short term, so I can cope with that.

The two races I have entered is Robin Hood Half which I have done 3 times and Birmingham Half which I think this will be my 5th time.  It should be a good few months race wise we have: Stone St Michaels 10k, Donnington 10miles, Potteries Marathon, Thunder run, Dublin 5k and half, Robin Hood half, Birmingham Half and finally Las Vegas half marathon!! 

Be kind to yourself

Ok let's get it out of the way nice and early, I have been absent for some time and really there is no excuse. Ok maybe one excuse I haven't found anything interesting to write about, shock I know.

My running mojo had taken a nose dive(again), I've been going out but it wasn't as fun as it use to be,  my pace had dropped considerably and I was constantly comparing myself to be previous form and ability. Beating myself up for how unfit and and lazy I had become; which is madness and if any of my friends had said this to me I would have told them to stop being so my hard on themselves, so why one rule for them and one for me?

Reflecting back on my year it really hasn't been too bad, I ran a couple of new races, I ran the Virgin Money London Marathon, took part in Thunder Run, ran my first trail

half, coached and ran with friends in the potteries marathon relay  and ran another international half marathon in Lisbon.  All in all a good year and I should be proud of my achievements and be thankful that

a)I have the physical ability to run 
b) it is safe for me to run 
c) made some amazing running buddies.  

Wait I forgot,  I also became a UKA running for fitness coach!! A very good year really

So why do I still feel sad, perhaps it is because I have recently changed jobs, which although it was through choice, something I was looking forward to and I knew things would change. But perhaps I hadn't mentally prepared properly for how much I  miss my home life and running with my club mates and friends.  I now work in London 5 days a week and stop down there for the most of the week, which means I miss out on club night and my weekends get compressed to trying to spend some quality time with loved ones, washing, shopping, ironing and trying to get some relaxing in. This means my desire to go out to xc or weekend races this year has really waived this year and staying home closest to nearest and dearest has won out. 

I think because I now identify myself as a not only a runner but a member of a club  of runners that although I can still (and do) run in London I have lost a little of the joy of running. I also don't think it helps the time of year I have started this new job but hopefully after December the night will start getting lighter and I will be able to see a little more of the city. All is not lost I still have parkrun  and I get to see most of them at the start and finish and if I am lucky one or two take pity on me and slow down to run with me.

I know I need to pull up my big girl pants and get on with it and start thinking about

what I can do and not focus on what I can't!  I also need to be nicer to myself, become my own best friend and start acknowledging my achievements and the occasional pat in the back 

Can you fool yourself in to being positive

So it has been a while since my last blog; NO I have not fallen off the face of the earth, NO to a life changing lottery win and NO I have not found my fame and fortune on Britain’s Got Voice Factor. The past couple of months have been a little be meh’ when it comes to running and finding things to blog about.  I normally come up with my blog titles and themes during my runs, but I have been drawing a blank recently. 

At last tonight’s running club post run 'chippy tea' a fellow runner asked me if I have been injured as they had not seen in a while, I thought about this for a minute; said no the physical injury but yes to a MOJO injury!  Can you injure your MOJO? I am not sure if it is burn out, fatigue or just simply a bit of a slump but when I’m not running I think about how great it would be running but then when I’m running I just want to stop and crawl under a rock. Strange but true, having said that I have just recently run the Great North Run and the Nottingham Half marathon, so although my MOJO is telling me to stop, my iron will is keeping me moving forward! 

Something positive

can you see us ?

I really enjoyed the Great North Run (GNR) this year; this wasn't a target run for me, that was Nottingham, so I had offered to pace Emily to a personal best, Sharon who was also running GNR had said that she would jump on the pace bus for fun.  Everything was going well and we were hitting the splits, but it was getting hotter and hotter, unfortunately this was not suiting Emily and she was struggling.  So we decided to change tack and we slowed down a little and made sure that we catered to her every need, raced off to water /refreshments stops and making sure she was hydrated, keeping up her spirits with lots of positive re-enforcement and generally enjoying our run with those around us! It was fab, we all crossed the finish line holding hands and with smiles on our faces. I have to say that I was one race I thoroughly enjoyed for the 1st time in a long time! 

Something else positive

Nottingham was going to be my target, but my training had not gone well with self-sabotaging thoughts. I reassessed my goals and went out for a  personal best this year, but the mojo deserted me 3 miles in and my mind started to go off on one about how crap I was and why didn't I give up!  Well I didn't I carried on a ticked off the miles, the splits were not what I was after but, hey I was moving forward which was good.  

It was a good job I carried on as I helped a distressed runner; between 9/10 miles, saw this chappy running and he was running very strangely, leaning back and looping very slowly, so I stopped and went back to have a chat with him.  He assured me he was fine and for me to carry on, so I asked him “if he always ran like this”, “no” came the reply, “well you are not fine then”, then two other runners came to my aid and we escorted him over to the side of the road.  I shouted for the runners going past to send back a marshal and a lady got him a chair to sit on.  Fortunately but the time we left him he was looking a bit brighter and I hope that he got the medical attention he needed. Then I carried on my run, my goal had gone out of the window but you know I didn't care, I helped someone out in need and that was more important!

Something productive

With all my negative thoughts I am trying to do something’s to put the spring back in my running step;

1. Tackling cross country never done it before, hated it at school but hoping the club and team environment will help me get my MOJO back
2. Reading (or listening to) Chimp Paradox by Prof Steven Peters, if it is good enjoy for the GB cycling team it is good enough for me
3. Scaling back the running during the last few months of the year
4. Contrary to point 3 looking to take part in Go-Vember again trying to run at least a mile every day during November 

Something to look forward to

• I have got my good for age place at London, this time I want to enjoy it a little more. My first London, I was so in awe and focused on getting a good time it took all the fun out of it.  So next year it is all about enjoying it and the time is irrelevant.

• I have booked my races for Feb, March and May and I am looking to do some different ones that in the past, so we are off to Blackpool half and a 20 miler, Milton Keynes half and I am hoping to do Ashby 20 as well.

• I am part of the Team behind bringing back the Potteries Marathon, which is fun, exciting and exhausting all the same times…not sure what the Potteries Marathon is all about click here.

• I;m doing the Thunder Run again next year with a large number of my club mates which is going to be awesome, fortunately not the 5 laps like this year (I don’t think that it helped at all).

Well that is my lot, again apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of months, fingers crossed normal service aka bad grammar, spelling and general confused posts will resume soon!

My whistle-stop tour of June and July!

Gosh it's really had been a long time since my last blog!  There are no good excuses to give you!  However let me catch you up; this is what has happened since 1^st June (grab your hat for a whistle-stop tour!)

I have finally finished my HNC course in Sport, Health, Fitness and Exercise however I am still awaiting my final mark!! I am free again from study, all this free time what should I do??

I have become a run director at my local parkrun which is Hanley and I have to say it is the most friendly parkrun there is around Stoke on Trent (ok ok it is the only one around Stoke on Trent) so far I have been RD 4 times and I am notorious for a) not needing to use the mega phone and b) counting up rather than down on the starting line…. Well it adds to the excitement.  

Don't we scrub up well    

Being part of the parkrun family I,  with my fellow directors and a few lucky parkrunners, attended the Stoke on Trent Personality of Year awards evening, we were nominated for the Sport in the community award. Unfortunately we didn't win, but we had great fun during the evening ( I believe there may have been some wine drinking going on!) and it was strange seeing everyone in there proper clothes for once! 

I have been away on holiday to America, we drove down Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) from San Francisco down to Venice in Los Angeles.  We had a great time visiting the sights of SF Alcatraz, Napa Valley, Lombard Street, China Town, traveling on a tram to down town and of course Sports Basement to name a few of the sights we saw. Whilst we were there we also ran the See Jane Run Half marathon which gave us great views of the bay area.  

Then we started to travel down the PCH to Santa Cruz for couple of nights, Malibu and finally stopping the last few nights on the Boardwalk In Venice Beach.  Where we also finished off the holiday with the Red White and Blue Half Marathon run along the Santa Monica Boardwalk.  

All in all we had a great holiday not what you could call relaxing but it was still fun all the same.

Trentham encampment 

I managed to get a late entry to the Thunder Run 24 race at Catton Park and pulled together a team of 5 fellow Trentham running mates.  I was a little daunted as we got a team place 2 weeks before the race and also our team only had 5 people in it!! Although we had all said it was for fun…..the pressure was on a little.  I was team captain and organised the team and the timings of the laps, at my initial calculations we would all be running 4 laps of the 10k course with the men in our team running 5.  However it soon transpired on Saturday that my timings were way out and we would all have to run 5!! So this last weekend I ran 50k which makes me a ultra runner!! I know it wasn't all in one go, but I am still taking it!   

All in all we had a brilliant weekend, alongside our team of 5, there was another Trentham Team of 8, a couple of Trentham Solo runners and finally two club mates running with other teams.  It was and is a truly amazing event, like glasto for runners, the camaraderie is brilliant not only cheering on your team, any other local teams and also cheering on the runners who ran past our camp at all times of the day and night over the weekend! 

Thunder Ru 2014 DONE!

We had some brilliant results, our fellow runner Janson Heath won 1^st solo male, and Jill Phillips came 3^rd in ladies solo.  Our team of 8 finished 6^th and our little team of 5 finished 17^th in our category, not bad off no training and only 1 hour sleep in 36 hours!! 

The only downside was the lack of internet (although hardly surprising as we were in a field!) but a lot of my twitter friends were running and it would have been great to catch with them, oh well may be next year. 

And with that I think we are all caught up, I will try not to leave it so long next time I promise, however I do have a couple of busy months with, training for Great North, Robin Hood Half, Amsterdam Marathon and also Rewind 80 festival in August all to look forward to. 

Kirsten photo bomb

Thunder Run 2013

The Thunder Run, was one of the major runs on my calendar this year; my first Marathon at London, my marathon PB at Edinburgh and finally I was getting to run the Thunder Run, my running year is nearly complete.

I joined the Trentham Thunder Run Team last year when I went along to see them running it in 2011, the atmosphere was brilliant coined a festival for runners, with 24 hour food and showers what more could one want.

The team and running order was sorted Team Captain Ken had sorted everything out from registering us at the event, calculated everyone’s predicted times and looked after the priceless Trentham tent.

The weather gods were looking down on us and Friday was glorious sunny with a slight breeze; I had begged a lift with Dan Jordan and Jill to reduce the burden of cars on the campsite.  We made it their easily although we did take a lovely detour through Burton upon Trent, we found the Trentham encampment easily and Pickles suggested where we could put our tents, in the nicest possible way.  

Before you knew it the camp had taken shape and it was a sight to behold, we were literally on the course, the runners had to pass our bases so it was ideal for keeping an eye on what was going on.

The sun was still shining so I thought it was an ideal time to have a nice cold Dark Fruits Strongbow cider…….ohh it was lovely and very short lived, it was decided that it would be a good idea to take recky of the course and see what the next day had in for us.  The guys agreed to take it slow and the emphasis was on steady and easy, which in fairness it was, plenty of stopping to take photos and looking out for the really bad bits and for how after 5k it was all downhill…..yeah right.

Heading back in to camp I was looking forward to finishing to cold (now slightly warm) can of cider and a few more for good measure.  Looking at the running order I was not due to run until 5:30 in the afternoon, which was great news and something I held dear as I opened my next few cans……

The morning arrived and the muted tones of early morning camp life could be heard; Lee, Scott and Matt were all heading off to the Merebrook; Sarah and Emily with their little ones were awake and moving around and before long everyone was up and getting more excited as the minutes ticked by. Debbie arrived at the camp and the team was complete, happy days. 

The race starts at 12:00 noon on the Saturday and Dave was up first, we all wished him well and he was off like shot, I took this opportunity to have a look around the expo and made some essential running purchases before heading back to the camp. Back at the camp we settled down to watch the runners pass and send out cheers and shouts of encouragement. It seemed like no time and the 1^st runners were coming passed and when we saw Dave coming striding past looking great! (well a little sweaty and hot, but great all the same).

There was a steady stream of activity at the camp people coming and going, preparing to go out on their runs, getting back and cooling off, refuelling and getting ready for their next loop.

Before I knew it was my turn, the weather was good warm, dry and a slight breeze my idea running conditions. Ken and I headed down to the start, made it in to the runners enclosure and waited for Paul Clinton to pass over the baton to me, then I saw him, which a mixture of anticipation and excitement I snapped the baton around my wrist and headed off.  I was now glad that I had at least seen the course so I knew what was coming and what to look out for.  The trees and woods where the nicest bits of my first lap as they gave you a chance to cool down ad seeing Ken at the 5k mark was brilliant he held out a cup a cold water which I drank a little but dumped the rest on my head.  Made it up the conti climb and then it was all downhill from here, well ish.  Running passed the Trentham camp gave me a real boost and helped me reach for the finish to pass the baton over to Lee Jones and see him flying off.  Please my 1^st lap out of the way and 2 minutes faster than predicted.

Unfortunately from here my times took a nose dive, I can’t take all the blame I would have to say that mother nature had something to do with it, as around 8:3pm we had an awesome thunder and lightning show (it ain’t called the thunder run for nothing), however as the show started to finish the rain started and not one to be upstaged it threw it down in biblical portions for the next 4-5 hours. 

My run was scheduled for 10:45pm (ish) and it was still lashing down, I was very apprehensive, after seeing Andy Vickerman come in covered in head to toe in mud and saying he had fallen twice and broken his head torch! I took over from Paul again and I gingerly headed out on the course, with Paul’s warning ringing in my head “it is bloody mental out there take care”.  The course was indeed more playful than it had been before, fortunately my trail shoes were helping me stay on course and mainly upright. Again running past the camp gave me a great boost and the end was in sight, I enjoyed the run however my time did take a beating officially 1:09….I was down by at least 10 minutes, but on the positive side I was still in one piece and able to run my last lap at 5am in the morning.

I showered, had something warm to eat and headed back into my tent to get some sleep before I was due to head out again. 

Before I knew it Andy V walked past the tent and gave me a knock to make sure I was ready to run, it was 4am, I had gone to sleep in my kit, so they only thing I really needed to do was calm my hair down, wash my face and brush my teeth I was ready to go again.  The great news was that it had stopped raining and the drawn was breaking, I would be running in the light and hopefully less muddy than the night before.  

5:00am saw me at the runner enclosure for the last time, feeling remarkably  refreshed despite only having 3 hours sleep, seeing Paul come running in the finish/start now felt very familiar and he wish me well on my last run.

The only thought that was going through my head during this run was Walter would love this, there was mud, nettles, hills and giant puddles to navigate your way through. Again it seem to be all over in a blur and I was running passed the Trentham camp there were a few more people up than when I left.  The only problem was that Lee was still there, I think I must had taken him by surprise the look of shock on his face made me giggle, I was powering up the hill for the last time and heading down to the finish, lee was in the enclosure and ready to tear it up for his last lap.  Again my time had taken a beating due to the sticky mud making it much harder to get any type of traction, so my last la was 1:05(ish). 

The rest of the morning was a flash of people coming and going; Dave, Scot, Debs, Jon and Andy were all going on their 4^th lap and there was a small piece of me that was glad that I wasn’t going to have to go around again. The camp slowly start to get packed away and then it was time for us all to head off to the finish so we could run in to the finish as a team with Andy.

 We managed to run 26 laps between us and came 11 out of 253 mixed teams, same as last year, there was talk that perhaps we could have made it to 10^th but the night rain and times had really taken the wind out of our sails. 

However there is always next year……….

Green Army 

Special mention of our fantatstic supporters Sammy, Chloe, Lara, Heidi Pickstock and Adam, Scott, Sarah and Dorothy, Emily and Elizabeth, Matt Plant, Lisa, Janson, daughter and friend all made sure we where well looked after with food, refreshments and plenty of words of encouragement.