Redbush Runner

The last Sunday in October sees the Worksop Halloween Half, an event established in 1982 which seems to have found its way onto just about every runner's wish list. It's undoubtedly scenic, with the route going through Clumber Park, which is particularly attractive at this time of year. As I scrolled through posts on my running group forums, I tried to get some idea of how hilly it was likely to be.  One person, to my amazement, said they had heard it was "fairly flat."  I can only assume they were mistaking it for a different race.  Others spoke of a biggish hill in the first mile but then implied it wasn't too bad.  The general term being used was that slightly mysterious runners' adjective, 'undulating.'  Now, I love words and to me 'undulating' is a nice word.  It trips easily off the tongue and it suggests gentle ups and downs rather than steep, back-breaking climbs.  It suggests that the route will be a little bit winding and country ro...

Today we took on the Yorkshire Wildlife 5K in support of the Yorkshire Wildlife Park Foundation.  Organised by Curly's Athletes, this event won a gold award for best national 5K at the 2018 Running Awards.  I'd heard great reports of it from friends who had taken part in the previous event in the spring and I'd been looking forward to it for months. In fact, it was a belated birthday treat for me. I wasn't going to let anything dampen my excitement, if you pardon the pun, especially not a little thing like the weather.  Runners don't mind a bit of rain.  We all know that.  In fact, runners love rain.  It keeps them cool, makes them feel a bit hardcore.  Unfortunately, what we had today couldn't really be described as a 'bit of' rain.  It was one of the wettest days I can remember, a complete deluge.  The rain was absolutely bouncing off the ground.  I noticed a pond of ducks at the park and my husband jokingly remarked that they didn't...

It's that time of year again when magazines depicting famous London landmarks start popping through letterboxes, breaking hearts and making dreams come true.  I got a 'no.'  It didn't faze me much.  I signed up for the London marathon ballot because I had a vague aim to run a marathon in 2019.  London seemed the logical place to start.  But I wasn't holding my breath.  In all honesty, I wasn't sure whether I was hoping to get in or not.  However, I was adamant that if I did get a place in the ballot I would take it as a sign that it was meant to be, I was ready and I would give it my all.  If I didn't get in, perhaps that would be for the best also. Some people, however, are distraught to have been unsuccessful in the ballot, particularly those who have been applying for years with no joy.  I suppose it's a bit like trying for a baby.  Some people try and try for many painful years and others hit the jackpot straightaway, often the one...

It's surprising how many people within the running community don't understand what a virtual run is.  Basically, a virtual run is a race that you sign up for online, which you can run at a time, date and location convenient to you (although there is usually a deadline.)  You submit 'evidence' of your run by uploading a Strava screenshot or similar and then, when it's been approved, you'll receive a medal in the mail.  Many virtual running sites compile a leader board so that you can compare how you did and they have social media pages where you can chat about events, share photographs and basically encourage each other.  In many cases a percentage of the entrance fee is donated to charity. I read somewhere that virtual runs grew out of the practice of high school runners in the U.S., posting their times in for a national competition.  So, although many 'purists' would try to say otherwise, virtual runs are not only for beginners and people who lack the...

So much for the long run I had planned this morning.  I just couldn't do it.  5K was my limit today, a combination of it being surprisingly warm for the time of year, the energy-zapping effects of a virus and no doubt a bit of mental exhaustion thrown in for good measure.  (Not that I'm one to make excuses, of course!)  But they say, "no run is a wasted run" and that's true.  As 5K goes, it was thoroughly respectable, but I'm frustrated because I set out intending to do more and I failed.  The question is, how am I going to tackle this half next month?  I just can't see it happening.  I'm neither physically or mentally ready. Perhaps I need to cut myself some slack.  Life's been a bit weird recently.  Sometimes in life you get these odd blips. And they are just that, 'blips', nothing more, but you don't necessarily realise this at the time.  Sometimes things happen which throw up stuff from the past, things that you have already d...

So much for the dire weather forecast earlier in the week.  The Sheffield 10K went ahead in perfect conditions and what a race it was! Now, I know I've done a half marathon this year and I've another one coming up, but in some ways the Sheffield 10K still feels like the big running event of the year for me.  I don't know whether that's because it was the 'biggy' last year, our first official 10K race, a sort of rite of passage and therefore it holds a special place in my heart, or whether it's a way of making up for my disappointment over the York 10K.  I loved York but I think, being honest with myself, I was perhaps a bit more frustrated by it than I've been prepared to admit.  Don't get me wrong, I think I did pretty well at York, given the atrocious heat on the day and we know that finishing times alone rarely tell the whole story, but there's nothing like getting a fast time to put you in a great mood for days.  So, I felt I had something ...

Every now and again you hear a shocking story about someone who has been attacked while out running.   Rare though those events are, the fear amongst runners is understandably high.   As someone who likes to run stretches of quiet trail on my own, I often wonder if I’m being foolish.   But I remind myself that this running lark is doing me the world of good and I love it too much to have the experience ruined by worries about encountering a random nutter. Some days, however, my already colourful imagination goes into overdrive and I become convinced that today is the day I will be murdered.   I can be trotting along quite happily and then suddenly I’ll spot someone in the distance and I'll decide quite spontaneously and no doubt erroneously that something isn't quite right about that person.  Before I know it, I’ll have persuaded myself that I'm in danger.   The other day, I became particularly nervous.   I kept turning my head, was certain I cou...