Redbush Runner

It may not be an official milestone, but ticking off my 50th different parkrun venue feels like a big deal for me.  Since we started running, nearly 7 years ago, one of the things Rory and I have enjoyed about it most is discovering different parkrun courses, particularly during a weekend away.  We love the whole ritual of a Saturday morning run followed by a cracking breakfast.  I'm currently in the process of getting my venues printed on the back of my parkrun 50 T-shirt.  I think it's only right that I should look back on all these parkrun locations and mention the ones that stand out for me.  First of all, what were the most scenic ones?  Without a doubt, Fountains Abbey would top my list, closely followed by Conwy and Sewerby.  Fountains Abbey has dramatic ruins and beautiful water gardens, Conwy is an out and back along the river bank with a diversion that offers views of the stunning castle, and Sewerby's  one lap course offers lots of vari...

 A year ago I ran the Zodiac Challenge in my home town and I was adamant that I wasn't going to do anymore half marathons ever again.  That was until a few months ago when I spotted a simply adorable bit of bling being advertised by the See York Run York running company.  It was for something called The Tea Party Challenge and it was coming to my neck of the woods.  I tried to ignore it, because I was trying to be frugal and not enter any events, but it just kept appearing on my newsfeed, as if to say, "come on, you know you want to."  As I have always been a huge fan of all things Alice in Wonderland, I just couldn't resist earning myself a medal with a White Rabbit on the front.  When I realised that the event was on the same day as my husband's Golf Society day out, my mind was quickly made up.  This would be my treat (if you can call a 13.1 mile run a treat.)  Just like the Zodiac Challenge, this was an event taking place in my town, along the...

 At the start of the year, I decided the time had come to end my run streak.  (For the uninitiated here, I'm talking about a streak of running for consecutive days without a break - nothing to do with nudity.) I had reached 108 days, the longest run streak I have ever done, and the streak had served its purpose.  It had kept me going throughout the autumn months and the run up to Christmas when I realised that, after a slow start, I could still just about reach my yearly target of 1000 miles, as long as I went out every day and upped my mileage a bit.  I felt fitter as a result of it and I noticed that my parkrun times consistently improved when I was running every day. However, once my target for 2022 was reached and we were into New Year, I quickly realised that the daily run streak was becoming a bit of a drag, an annoying thing to be ticked off every day.  I began to wonder why I was still doing it, what it was actually achieving.  The crunch came when,...

 This Sunday Rory and I were back in Sheffield to take on the 10k for the first time since 2019.  I think I've mentioned before that I have a soft spot for this event.  I think of it as 'my' race because it was the first 10K I ever did, my first experience of the sort of atmosphere you can get when a road race is well supported and the townsfolk come out in force to line the route.  I'd been looking forward to it and as I've been working hard and have seen some significant improvement in my pace over the last few weeks, I felt ready to go out and try to get a new course PB. (Currently 53 minutes from 2018) Unfortunately, on Saturday morning when I came upstairs after giving the cats their breakfast, I noticed a twinge in my left calf.  It was weird, because I'd not run since Thursday and I hadn't noticed anything amiss, anything to suggest I might have picked up an injury.  It would be exaggerating to call it an ache, because it was more like a crampy sensa...

 After that horrific heatwave, I promised myself that I would never complain about rain again.  I'm certainly not going to let it get in the way of my running, (not that I ever did really.) So, I have been welcoming the wet weather this week, finding it fresh and invigorating.  I've set myself a challenge for August to run 100 miles over the month, something I haven't done since lockdown. I'm going to try and get out for a run every day.  Over the last couple of weeks I have been running a bit more frequently and I'm sure that has helped my pace to improve a little.  My last few parkrun times have been quicker than they've been for months.  Whilst I know pace is not everything, I do feel that my fitness benefits from short daily runs and perhaps more importantly, I feel better mentally when I start my day with a run.  It gives me a bit of structure and a feeling of positivity which helps me to cope with whatever else the day brings. To help me stay mot...

 Over the last couple of days Britain has been in the grip of a horrific heatwave.  In some ways 'horrific' seems an overly dramatic word to use to describe a very short-lived heatwave, a couple of baking hot days of British summer.  You might expect us to be celebrating such a rare event.  However, this was no ordinary heatwave.  It came with red weather warnings and days of media build-up, terrifying us with gloomy predictions of 40 degree heat, death and destruction.  All we could do was hope that it was all a huge exaggeration.  On social media the usual suspects spouted on about the 'nanny state', daring to encroach on our hard-won freedoms and telling us how we should behave in the sun.  Others made contingency plans, buying fans and mobile aircon units or (in my case) stocking up with jelly and ice-cream.   In the running world, extreme weather is something that we love to disagree about.  Whether it's running in a blizzard o...

Motivation is a funny thing.  Whenever I complete something that I've been training for, I find myself thinking, "Great, now I can just enjoy my runs again with no pressure" but before long those training runs start to feel a bit aimless and I start looking out for a new challenge.  I've been struggling a bit this year and I think it's partly because Rory, my better half and running buddy, has been focusing more on golf.  That's okay, because we should all prioritize the things we enjoy the most and I know that Rory has to be careful not to overdo things after his recent back problems.  However, I do miss the lockdown days when we would go for a run together pretty much every morning.  We still do parkrun together at weekends, but most of my weekday runs these days are on my own.  I don't mind solo running (in some ways I love it) but it can be sometimes harder to motivate yourself when you're on your own.   I certainly feel more motivated when I'...