Redbush Runner

November has been a grueling month for us.  At the start of the month we had to say goodbye to our beautiful old cat, Lilo.  Her decline was quite sudden and although we are fortunate that her passing was as gentle and dignified as we could have wished for, our hearts are broken.  We were emotionally and physically exhausted, that final week being characterized by fear, stress, brief flashes of hope when she appeared to be perking up a little and despair when we realised our hopes were in vain.  The countdown to the inevitable, the thing we have been dreading for the past few years, trying to prepare ourselves for but not being able to, was one of the most harrowing weeks of our lives.  Then the emptiness afterwards, the self-questioning, the guilt - all completely natural parts of the grief process and not a sign that we hadn't done the right thing.  We knew that we had done what was right for Lilo, even though we ached to cuddle her again.  Running h...

I completed my 5th Sheffield 10K at the weekend and I admit that I was a bit disappointed in my time.  I finished in 58.02, which is my slowest time for this race (and, I think, possibly my slowest time for any 10K race I've ever done, apart from Bolton Abbey, which doesn't count due to its chaotic nature - long queues and closed gates etc.)  I had hoped that I might at least get close to what I got last year (54 minutes)  but it just didn't happen.  Part of the problem was me starting too far back.  It meant I had a very slow start and took ages before I could overtake some slower people and finally start to get a bit of pace going.  But that alone can't explain it.  Another factor was my new trainers giving me pain in my toes.  I can't work out why, but it MUST be these shoes as I don't experience it when I wear any other shoes.  It didn't stop me running but I was conscious of it all the time and it probably stopped me pushing it as much a...

 It's hard to believe that it's been 7 years since I laced up my rubbishy Primark trainers and hit the playing fields for my first Couch to 5K session.  I find it amazing that I'm still running and still enjoying it as much as ever.  With another anniversary dawning, I found myself rummaging through a couple of boxes of medals.  I've accumulated a great many of them over the years and the medal hanger only holds a select few, so there were plenty I had forgotten about.  It was actually great fun reminding myself of all the medals I have collected.  Many of them were for virtual runs (I did lots of virtual runs in the early days and of course also in lockdown) and some of these were from companies no longer trading.  It made me feel quite nostalgic as I looked at them all, remembering the thrill I had when I achieved a certain distance for the first time or when the medal contributed towards a charity close to my heart.  I picked out some of my fav...

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...