When we lined up for the start of Manchester marathon back in April I told my friend Liz that if she didn’t make her goal of running in four hours, I’d run any marathon anywhere in the world with her. Liz had to pull out of that race due to injury, but undeterred she hatched [...]
April The good (for age) one Manchester marathon was the first race penciled and then penned and then highlighted and circled and underlined in my diary for 2013. It's fair to say I was on a bit of a mission to secure my good for age time for London. Despite some setbacks it all went [...]
When I was about seven, my mum took me into town to buy a new outfit. We chose green shorts and a matching t-shirt bought in John Lewis that were to be worn for a 5k fun run. The shorts and t-shirt were made of cotton, but this was long before the world knew about [...]
Last week me and three friends, Jen, Katie and Liz, headed to Germany to take on the Frankfurt marathon and generally have a good time. If you think marathons are painful and something to be endured, watch this. It IS possible to have fun running 26.2 miles.
Last week I caught myself telling my running group - a group of women new to running - that I can't run in the mornings. I stopped myself. There's a lot of things I thought I couldn't do: swimming, cycling 100 miles, a half-ironman and have proved myself wrong. But because of a couple of [...]
Flinging myself down a muddy hill for the second time on Saturday morning, the £25 pair of spikes I’d bought just days before were proving a sound investment. The marshal at the bottom of the hill shouted out ‘Sharp right turn’ as my legs struggled to go any direction other than forwards. The metal spikes [...]
This weekend I headed back to my hometown half marathon – the Great Eastern Run. Being two weeks after The Gauntlet and two weeks before Frankfurt marathon, my legs were in no position to be attempting to run fast. I had no plan for the race, so when a friend said they were looking for [...]
After I crossed the finish line of my half-iron triathlon I got a lot of congratulatory tweets. Some asked what was next. I staggered to the hospitality tent, ate a veggie sausage in a burger bun and drank a massive coffee . That’s what was next and all I cared about at that moment. A [...]
On Mondays and Thursdays I lead groups of beginner runners. They’re taking part in my 0-5k course and I have no doubt that they’ll all get to that magical 5k in a few weeks’ time. They, however, aren’t always as confident. Every week I meet them and explain the run we’re going to do and [...]
After 45 miles of cycling up and down hills I was broken. I dropped down into my lowest gear to begin the slow grind up a beast of a hill I’d already climbed once more than two hours before, and I began to cry. It wasn’t just tears but big fat sobs coming out of [...]
