Rosedawn Ramblings

Christmas Week. Like most people, I've been confused about what day it is, eaten too much, slept too little and not moved too much from my sofa. I did manage a Christmas Day parkrun at Hanley for the first time in several years, but running and training for Race to the Castle has hit a bit of roadblock - perhaps starting a training plan the week before Christmas wasn't the best idea. On Thursday (Boxing Day), I had profiteroles for breakfast... my justification being they were Christmas leftovers that really needed to be eaten up. They were lovely; I had two helpings. I even added extra cream. On Friday, I spent three hours in the M&S café... coffee, toasted teacake, another coffee, a slice of cake. I did blitz lots of emails and other admin... but only moved about 500 steps in the process. I should have been running but my knee was aching slightly - I opted for rest instead but didn't really take much persuading. On Saturday, I was back in Hanley Park...

Week 1 of my training plan for the Race to the Castle has proved to be a hectic one.... mostly involving Christmas trees and Brussels sprouts! I've created a Christmas Tree around Penkhull with the Potters Trotters... And then tried to find as many Christmas Trees as we could on Thursday night's club run... stopping for a photo with every one we found definitely slowed us down but there were plenty of smiles with every mile we completed. On Saturday morning, it should have been time for more Christmas fun with Hanley parkrun's Christmas fancy dress run. But my fancy dress was accidentally forgotten, so I decided to run "serious" and completed my fastest Hanley parkrun since 2013! I love my "game face" photo taken by Mick Hall - thanks Mick! By Saturday night, I was beginning to wilt, especially as a visit from my nieces meant unexpected extra "time on my feet" - also known as the nightmare that is Primark at Christmas...

A few weeks before our travels to New Zealand , I signed up for a race. I filled in all the boxes on the entry form, pressed submit, put the date in my diary, created a rough training plan and then got on with normal life. It's not until June next year... that's ages away! But it's not just any race. It's a race that ticks all my boxes ...  It's going to test me to the limit and be harder than anything I've ever done before. It's 100km or 63 miles and the goal is to complete non-stop.  It's definitely got the wow factor , with a route description promising stretching moorland, winding rivers, ancient woodlands and sandy trails and a finish at the incredibly spectacular Bamburgh Castle. It's going to need dedication in training and I'll need to use every motivational trick I know to get me out of the front door and out running whatever the weather. But it's something I really want to do. And now it's...

It's been a wonderful few weeks; after all the waiting , we got to spend two weeks living the life I love , exploring, relaxing and breathing fresh air in New Zealand. But all too soon, we were homeward bound and dark nights, cold weather and work were looming. It's definitely been a week to be relying on my inner Pollyanna and trying to find a few things to be glad about... it's not been as hard as I thought it might be! Despite sub-zero temperatures when we landed in Manchester, there was a beautiful sunrise as we journeyed home... and our fabulous view (and frozen canal) was waiting for us when we got here and the sun shone most of the day too. On my first day back at work, the sun was still shining, so I took my time on my walk to the office, looking for pretty reflections, watching the sunrise and going with the flow. If you don't look too closely, it could be a castle with a moat rather than a factory being demolished (or that could just be the jetla...

Greetings from 40000ft All too soon, we are on our way home from our adventures in New Zealand. We finished our whistle stop tour back in Auckland, after travelling by train up through the North Island on Friday. It's been on our to do list for a while... and didn't disappoint, especially as we got to see snow-capped volcanoes.   It rained as we passed through Hamilton - pretty much the only clouds we have since the day we arrived - but the sun was shining again by the time we reached our final destination, a lovely apartment in the suburb of Ponsonby. The tricky journey through Friday-night traffic was worth it for the views... Saturday was an early start as we made our way up to Western Springs Park for one more internation parkrunning adventure - 8am starts in the summer in NZ. It was a twisty course with 3 laps of the lake, with a couple of sneaky little uphill thrown in. But it was a good run and I managed to go a few seconds faster than last week in Taura...