Rosedawn Ramblings

Previously on 24... earlier in the year, I was given the opportunity to join Team Write this Run at the London Enduro - a 12 hour team challenge on Wimbledon Common. It was a great experience, a different kind of running and lots of inspiration from my team mates. We decided that one event and 12 hours just weren't enough, so we secured ourselves a place at the 24hr Spitfire Scramble at Hornchurch Country Park  and started preparing to run again. There was one change to the team with Christina joining Lenka , Josie , Hannah and I for team Write This Run part 2. Much of the last few months has been spent preparing for this 24 hour challenge. My goal was to run at least 4 laps of the 5.8 mile course, possibly more. Training went well until the final two weeks where I barely ran a step... my hope as I travelled down to Hornchurch on Friday afternoon via taxi, train, bus and tube was that the enforced rest would help! I was the first of my team mates to arrive and found us a go...

The Central Lancashire Half, starting and finishing in the small village of Lea just outside Preston, took place on a very cold and windy on the first Sunday of 2014. No time for New Year hangovers - my racing year has begun. This was my first chance to tackle one of my running goals for 201 4 - a sub 1:50 half marathon. And if I could achieve it, I'd obviously need to revisit my goals! Most of the route was on narrow country lanes and the scenery on a cold grey morning didn't offer up much inspiration. There were hardly any spectators and the runners seemed to be very spaced out, so no helpful clusters of runners to encourage each other along either. To achieve my sub 1:50 goal, I needed to run an average mile pace of approximately 8:24 over 13.1 miles. So this was definitely going to be a solo effort - a battle of wills with myself to see if I could keep going at the required pace. In order to keep going on a run like this one, I need to find lots of things to distract m...

On Sunday, I accidentally ran a half marathon, a very hilly and very tough half marathon, in Uttoxeter. After the wonderful but exhausting experience of the Greater Manchester Marathon , I should really have been resting - my right foot has some nasty blisters (and now blisters on blisters) and my left calf is a bit tight. I'd set myself up for a rest for a couple of weeks and was aiming for the Clayton 10k as my next real effort - at least that was what I wrote on my blog post last Monday. On Tuesday, I went out for a "recovery" run with Bobbie and Liz at Potters Trotters - I didn't feel too bad as we chatted are way around a very easy 5 miles. Someone asked about the Uttoxeter Half Marathon - not a good idea I thought to myself, even though it was the next NSRRA event and 50 points were up for grabs in Group W (I'd managed to be first home in Group W in my first two events at Alsager and the Newcastle 10k ). By Thursday, my energy levels were increasing aga...