Rosedawn Ramblings

I'm sitting on the balcony watching the world go by, the bottle kilns my ever-present backdrop.  It's early on Sunday morning. The sun is shining, there is a refreshing breeze. Every now and then, the sound of traffic replaces bird song to interrupt the peace and quiet. A couple walking their dog pass by on the bank opposite. The same man who runs by everyday has just appeared. Someone is fishing up by the bridge. A child is feeding the ducks. The coffee tastes good.  I've got a new book to read. It's my happy place ; my place to reflect and re-set. In the nearly 12 months since my last blog post, my new job has continued to be just what I needed, we've had some mini-adventures and lots of fun-filled days. There have been a few bumps in the road, especially when it comes to blogging and running, but I've been doing my best to live up to the intention to  start again . First there was Tailenders Live, which definitely brought the laughter back... Then...

On March 1st, I completed a 20 mile race around Oulton Park motor racing circuit - it's possibly my worst ever race experience for a whole host of reasons which now seen inconsequential, but I did it and that was what mattered at the time. Straight after the race, I took the train up to Manchester to join up with Mr T and meet our friend Sarah. We had cocktails and Caribbean food and then went to celebrate Christmas in March at Tailenders Live. Tailenders is a loosely based cricketing podcast with a Radio 1 DJ (Greg White), a Maccabee (Felix White), England's greatest ever bowler (Jimmy Anderson) and a shoe salesman from Bristol (Matchin Tendulkar). It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever but I love it. I wore my Christmas dress. I did not look out of place. It was ridiculous and made us all laugh out loud. Jimmy Anderson shredded a mango and a mince pie. Standard fare on Tailenders! After that slightly weird start to the month, everything seemed relatively nor...

At the start of 2019, I set myself the challenge of publishing a blog post every week during the year - 52 weeks, 52 posts. My motivation was to get back to something I loved doing, something I'd missed, something I'd started several years ago but then lost my way. I thought I'd run out of things to write about. On Sunday, I achieved my goal. I wrote about eating profiteroles for breakfast. It wasn't always easy. Some posts were longer than others. Some were only written right at the last moment. I did it! I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face (mainly thanks to those profiteroles ). But what did I learn? About myself, about running and about life in general? 1. Inspiration can come from anyone and anything ... it can be easy to think that you need something 'big' to get you started. At the start of 2019, I certainly had lots of inspiration to run and blog as I completed an ultramarathon along the River Thames. I've also been inspi...

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...

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...

It's not often that you get to life the life you love to full effect... other stuff nearly always gets in the way. But for two weeks at least, I'm getting the perfect opportunity and it's worth every uncomfortable and sleep-depriving moment of the 27hr journey. In our first few days, there has been time to watch the sunset and sunrise, skim stones, climb hills, see the stars, walk along the riverbank and read haiku carved in stones, soak up the culture, investigate the history, watch cricket, play crazy golf, go to the movies, drink gin, eat cake, read all the books I brought with me and then go shopping to re-supply,  take in the scenery, chat with the locals and love every moment. And of course, there's been a parkrun too... the route through the Kopurererua Valley Reserve was lovely and we were made to feel very welcome. It has been a fabulous first week of our holiday... looking forward to what comes next!

Waiting. I'm usually not very good at waiting. The countdown to big races is always a testing time. This week has involved a lot of waiting... Waiting for the end of each day at work... will Friday ever arrive? Waiting for sleep to come... a sore throat, cough and fuzzy head have made sleep a precocious commodity this week... when will it be Friday morning? Waiting for the train to arrive... only a couple of minutes late in the end... but when will we get to London? Waiting to collect the tickets... but the queue moves quickly... but when will the show start? And then suddenly it's showtime, the familiar opening refrain... we bought the tickets for the special performances of Les Miserables' anniversary concert months ago and now the waiting is over. And it was worth the wait. I loved every second and realised I know the words to the whole show... fortunately for those sitting near me, my sore throat now means a lost voice, so I couldn't sing alon...

I've spent the weekend in Wales at a little cottage just near Bala... there has been very little running but a lot of laughter. Six friends, one cottage: snow, mud, winding roads, tractors that seem to drive themselves, a roaring fire, gin, board games, a lake, a river and a waterfall, mountains, cows and sheep for noisy neighbours, cake and crumpets, chocolate brownies, cottage pie, sausage sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, tea (but no teapot), beautiful views, a bit more gin, late nights and endless chatter. And laughter; did I mention the laughter? It's been so much fun and I feel very lucky to have met these amazing friends through running. We live in different parts of the city and we do different jobs. We didn't know each other at school or college. We grew up in different places. If we hadn't met each other at parkrun or running clubs, we might never have met at all. But I'm so glad we did... it has been a fabulous weekend. Thanks for the...

What are you afraid of? The last time I ran with my headtorch was at Thunder Run in July. Truth be told, although the weekend itself was great fun, I hated everything about the running experience. My first lap, in miserable muddy conditions, reduced me to tears. My second lap in the middle of the night wasn't much better and I was a quivering wreck by the end of it. I didn’t write much about the weekend; I was just glad when it was all over. But ever since my first attempts. I've always loved trail runs at nigh t; after my experience at Thunder Run, I wasn’t so sure.  But I wasn't ready to give up the idea of night running.  My experience at the Rodbaston 10k gave me back some of my lost confidence for coping with mud, water and woodland obstacles. But how did I feel about in the dark? Was I brave enough to get back out there? What if I couldn't do it?  A few weeks ago, I signed up for the Delamere Forest Night Runner 10k... I'd run it befor...

It's been hard this weekend to escape the concept of running faster... in case you missed it, yesterday Eliud Kipchoge ran a marathon in 1:59:40.2. It's the fastest marathon ever, the first time the magical barrier of two hours had been broken.  It seemed impossible; most people thought it was. But Kipchoge and the team working with him devoted everything they had toto the goal. Drawing on the input of experts in technology, sports science, psychology. nutrition and biomechanics, nothing was left to chance. And he did it.  1:59:40.2. It was definitely an inspirational performance - which I watched in part on Kirsten's phone before and during parkrun yesterday .  As we set off for parkrun, Kipchoge was entering the last couple of miles. As I passed the volunteers by the start/finish of my first little lap, I got a thumbs up from the gathered group, cheering on the parkrunners but also huddled around the phone. Kipchoge was still on target...