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...

The things you do for a medal, a chocolate bar and a tiny bag of haribo…. A couple of weeks ago, my running buddy Liz mentioned a possible race for us to do... so I signed up without really investigating all that much. I knew the date, the location, and the distance. I did enough research to know that trail shoes would be a good idea and I probably would get a bit muddy. The weather forecast wasn't great, so I was expecting to get a bit wet too. And then the alarm went off this morning and, after heavy rain overnight, the likelihood of getting wet and very muddy increased even more. We journeyed down the M6, arrived in plenty of time for a pre-race cuppa, and then the fun began! There wasn't just mud, there was deep, squelchy, suck-the-shoes-off-your-feet mud. And lots of it. Fortunately, we all kept our shoes on and only had a couple of dodgy moments. Our technique improved as we went along, working out the required amount of momentum to get through each boggy fi...

August has definitely been challenge... it feels like a relief to get to the end of a month where I've spent too much time at work and getting out of the door for a run has felt like an almost impossible task ! I've also gone the whole month without eating any Haribo either... as if life wasn't difficult enough! But the last week has been a turning point... work hours have reduced and I've managed three runs during the week, the highlight being a first outing for my hard-earned parkrun 250 milestone t-shirt yesterday.  And that brings me to September.. time to step up again.  So I've got two new challenges for September - one of them is Strava-based and involves being active 5 days each week. It doesn't officially start until tomorrow but I got a head start today with a lovely walk along the canal... appreciating fresh air, sunny weather and a tasty lunch at the finish! My goal is to complete 3 runs, one long walk (or run/walk) and o...

Race day was finally here.  After a difficult couple of weeks, I woke up on Saturday morning with a certain amount of trepidation after a very restless night's sleep and a couple of weeks of niggles, aches and tiredness. I reminded myself of the three goals I'd set for the race - start with confidence, enjoy the adventure and finish with a smile - and was boosted by some encouraging messages from friends and family. After a quick breakfast and a short bus ride, I arrived in Marlow for the start of the race. I wasn't sure what to expect and actually had no idea how many runners were taking part. My start time was 9.15am and it seemed like there were a couple of hundred of us setting off in the "competitive" wave covering marathon and ultra marathon distances. The ultra marathon route was approximately 33 miles involved an extra loop around Hambledon but we all started off in the same direction. My first race goal was accomplished as I started with...

An early start this week for a very significant Sunday run with the Potters Trotters... a few weeks ago, one of our club members sadly passed away. We decided as a club to dedicate April 7th as our day to run for Kate; to celebrate her life and inspire us as runners to keep on running.  There were little groups of runners from the club out and about everywhere; I joined a group meeting early to run their last long training run before the London Marathon.  Ready to Run Our plan was to run for an about an hour then join up with another group of runners training for their first half marathon... and the plan worked. We followed the Caldon Canal for a while then looped around Etruria before meeting the second group and heading out on the Trent and Mersey Canal towards Barlaston. Getting Together Everyone had their own personal challenges for the day; some were hoping to run further than ever before; I was hoping to continue my training momentum of the last ...

When I started my blogging challenge in January, I was looking for a new challenge ; something to motivate and inspire me, something outside my comfort zone, something that brings me joy, makes me smile and is worth all the effort. It sounded like a big ask, but over the last few days, I've been reminded that every run (or walk) can have a wow factor, something special and unexpected; I just need to be looking for it and appreciate it when it happens. I don't need to wait for the big race days or special events; I just ned to run with my eyes open. We are in Guernsey for a few days and the sun has been shining almost ever since we arrived on Thursday. The first 'wow' came when we arrived at our hotel. After climbing 105 steps to the front door and another 44 steps to our room... this was the view that greeted us: Looking out on St Peter Port from the Ziggurat Hotel Wow! On Friday morning, there was something magical and mysterious about watching t...

Where running and music meet... Seven years ago in January 2012,  I had my first taste of parkrun tourism, completing Pollok parkrun on a very cold and icy morning in Glasgow. The bus ride from the city centre out to Pollok Country Park was an adventure and we were really pleased to find ourselves in the right place at the right time (9.30am starts in Scotland thankfully). The ice on the normal parkrun route meant an alternative route, which essentially involved running through icy puddles round a muddy rugby field, but that didn't stop me enjoying the experience, We were in Glasgow to see Snow Patrol at the SECC and it was an amazing night. Seven years later, almost to the day, we were down in Birmingham to see Snow Patrol on their comeback tour at the Birmingham Arena. Still amazing, it was a fantastic gig and there was something infectiously joyful about the big smile on lead singer Gary Lightbody's face - it looked like they were glad to be back and the crowd certain...