Rosedawn Ramblings

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...

This weekend has been the running adventure that is Thunder Run. .. a running event at Catton Park in Derbyshire that involves a 10k trail loop and teams or individuals trying to complete as many laps as they can in 24 hours. Here's a teaser for a proper review of the weekend.... Thunder Run in 10 words Laughter Burgers Prosecco Friends Support Rain Mud Fear Tiredness Darkness Pandas I'll fill in the rest of the story as the week goes on... because right now I'm really tired and really need to sleep but really don't want to miss a week on my blogging challenge... but let's just say it was eventful and there was even a little bit of running (although not as much as planned). In the meantime, thanks to the Rock Solid Pandas, we had a blast!

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...

‘How do you run 33 miles?’ That's a question I've been asked a lot recently (along with the more obvious, why?) and my answer is always the same... One step at a time, one mile at a time. As I stood on the start line of the D33 Ultra Marathon on a damp and drizzly morning in Duthie Park in Aberdeen, I tried to think about the challenge ahead in small manageable segments, one step at a time, one mile at a time, one snack at a time, one checkpoint at a time. My goal, to do my best (inspired by a quote from Cheryl Strayed, one of my favourite writers). With a final good luck of encouragement from Liz S, very sadly unable to run due to injury, I was underway and following a trail of runners out of the park and up onto the Deeside Way - a old rail trail running inland from Aberdeen. There was a temptation to start off too quickly - the terrain was easy underfoot, the rain not too heavy and everyone around me seemed to be speeding up as we left the park - but I resisted and tr...

The Dusk Til Dawn Half Marathon... a half marathon in the dark, on a course up hill and down dale around the Derbyshire villages of Hope and Castleton. I said 'yes' to taking part without knowing much more than that! The race started in Hope at about 5.45pm, the official time for sunset on Saturday night. We were layered up, wearing our headtorches. We were novices, totally out of comfort zone and really not sure what we were letting ourselves in for. Every change of direction seemed to bring different underfoot conditions... after a mile along the road from Hope, we followed a gravel track, then what seemed like a rocky river bed before turning up across the fields to Back Tor. We climbed up a rocky incline to the top of Back Tor, actually much less scary in darkness than in daylight for me, then crossed a ridge line to Losehill Summit in the fog, where visibility was just a few metres even with our headtorches. Boggy fields, muddy trails and then more road and on to my ...

Over the last few weeks, I've been building up to the challenge of running 10k laps as part of a team for the London Enduro organised by running / blogging passionistas at Write This Run . I've practised off-road, hilly and multiple runs and as I wrote in my last blog post , I was as ready as I was ever going to be to take on this new challenge. But what should I expect from my first experience of an endurance event? A three hour journey to Wimbledon Common on Saturday afternoon gave me lots of opportunity to ponder the question. There were a few negatives buzzing around in my end... The usual pre-race nerves were being intensified by all the unknowns - the location, terrain, night time running and of course my team mates were all new. But there was lots of excitement too... I was a grown up big kid setting off on a new adventure! But would I actually be able to do this? I arrived at the start area for the London Enduro just as the afternoon 10k and half maratho...