Great Notley parkrun...

A year a go today was the first Great Notley parkrun, I went along as it was now my local parkrun and I knew someone in the core team and wanted to offer some support. I had previously mainly run at Colchester parkrun which I had always enjoyed.

Great Notley parkrun was different, from that first event it had a friendly, welcoming feel where you were made to feel really welcome and I soon changed it to my home run and that's where I have spent most of my Saturday mornings since then. 

parkrun for those of you who don't know is a free 5km timed run (in parks all over the country) run entirely by volunteers which take place at 9am every Saturday.

All runners are encouraged to volunteer every so often and parkrun can't go ahead without them. At first I volunteered for easy jobs (turns out they are all easy!) and worried when asked to do timekeeping or something I perceived as difficult. Towards the end of last year Richard, who had been part of the core team since the beginning, mentioned Len was looking to expand the core team and I should join them. My initial reaction was 'no way, couldn't possibly do that' but the seed had been planted and quite quickly I began to think that maybe I could do it...

Now I wonder why I ever had that initial reaction because being part of Great Notley parkrun's core team is one of the most rewarding, fun and fulfilling parts of my life. Richard I will always be grateful to you for getting me involved, thank you. I was immediately made to feel like one of the team, and love my weeks as run director as well as supporting the rest of the team, the volunteers and runners and I still get to run a lot too, making it to my 50th run earlier this year.

So today we celebrated our first birthday, the theme (we love a reason to dress up!) was grass skirts and loud shirts beach party. So early this morning dressed in a sarong and bikini top I headed for the park. It was brilliant, runners and volunteers get awarded points over the year and I was proud to win The Women's Points trophy for 2014/15. 

    

216 runners joined us to celebrate today and I joined the volunteers as tail runner. It was a brilliant morning and just reinforced my love of our event. Happy, smiley people enjoying the sunshine, some new on their running journey, others like myself have been running for a long time. We have a real sense of community which is sometimes missing in other parts of our busy day to day lives. Len asked this morning during the runners brief if anyone had met a new friend at parkrun during the last year. I am lucky to have met lots! 

All that is left to say is my heartfelt thanks to all of the core team Len, Rich, John, Dan, Chris, Pete and Jenna (and your families) you are not just core team but friends that I am privileged to have in my life. I am extremely lucky to be involved in an event that brings us together every Saturday morning, in all weathers, to run, support, volunteer and most importantly have fun. 

To every runner and volunteer who I have met this year thank you too xx 

     Enjoying tail running! 

Have a great week and happy running xx 

(Photos by Mike Eldred) 

Training, training and a bit more training...

It's been a tough couple of weeks that have consisted of me running, going to work, running, eating, running, sleeping, running... You get the picture. I knew it was going to be hard, the last big training month before my next race. 

The last three weekends I have done back to back long runs averaging about 50miles over each weekend. Fortunately I have been lucky to have friends who have joined me on some of these runs and that has made it easier. The good thing is I have now run all of The Saffron Trail so no excuses for navigational errors on race day (night, this race starts at 6pm and is 70 miles long!). 

This weekend began with parkrun, the training plan said 25-27minutes, it took 28 and that was pushing it, hadn't really felt great all week and had just put it down to tiredness, but possibly had a bug of some sort who knows?! 

Saturday afternoon I threw a few extra miles in by running to Colne Engaine with some friends, Colne Engaine had declared themselves independent for the day and had a WW1 themed fete, Richard thought it would be fun to grab our passports and run over to support a friend who is involved in raising funds for a war memorial in the village. So on Saturday afternoon Richard, Len and myself set off from Braintree we met Michelle (yes she really is my sister!!) on the way and arrived in Colne Engaine to a round of applause and free beer!! It was a really fun afternoon and a very pleasant run.

     Running to Colne Engaine! 

Sunday the training plan said 30miles. I had arranged with Brian to run from Chelmsford to Saffron Walden to recce the rest of the route we hadn't already done, we thought it would be just over 30 miles. I woke up feeling, tired, grumpy and achy and didn't even feel like running 3 miles let alone 30 but it needed to be done so I reluctantly got my kit ready and headed off to meet Brian. We weren't starting till lunch time so I expected a late finish as I knew it wouldn't be quick. 

As we ran across the park in Chelmsford we ran into Naomi who was also doing a recce of the route, so we joined forces and off we went. My earlier reluctance to run soon disappeared and I was soon enjoying the sunshine and the company. 

A quick stop for more water and some snacks in Felsted and we carried on our way. The route was good a little overgrown in places but navigation was good and I didn't feel too bad. By 20 miles though I was starting to feel very tired and my legs were protesting, I ran when I could, walked the hills, kept eating and tried to keep positive. We came to one bridge over a river where the foot path was closed, there seemed to be no obvious (quick) detour so forgetting all this equality stuff we let Brian test the very dodgy looking bridge, he didn't plummet into the river so Naomi and I followed suit, fortunately we all made it safely across!!

     Big orange barriers are meant to be climbed over aren't they? 

Naomi left us at about 23 miles for her lift home and Brian and I carried on towards Saffron Walden. I wasn't particularly happy that we still had 12 miles to go but kept moving forward. It was starting to get late and I hadn't packed a head torch so we needed to be finished before dark, it was the longest day so I guessed we'd be alright. Brian suggested we see what time it was when we reached Newport and then decide what to do. I interpreted this as stopping there and getting a taxi back to Saffron Walden. I may have thrown a slight tantrum when we eventually got there and I discovered his plan was to just run along the road to Saffron Walden. At that moment I hated everything but as Brian just ran off I had no option but to follow but told him there was no way I was running! I hadn't eaten for a while so grabbed a cereal bar, some chocolate and jelly beans and gradually my mood improved, I refused to run along the road, if I was going all the way then I was doing the proper route! At that time I had a message from Richard asking how my run had gone and I replied we were still running (shuffling) and I wasn't hapay, he replied with just the right words of encouragement to get me back on track, pick up the pace the best I could and get it finished, thanks Richard. I am so glad now that I did and that I managed to snap out of the lowest point of the day and get it done. Eventually 37.5 miles after we started we arrived in Saffron Walden. We followed signs to the car park only to find it wasn't the car park where my car was. We asked a policeman who was in his van who very kindly let us hop in and they drove us to the correct one, an amusing end to the day's running!

I do have to say a massive thank you to all of you that have been involved in my running exploits this month, nearly 200 miles so far, it's been fun (most of the time!) just one week of tough training left before tapering for Saffron Trail Ultra. Love you all x

Have a great week and happy running xxx 

Long runs and Stour Valley Marathon

The last few weeks haven't been easy, had a small crisis of confidence about my running ability, not going to go on and on about it as it's something to move on from and this weekend has helped me to do that, writing about the negativity I have experienced I don't think will be helpful. I am fortunate to have a very supportive coach and friend in Lindley and lots of running friends who have put up with me recently!

This weekend I had a 20 miles run scheduled for Saturday and Stour Valley Marathon (27 miles) on Sunday. Saturday I decided to get up really early and run 'the long way' to Great Notley parkrun, so planned 17 miles on the Flitch Way ending up at Great Notley Country Park and then run parkrun to make it up to the 20, this would give me the afternoon to do boring household stuff! I guessed a 5am start would get me to parkrun in time to help with set up if needed. My friend Richard said he would come along and even though he moaned a little about the crazily early start we had a great run in the early morning sunshine. 

      Early morning miles with Richard

We arrived at parkrun at 8am having run faster than I had planned, legs felt a little tired but I was looking forward to running with my sister (a fairly new runner) at parkrun. It made my day to help her get around in 30:35 a new PB for her and was a confidence boost for me that as I was helping her and not thinking about my running, I hadn't felt tired at all. So 20 miles was done and the total running time was 3.5 hours. Thank you to Michelle and Richard for a great morning of running. 

Stour Valley Marathon

Sunday looked to be another warm day but I was looking forward to my run, I had run this marathon last year (again after a long run on the Saturday) and knew it was a tough but very scenic route.

I arrived in time to catch up with some friends and have a relaxed, chilled out start, it was just a training run, no pressure, an enjoyable run in beautiful countryside and I'd get a medal at the end. I met up with Katie who was going to run with me, I hadn't run with her before but it worked well, and we were a similar pace.

      Just some of the stunning scenery

I used the route description backed up with GPS to navigate and we didn't get lost at all. Something I had realised the weekend before when running with a friend is I walk all too easily and probably keep my pace inside my comfort zone. So I did my best to ignore my slightly tired legs and run as much as I could. I had forgotten just how hilly the route was but was good to find I can walk uphill really quite fast and the hill training I do has meant I am much more confident on the descents and was able to have some fun running down the hills at a good, fast pace. 

The miles ticked by quickly, it was hot but a breeze at times kept it bearable and my eating/drinking strategy was working well, I was able to keep positive, enjoy the scenery and the company. About half way in, I knew we were on target for about a six hour finish, I was starting to tire, but we agreed to push on as much as we could to try and get that time. 

A real positive boost for me was that we managed to overtake a few people in the last 5 or 6 miles, we weren't  moving fast, but we were steady and always moving, keeping our checkpoint stops brief before carrying on.

As we came back into Nayland we knew we only had a matter of minutes to get six hours so we picked up speed and headed for the finish line. According to my Garmin I finished in exactly 6 hours, I was extremely pleased as it was 20 minutes quicker than last year. It was also good to see Lindley who had come to see people finish. 

      Katie and I at the finish

Thanks to Kevin and all the volunteers who made it a great day. Very well organised and a great medal. Will be back next year, maybe I will even rest beforehand and see if I can run it quicker! 

It really was one of those weekends of running that makes you thankful you are able to get out and do it. Good, positive running, great friends, sunshine and beautiful scenery, and finishing a weekend completely shattered is always a good feeling. 

Thank you to all involved in making it a brilliant weekend. I am feeling much happier, more confident and feel I know what I need to keep doing in order to reach my goals.

Have a great week and happy running xx