runner – Project Healthy Fit Me

Whose Parkrunning this weekend?

17/01/202014/01/2020 by ProjectHealthyFitMe, posted in General, Races & Race Reviews

Hello-Garden-Route-Parkrun-1

In case you don’t know Parkrun is a free to enter 5k event that takes place in hundreds of locations across the globe every Saturday morning (normally 9am in the UK), you just need to make sure your register on the Parkrun website first to get your own personalised barcode to ensure your time gets recorded
While many people are loyal to their local Parkrun, Parkrun Tourism or Parkrun challenges are growing in popularity
I’ve only ever taken part in Parkrun a handful of times, but its something I definitely plan to change in 2020 & have challenged myself to visit a different Parkrun each month, starting with my local events Orsett, Billericay, Valentines, Mile End, Southend, Barking, Chelmsford, Gorleston, Dartford, Harrow Lodge and Raphaels.
As I mentioned earlier Parkrun challenges are becoming popular, with the alphabet challenge being the most popular, attending a Parkrun beginning with every letter of the Alphabet, its definitely not the easiest of challenges I believe J & Z are only possible to complete if you are prepared to get on a plane but a little ‘Runcation’ could be fun right?
Or there’s is the Pirate challenge where you have to complete 7 Parkruns beginning with the letter C & one beginning with the letter R, this challenge is definitely easier than the alphabet challenge and could be a fun one to start with
Or Parkrun Bingo consists of finishing a Parkrun for every second on a stopwatch so all of your Parkrun finish times finish in different seconds
Find out more about Parkrun & each of the challenges below and let me know if you know you’re favourite Parkrun & why or maybe you know of another Parkrun challenge, please share I’m all for making activity as fun as possible
Parkrun
The Alphabet Challenge
The Pirate Challenge
Parkrun Stopwatch Bingo

(Please note that none of these challenges are official Parkrun challenges & you do not have to do the events listed to complete the challenge if you have other local Parkruns that fit into the challenge & the links provided are either to the Parkrun blog or to other Parkrun fans blogs)

Marathon Watch – 60 Days to go

26/02/201625/02/2016 by ProjectHealthyFitMe, posted in General, Races & Race Reviews

12733653_10153634958579748_5211876662190030149_n I seem to be struggling for time recently to update my blog so this is a short but sweet 10 day update on how my marathon training is going

60 days until the London Marathon, it was exactly 2 months on Wednesday OMG it’s coming around so quick

I’m actually feeling pretty happy with how my training is going, I have only done two proper runs in the last 10 days but both were my long runs so 8.5 & 10 miles

My left leg the one I injured last year has started to feel heavy, tight & aches constantly so I made a conscience decision to cut back on my midweek shorter runs, opting to walk those distances instead to give it some rest

photo (57)

My 8.5 mile run last week formed part of my Valentines Run, it wasn’t an organised race it was just a 5k run around a local lake with another 5.5 miles of local streets and a park thrown in to make up the miles, I’d met a friend who is also training for the marathon for the 5k around the local lake it was great to meet up with someone mid way through the run as it really broke it up & earning a bling at the end was the icing on the cake

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My 10 mile run last week was 2 laps of the Fords Motor Company test track at Dunton in Essex, the race felt awful at the time, I felt slow, my leg was aching & the wind on the course was horrendous, I was seriously tempted to give up at 4 miles, but I decided to plod on even if it meant walking the rest of the course, so rather than do my usual 3 mins running 1 minute of walking I ran where it felt comfortable and walked where the wind was pushing me so hard that running felt like a pointless exercise and around the chicanes, I was shocked when I stopped my garmin at the end of the race & saw my 1.55 finish time, I’d taken part in the same race 2 years ago and had finished in 1.52, this year had felt so much slower, I was hoping for 2hrs or under which would have kept me in line with my 12 min mile marathon pace but on the day just didn’t feel like I had it in me so was just aiming for a finish so was delighted when I saw my time

Are you training for an event, how’s it going? Or have you ever felt that you were having an awful run only to discover after you were actually holding a really good pace

Good friends don’t let you do stupid things alone… & that includes running a marathon

31/12/201431/10/2019 by ProjectHealthyFitMe, posted in General

Sometimes you meet someone and they change your life, that may sound like a really strange thing to say about a friend or a group of friends but it really true about this bunch of girls & this quote totally sums us up

I am going to tell you a story about 6 ladies who are very important to me, Alice, Cazz, Emma, Laura, Lois & Lynsey, we all met many years ago via the Weight Watchers message boards we were all either attending meetings or following the plan online, we have had varying degrees of success, some lost weight and kept it off, some lost and have gained some back (me) and others have maintained their weight during our friendship

Weight loss definitely brought us together but its not what has kept us together, that has been running & I think its safe to say for at least 5 of running was definitely not part of our plan when we first met

Our friendship really cemented itself when over 20 of us headed to Aberdeen for a weekend in December 2012, it wasn’t the first time many of us had met, we had had a few of these Weight Watchers meets over the years in London, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Peterborough but in Aberdeen a real friendship formed for 7 of us have met up twice a year ever since but something about these meets changed, they used to be all about eating, drinking and a good old catch up, but while we were in Aberdeen 3 of the girls mentioned running the Bath Half Marathon and things kind of snowballed from there & I somehow found myself agreeing to run a half marathon (what was I thinking I could barely run 5k) anyway I am not sure what happened maybe fate intervened but even though I thought I had signed up I hadn’t so we ended up in Bath in March 2013 with 4 of the girls running & two of us as cheerleaders

I have been to see the London Marathon a few times and always loved cheering on the runners but this time it was different actually having friends running made it even more special, the route was two laps and Lynsey & I thought we would find it easy to spot the girls but unfortunately that wasn’t the case, we missed Cazz & Emma completely but did manage to see & cheer on Laura and Lois

The following day everyone was on a high, Cazz was already entered into the Amsterdam Marathon in the October and crazily the other 6 of us all agreed on overseas catch up would be fun so decided to tag along for the Half Marathon, what was we thinking??

On the day of the race we headed out to the local park to cheer Cazz on around the 3 mile point in the marathon, before heading back to our hotel getting changed and heading out for the start of our race, I am not sure what it was about Amsterdam possibly the late start – the half didn’t start until 2pm but none of us enjoyed this race we all struggled but we were all there cheering one another on as we crossed the finish line, in fact Laura and I even finished together after meeting up around the 12 mile mark and me desperately trying to keep up with her for that last mile

Next up was a return trip to Bath only 4 of us made it this time & I think the pain in my face shows that I didn’t really enjoy this one, Lynsey absolutely smashed it and beat her Amsterdam time by about 20 mins! Unfortunately Laura was taken really ill at the end of this race and with the London Marathon only a few weeks away and after some very good advice from the lovely and extremely helpful people from St Johns Ambulance we decided to sign up to another Half Marathon the following week local to home

I love this photo, even though it was taken at the start, this was an incredibly tough course on a very hot day there was something about this race that I loved, I think it was the fact that I had been running fairly reguarly over the past few weeks and even though it was tough I carried on and even at the end we were still running strong, this was actually another race Laura and I managed to finish together we split up just after this photo so around 1-2 miles into the race and found one another again around mile 8-9 (or 13 for Laura as she had done 3 miles before we even started)

Next was the London Marathon, Laura and Cazz were running and Lyns, Lois & I were the cheering squad, we even roped in my very reluctant husband to hang out with us for the day cheering on total strangers

I need to give mention here to another very good friend Jemma who I was also cheering on at the marathon, Jemma has been a huge inspiration to me since I met her a few years ago, she once said once you’ve walked 26 miles with someone you’ll be friends for life and I really believe thats true of us, over the last two years we have walked 2 marathons together, run 4 5ks, a 5k obstacle course, a 5 mile race finishing in the Olympic Stadium, a 10k & a half marathon she is definitely one of my Runspirations for the marathon next year

Next was the Great North Run, to me this is such an iconic race, its as big a race as the London Marathon & its a race I have watched on the TV for many years I have never ran a race with anyone before but this time I had the pleasure of running with Elle, Lois’s sister, it was Elle’s first half marathon and we were both suffering a little, me with shin pain following the week before’s Spitfire Scramble and Elle with a hip problem, so it wasn’t about a time for either of us it was just about finisihng which we did with a huge great smile on our faces, especially as we got see the confetti going off as the millionth finisher crossed the finish line

& last but definitely not least was the Great South Run, I ran this one with Alice, we kept it quite that we were both running as Alice’s confidence had taken a bit of a knock after Amsterdam, but watching us all at the Great North Run had ignited something in Alice and made her want to run again, so she had started training, as we headed to the start line neither of us were feeling confident, I had been ill the week before and Alice just wasn’t sure she was capable of the distance but I believed in her, so did Cazz the only other one of us she had confided in & I knew the rest of the girls would have done to, thats whats been so great we have all really believed and supported one another, we don’t live close, we live London, Newcastle, Bristol & Glasgow so whether we are meeting for a run or meeting to be the cheer squad it shows how much we support one another

On the day Alice & I smashed it, I had wanted a sub 2hrs and came in only 30 seconds slower than I was over the same distance 8 months earlier when i was running a lot more reguarly & Alice exceeded her hoped for time by over 20 minutes & I was lucky enough to be able to head back out onto the course to cheer her on as she passed the 800m marker, the smile on her face said it all she had done this, she had fought her demons and done something amazing!!

Next year we are doing it all again, we are all signing up to the Jantastic challenge then Lois and I are running the London Marathon in 2015 & I think, Cazz, Laura and Alice will be there at the sidelines cheering us on

Love my friends xxx

My Royal Parks Half Marathon

21/10/201431/10/2019 by ProjectHealthyFitMe, posted in Races & Race Reviews

Race No 19 – Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon

It started so well, the night before I happened to notice that Leah from Naturally Leah, had retweeted her race recap from last years Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon, learning from Leah & knowing how much I hate early starts & that I had to leave home just before 7am, I decided to gather all my kit together ready for the following days race

Just as well I did really because as predicted, I snoozed my alarm clock twice & then dithered around the house meaning I left 15 minutes later than planned & had to eat my trusty pre race breakfast of peanut butter on toast on the way to the station

Despite me running late & their being problems on both the tube lines I needed to use I still arrived with 30 mins to spare

The race village was busy, I hadn’t planned to use the bag drop, I had taken an old hoody that I was going to dump, but at the last minute I changed my mind and stored my hoody before heading off and joining what seemed to be the never ending queue for the loo

The start pens were easy enough to find, it was a little strange no having anyone with me, this was my first time running a Half Marathon without having friends in the start pen with me or knowing I had anyone to meet with at the finish, but even so I was still quite excited, for months I had secretly been hoping for a PB at this event, and watching last weeks Great Scottish Run on TV had really left me pumped and ready to run, just enough time for a pre race selfie and then we were crossing the start line

& thats where my race started to go wrong, literally that quickly, only meters away from the start, I think I stopped 3 times in the first kilometer, I wear knee supports as I have a problem with my IT Band, both knee supports kept feeling like they were falling down, I kept trying to pull them up, but they were just twisting and becoming uncomfortable, I wear a small bag around my waist that carries my phone, travelcard and a few gels, this has never bothered me in the past but today it kept bouncing and one of my gels had already started to slip put of the holder, and then my capri’s started to feel like they were falling down, what was going? I think it was all the plling about I had been doing with the knee supports had just made me feel uncomfortably dressed and had been a total waste of time because the next time I looked down the right support had slipped so far it was becoming visible from beneath my capri’s, in the end I gave up and stopped at the first set of toilets to try and sort out my knee supports, almost as soon as my race had started my chances of a PB had slipped away

I started running again, but still couldn’t get comfortable, I had forgotten to take my paracetamol before I left home and already I could feel my shin niggling (a not so happy reminder of the Spitfire Scramble), my earphones kept falling out, I never run with music, but being on my own today I hoped it would give me a lift, but that didn’t last much past the 2 mile marker either & because I wasn’t listening to any music, I hadn’t noticed that my ipod had become unclipped from my waistband and was dangling down, trying to wrap itself around my leg until someone tapped me on the shoulder

I thought about just running for fun, taking out my phone and taking some photos as I was crossing Westminster Bridge but I felt silly to stop so early on so I just kept moving, then at 4 miles I started to feel funny, I have lost count of how many races I have taken part in, I know I wasn’t in the best shape of my life but I shouldn’t be hitting a wall at 6.5k, I just felt really lightheaded, dizzy and absolutely exhausted, there was a toilet just ahead so i decided to take myself out of the race for a few minutes, have an energy gel and some water and just stand quietly for a few minutes and regroup.

Because I was going to stop for a few minutes I done something I have never done before, I paused my Garmin, except I didn’t, I switched it off..

Seriously what else could go wrong?! I love my Garmin, it keeps me on track & lets me know whether or not I am on track, I paniced for a second, expecting a full on meltdown, but instead I had a strange sense of calm, I was very near Embankment Station, I had two choices, go home, or shut up and just get on with it and get to the end of the race no matter how long it took

I had seen the above quote on Instagram the night before and I decided now more than ever I needed to embrace it, I had completed 5 walking marathons, no matter how long this took, I couldn’t let this race defeat me, so I reset my watch and started to move again.

Around the 5 mile mark just as we were running down The Mall, I spotted a girl called Becca, we had passed each other a few times already along the route and had spoken to offer words of encouragement a few times, just as we reentered Hyde Park I spotted Becca again, she was taking a short walking break so I gave her a wave and said come on, you can’t let me beat you! immediately she started running again, and just like that we both found ourselves a running buddy to get us around the rest of the course, the next few miles literally seemed to fly by as we ran, chatted and walked for the odd few minutes

I knew Leah one of my fellow Spitfire Scramblers was hoping to be around the 9 mile mark and honestly I don’t think I have ever been happier to see anyone, running with Becca had rebuilt my confidence, we were running strong, so when I saw Leah I literally ran towards her waving my arms in the air & a smile on my face, a huge contrast to how I felt earlier in the race and after that first Spitfire Scramble lap & I thank you so much Leah for being such a fab photographer because I don’t think I have ever had such a good photo taken while running

Photo Credit – Naturally Leah

The final few miles passed quickly, with Becca and I still chatting as we went along, finally the finish line was in sight, now I don’t think Becca will mind me saying that I helped her around the last few miles, she was suffering from Shin Splints and I promised I wouldn’t leave her, so we ran intervals that I had timed on my watch, while we were running she had mentioned that she used to be a sprinter and that distance really wasn’t her thing & in those last few 100 meters Becca really come into her own, as we passed the 200m sign she grabbed me and said come on, and out of no where she was off like a rocket, with me chasing along behind her, I have never been one for a sprint finish but I am very proud to say Becca helped me achieve this in this race & I have the photo’s to prove it (2 photo’s in one race with me smiling!! I’d never have guessed that when I thought about quitting at mile 4)

This race really was a mental one rather than a physical one, I had been so tempted to quit but I am so glad I carried on, I want to give a big shout out to Becca again on completing her first Half Marathon, to Rebekah on a PB & to Tanja & Leah on being fantastic supporters

Last but not least the second half of my time

The Bling

Oh and the most amazing goody bag I have ever received at a race, which included a £25 Hello Fresh voucher (I have been wanting to try Hello Fresh for ages), Whole Earth Peanut Butter, Yorkshire Tea Bags, Dorset Cereal, a Bounce Ball, plus much much more

Would I do the Royal Parks Half Marathon again, probably not, the £50 race entry is pretty steep but I would definitely look into volunteering, I think after the marathon 2015 should definitely be about giving something back to all the races I have previously ran

Happy 10th Birthday Parkrun

05/10/201431/10/2019 by ProjectHealthyFitMe, posted in Races & Race Reviews

Race No 18 – International Parkrun Day

Ok so I know I am a few days late but those of you who know me will know birthdays have never been my strong point, so even though I am a little late this one deserves a special mention

This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of Parkrun, Parkrun was founded by Paul Sinton Hewitt in Bushy Park, London and the event was originally called Bushy Park Time Trial, this grew to a small number events across the UK before officially becoming Parkrun in 2010, where the event has gone from strength to strength

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29488453

The original event had just 13 participant who all returned today to their starting place in Bushy Park to join 1700 other runners to celebrate Parkruns 10th birthday, along with many others in the 375 locations in 9 countries across the world

For those of you that haven’t heard about Parkrun, they offer free to enter, weekly, timed 5k events in local parks every Saturday at 9am, to go along all you need to do is register online at http://www.parkrun.org.uk & print off the barcode they provide and bring it along to the race with you

I went along to my local Parkrun with a friend this morning expecting a celebration, but it was barely even mentioned, I know the event is run by volunteers but I feel with a little more effort they could have really publicised their great little event, but it was hardly mentioned on their Facebook page this week & there was nothing at the event to indicate today was any different, other than possibly them wanting to dash off as they had packed away the flags, the stop watch and the numbers you received before the last two participants crossed the finish line

I have to be honest, I was disappointed today, I am lucky in that I have a few nearby Parkrun events as it’s certainly put me off this particular one and it has also put me off telling newbie runners about Parkrun, in case they find themselves missed by the tail runner, but then I suppose this is not exclusive to Parkrun as I also witnessed this at the Resolution Run in London last year

If you went along to celebrate Parkrun’s birthday yesterday, share below which event you went to