Typecast

This weekend I earned my 25th credit for volunteering at parkrun UK . During the pandemic, I made a conscious decision to participate in parkrun more when it returned, both as a runner and a volunteer.   Then I broke my foot.   Parkrun returned whilst I was still injured so I rocked up a couple of times to my local spots (Witton parkrun and Hyndburn parkrun) and offered to help out. After a few weeks, the Events Director asked if I'd like to join the team of Run Directors at Witton and I jumped at the chance. What a great opportunity! I now volunteer a minimum of 2 out of 7 weeks on the Run Director rota but I'm always there to lend a hand when I can and when needed. There's plenty of chances to gain a run and volunteer credit on the same day but I also really enjoy static volunteer positions like timekeeping, barcode scanning and marshalling at the top of The Beast (like today!). I love parkrun - it's good for my mental health and well-being. I enjoy seeing everyone...

I often over-share my running journey on  my Instagram account  with 2018 being a fantastic year for achievements, new challenges and lots of personal best times. 2019 was a bit up and down with a dreaded knee issue (osteoarthritis) flaring up again and threatening to push me into retirement. I still managed to complete a few races, including my first 10-miler and a half marathon for charity . 2020 was going to be my ‘comeback’ year but with emphasis on running for fun rather than chasing any specific times, although I did want to crack a 30-minute 5k at some point. I started to find my feet again by jumping on board as a volunteer with the Blackburn Couch to 5K community running group, being part of the pacing team for the Blackburn Road Runners Winter Warmer 10K as the back runner and doing a few 3 mile social runs with some of my old crew.  But then we went into lockdown and all the fun races that I had booked started to be cancelled. I’m the type of person who ne...

When I started running, I pulled on an old pair of joggers and a baggy t-shirt then picked up my fairly well-worn Reeboks and set off for the first session of the Couch To 5K group.   BIG MISTAKE!  Because I was wearing "my own clothes" I didn't look or feel the part. Also, when I first started looking for fitness clothes, it was a bit of a minefield - I wasn't sure what was best to buy. However, once I'd bought a proper pair of running shoes and specific garb that I would only use for running I felt much more invested in the whole activity.  Over the past few months I have bought a few more items of running clothes but I've ensured that they fit me properly and are comfy. I've also bought a new pair of running shoes recently which are slightly lighter and more fitted around my feet and work well with my best compression socks . As for the rest of it... have a look at my video where I show you what I actually wear. None of it was expens...

First the excuses and the mini-updates...  I hadn't written a "January Run Down" until now because there didn't seem to be much to say (I'm wrong, as usual). For me, the beginning of the year is always a bit of a slow start and, up until a couple of weeks ago, I hadn't entered any races. My first run of the year was a mid-week, daytime run which is a HUGE novelty but I had an extra day off work and managed to get out with a few of the running gang and have a lovely six mile plod around Samlesbury. Nothing else exciting happened apart from occasionally leading the 11-minute mile group for Club Runs on Monday and Wednesday and joining in with some longer runs with my friends who are training for the Lisbon Half Marathon in March.  I currently haven't got a half marathon booked but wanted to increase my mileage "just in case". After all my protesting last year, I'm learning to appreciate the longer runs, but only when I have good people...

It's been just over a year since I joined Blackburn Road Runners . It's a decision that took me a long time to make but during the past twelve months I've come to realise that there's a time and a place for everything.  After my first race wearing a BRR vest (the Windmill 10k in Lytham) I decided to take a year for myself, attempt some challenges, say "YES" more than saying "no" and see if I could push myself beyond what I thought were my boundaries. Challenge 1 : Lose weight Challenge 2 : Run 1000 km in a year Challenge 3 : Run a long distance race Challenge 4 : Break 1h 10m in a 10k race Photo Credit : Gemma McAuley Photography Losing Weight The losing weight bit was separate to the running but was always going to compliment it.  I joined Slimming World and have lost almost 2.5 stone over the course of the year.  It's not as much as I hoped but its been steady progress. I could have stayed right on plan and possibly lost ...

At the beginning of this year I set myself a goal to run 1000km by the 31st of December.  I had just joined Blackburn Road Runners and was wanting to get some serious training done to tackle my 10k personal best time.  Little did I know that I would end up training for a 10 mile race by the end of the month and then training for, and completing, two half marathons ( Darwen and Southport ).  Because of the way races and club runs are structured, I changed my Garmin into miles and promptly forgot about my challenge. Read more about my Ibiza run  on Instagram That was until I went for a quick run in Ibiza , refreshed my Strava profile  and I noticed that I was within touching distance of 500 miles for the year.  I smashed through the 500 mile mark on a club run last week  then I did a couple of calculations, realising that I was nearer to that 1000km goal that I thought I could be. Read more about the run when I broke through 500...

I can't decide if I'm suitably embarrassed or completely proud of this "official" photo from my most recent race (more on that in a bit). Sometimes I think I need to bloody grow up or maybe I'm just having the BEST year EVER, taking on challenges to help me become a better person all round and listening to advice from my peers. I'm never going to win prizes or stand on a podium again so I might as well have a bit of fun whilst doing something I'm learning to love.  Photo courtesy of Ribble Way Run After my second half marathon I decided that I needed to try and maintain a 'running for pleasure' attitude seeing as though I was enjoying running so much. Our running club had a fantastic summer calendar planned and I thought I'd try and join in with a couple of the events where I could. The first one was a Grand Prix where the rules were far too complicated to explain but as long as the members organising it could work out the resu...

I can look back at my first half marathon with hindsight and see where I went wrong.  I chose one of the toughest local races and rushed into a decision after training for a different distance. Post-race, it took me a while to get back on my feet properly but aced a course personal best at a local parkrun, took the trainers to Tenerife for a bit of a holiday jog and managed to score a 10k personal best time at a mid-week race. I also started mixing in a bit of off-road trail running just to liven things up a bit - nothing too extreme but short, sharp shocks to the system, and huge hills to work the thighs!  Running was fun again so I was ready for another challenge.  Enter, stage left, the Southport Half Marathon. Now, I wasn't going to make the same mistake again, and I'd already started to put in some long(er) runs with Claire even though we didn't know what we were training for yet so it was just a case of upping the mileage each week and taking it fro...

Back in January, my running club set a 12-month health and fitness challenge for 2018 and the first challenge was to drink a minimum of two litres of water per day.  It worked really well for me as I already drink buckets of the stuff (or so I thought) and it helped me to kick start my new diet too. At the beginning of the year, if you'd have told me that my most favourite kitchen gadget would end up being my water filter jug, I'd have laughed in your face.  There's nothing wrong with British tap water - in fact, we are extremely lucky to be able to drink "corporation pop" without having to treat it or rely on bottled water.  But the ZeroWater filter jug is a bit of a game changer. We all know that a lack of water intake can cause stress, lack of sleep, headaches and even muscle strain. According to their blurb, ZeroWater is the only gravity-fed filtration system to match the TDS* levels found in purified bottled water so the result is amazing tasting ...

In the last #Fitbitches update I mentioned that I was changing the way in which I was participating in running, both as a mentor and for self-improvement. Volunteering as a Team Leader three times a week with GroupRun Blackburn 's 'couch to 5k' group and then one 'long run' a week with Blackburn Road Runners was working perfectly.  But I had to make a huge decision.  Did I want to make that huge leap and officially become a 'club member' and be part of a organisation with a fantastic reputation and a strong membership? Long story short... YES, I DID! What swung it for me was the support that I've received by all the Blackburn Road Runners (BRR), many of whom have come through the community couch to 5k programme and are now running half and full marathons ! I hear the BRR members cheering me on at races. I love reading about their camaraderie via Facebook updates. I enjoy spotting the blue and white vest at events and even on the televisio...