More about me.

So today has been a rest day.  My foot is bruised and I thought it best to have a day off it, and it’s been peeing it down and I’m being a wuss!

So I thought I might write a little bit more about me and my previous running etc etc.  I talked about where I am fitness wise currently in my first blog but for this one I’ll go back to the beginning, it is after all a very good place to start...

I have been kind of into running and walking, among other things, since I was a kid.  I was one of the, seemingly rare, people who on the whole enjoyed school PE and was reasonably good at most sports – especially individual athletics type events.  Team sports not so much as I was a bit over-sensitive to people being mean to me.  I always had to do more than one event at school sports days and went reasonably willingly to take part in schools cross-country.  I can’t remember doing very well but I can remember the taste of blood in my mouth from pushing myself too hard!

Outside of school we went to orienteering events a lot and I was alright at that, there are trophies, never as good as my brother was but good enough.  My main thing was always horse-riding though. And once we got a dog taking her for looooong rambles, just being out all day walking.  We used to do a bit of walking as a family too and I remember some walking holidays in the lakes (Barf was my first fell.  I picked it because of the name – happy days!)

It was during my general active child period that I did the only thing I’ve ever done that approaches Trailtrekker in scope, namely the Lyke Wake Walk.  Which is 40 odd miles over the North Yorkshire Moors.  I did it in 13 and a half hours and enjoyed myself but lost a big toenail in the process.

The orienteering tailed off when we got a bit older but wanting to get fitter for horse-riding gave me a push to pick up running again in 6^th form and I’ve have a kind of on/off relationship with it since.  Bursts of 6 months of enthusiastic training, followed by pretty much the same amount of time off.  All through a gap year in the states, an undergraduate degree, a stunted attempt at a PhD, half a year of having a proper job, and an MSc during which everything got a bit much and I ended up living back at home at the age of 26.

It was at this point that I had my most serious bout of running.  I started doing a little bit then joined a running website to record my training, started talking to people on there and it all went a bit mental.  Over the next year and a bit I went from running my first ever 10K race to entering, training for and completing an off-road 22 mile race in under 4 hours.  Then I got injured and training became less consistent but I still managed to do a 2 day mountain marathon, do reasonably well at a 6 day orienteering festival and do several triathlons the following summer as well as doing the whole starting a new relationship thing with Stu.  On the whole I was quite fit at this point.

Unfortunately I then met a hurdle in the form of starting a PGCE.  I managed to keep running in dribs and drabs and even got a 10K PB by a few seconds and completed a half marathon during my PGCE year.  But it was just so full on just getting the teacher training done I stopped running towards the end of the year.  Anyway I passed, got a job and moved in with Stu and we got Oscar who kept me busy for the whole summer before starting work.  And a month or so into the new job I managed to acquire a horse – a life-long dream, but another thing to keep me very busy!   I didn’t really get started with the running again but did somehow manage to do enough training to get round a trail marathon early the following summer.  I think the longest run I did in training was 13 miles, so not very good training really but I ran/walked it and enjoyed myself and aside from the Lyke Wake Walk (which doesn’t really count because things you do when you are 13 don’t count by the time you’re 29!) that is the furthest I’ve run/walked!

So into my second year of teaching and by Christmas it was clear that it wasn’t really working for me.  Too stressed and although I loved the actual teaching I found coping with everything else that came with it basically impossible.  I handed in my notice with feelings of sadness but also a lot of relief.  We had gained a Hugo around this time as well so I threw myself into raising a puppy for a few months and just getting over the trauma!

I started running again in about May.  I joined a beginner runner class with the local running groups and for a while really enjoyed it and progressed.  I did a 5K race slower than I ever have but felt good about it and then joined a mixed ability group over the summer, again enjoying it.  I’ve also been walking the dogs further and further as Hugo has grown up and generally feeling much fitter than I have in a long while.  I managed to up the running distance a bit again and have done two 8/9 mile trail races this Autumn.  Still run/walking and very slow but enjoying them.  But I’ve managed to put myself off running with the running class due to having panic attacks at being left trailing at the back of the group (even when I wasn’t actually) and just generally struggling with running in company and not feeling like I’ve been progressing.  I’ve also not really managed to lose much weight and have found that quite frustrating as it would really help me run faster if I wasn’t lugging an extra stone or two around with me everywhere!  A month or so ago I hit a real motivation low and for a week or so considered giving up on the running altogether...

So how come I’ve ended up signing up for this Trailtrekker madness then?!  I think I’m just going to blame Dave as it is probably the easiest explanation.   Well Dave and Alix had already asked us way back in June time when I was feeling keen, so we had already kind of agreed to it.  They asked us again just as I was feeling utterly rubbish about running and I had a good long think about it, especially as my main worry about running in general is my lack of pace and Stu, Dave and Alix are all speedy people.  But in the end I have decided that it’ll get me motivated to get training and if it doesn’t then there’s no hope for me at all.  And it’s the kind of event I enjoy, longer distances over variable terrain with no obligation to run any of it but where you can run as much of it as you like.  And a team event – I always enjoy races more when they are done with good company... my running highlights have probably been the mountain marathon I did with Stu and the first 22 mile off-road event, again with Stu and the first half with our friend Heidi.  Fond memories both.  I’ve enjoyed the races I’ve done alone but not anywhere near as much, even though I liked completely setting my own pace.

And I really want to raise some money for a good cause as well.  I don’t do nearly enough.  I’m loath to ask for sponsorship for normal races, even marathons, just because they don’t (to me who has essentially been running all my life) feel like a challenge worthy of asking.  Although I should make clear that I don’t apply the same criteria to other people and am quite happy to sponsor others to run half a mile if I like the cause and respect what they are doing!   But yes I feel that 100km isn’t something I do every day or even every month or so, so I feel justified in raising a bit of money for Oxfam alongside training and taking part in this one.

I kind of left my “life” side of the story hanging there, what do I do with myself these days if I don’t teach then?  I said in an earlier blog that I’m Batman.... I’m not REALLY Batman, I’m now doing supply teaching.  Which is very much like being Batman, except you don’t get to Pow or Wham anyone and you don’t get a trusty side-kick who goes “crikey”.  It’s working so far though and I get to do some of the good bits of teaching with less of the bad.

I appear to like waffling on about myself – I do hope it has been vaguely interesting reading and not utter drudgery.  I am going to stop now though.   Here’s hoping my foot feels a bit better tomorrow!