This day I love.......: running

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I started November injured and feeling rather fed up. I missed running, I wanted to run but didn't want to ruin the chance of running New York. We had a Disney cruise booked for the week before the marathon, a chance to relax and unwind and generally prepare myself mentally for the race ahead. The Disney cruise had the opportunity to run the castaway cay 5km. I hadn't experienced any major pain or discomfort in my ankle for over a week and thought it might be a good tune up run before the marathon.

The second I set off my ankle flared up again. The pain went through my leg and I instantly regretted my decision. The course is flat but incredibly warm and the heat does get to you almost immediately. I finished and the pain intensified. Too late now.

I was now struggling to walk. My ankle had swollen and I was now very worried. I spent the day on Castaway Cay stood in the salty sea water, somehow hoping the sea salt might soothe any muscle injury, it made sense in my head at the time.

We had a mad dash to catch out flight from Orlando to New York. Actually though everything went really smoothly. One of the first off the ship, straight onto the Disney coach our bags had been checked into our flight from the ship so we didn't need to worry about those. We arrived at the airport with 3 hours to spare. Security was really quick and we were sat looking for breakfast in the airport.

Our flight took off on time and arrived into New York early. It took us 15 mins from leaving the plane to leaving the airport with our bags. Luckily our car I had booked was sat waiting for us, it did take some finding but we were still earlier than predicted which actually gave me plenty of time to get to the convention center and collect my number.

I had worried I would not make number collection so to make it with plenty of time to spare was a shock. The process was really straight forward. I decided not to spend time at the expo as I wanted to get back to the hotel and my family. It had been a long day travelling and I had a very early start in the morning.

I can't remember what time my alarm went, I feel I was on the subway for 5.40am. I had laid out all my clothes the night before and scrambled in the dark to get ready without waking anyone. The subway system would not accept my credit card, as it is registered to a UK address and therefore it would not recognise my post code which you have to enter to get the machine to work. I luckily had some cash on me but not wanting to have change making noise as I ran had to buy a full day pass rather than a single ticket which annoyed me slightly.

After the messing with the ticket system I was now tired and stressed. The station I was at was one of those you see in all the horror films, dim lighting and a few kids on the bench at the other end of the station all wearing hoodies. I had an internal panic that I had got the day wrong, there were no other runners. After what felt like forever a runner sat down and so I started talking to him.

It really helped ease the nerves, we chatted all the way to the ferry terminal where he went to join the queue for a drink and I tried to make some sort of sense of the chaos of people. It really was chaos. I figured I would just stand and watch and see what was happening but sort of got swept with the crowd and ended up on the ferry. No one was checking times we were simply herded on to the ferry to make our way to the start.

The ferry journey was quite peaceful and I got to watch the sun rise over the water and New York. After leaving the ferry it was simply a case of follow the other runners. The chaos then started again. Coaches would arrive and people would just push to try and get on them. I started walking down the street and discovered the long queue of buses. My advise is to keep walking as the front few seemed to have some order to them and we stood and waited.

The coach journey wasn't too long and once off we were straight into security. The waiting game now began. I followed a sea of people towards the pens. There was no where to sit so instead I just wandered around. They had run out of the free bagels and hot chocolate by the time I arrived. I stumbled across therapy dogs and it was here I stayed for around an hour.

Therapy dogs are trained dogs and their purpose was to calm down the nerves of the runners. Well I sat there at the side of the tent and just talked to the dogs owners and generally forgot about the pain in my ankle and the fact I was about to run a marathon.

For future reference take cardboard to sit on and some warm clothes that you can discard at the start line. I had just about begun to warm up and was stood on the start line in my charity vest. Unsure how this would go but I was here now. The start is on the bridge, and we were going to be going over, some ran under the bridge.

The mood on the start line was good. Everyone seemed happy and chatting away. I was with runners aiming for 5-6 hours so automatically in a pen a lot slower than I was now comfortable with. We set off up and over the bridge. The views were something else but the pace was not comfortable at all and I was struggling to get into a stride. I am not sure if it was this uncomfortable pace, the fact we start on a hill or perhaps a combination but my ankle just went no. I hadn't even covered the .2 of the 26.2 miles and I was in agony and feeling rather sick from pain. No where to stop, we are on a bridge so I pushed on. The pain was getting to me.

I don't really remember the last time I started a race knowing full well I really should not be doing this and 2 hoping I didn't make whatever was hurting worse and finally if I was going to actual make it round. Experience tells me when you don't respect the distance it will rip you to pieces and that is what happened. I decided to run and walk and stop and take lots of photos.

I kept looking for markers, signs and interesting things to take photos of. Trying all the time to just distract myself from the pain I was in. I knew I had no chance of any of the times I had been working towards and this was a matter of survival rather than a run. I was disappointed in myself and feeling frustrated, this does not make for good mental preparation for a marathon. I was beginning to walk a lot more than I would like and the frustration in me was growing. I was now just angry.

Half way could not have come soon enough. My fear of bridges was really been tested and I had this anxiety to deal with on top of everything else. Running was simply uncomfortable and I was hoping the next half was going to pass by quicker.

I bumped into a lady at half way from Ireland who had recently lost her husband. She was running for a charity and was in tears. I talked to her for about a mile before she slowed down further and it hurt me too much to keep up with her pace. I felt really guilty for leaving her but the pain I was in was simply not sustainable at the pace she was going at and I had to get round.

More and More bridges. I recognised this bridge from the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel and so now had a rough idea where we were heading. I also knew how long this bridge was but hadn't realised quite how up hill it was!

My temperature would not stabilise and I was going through removing long sleeved tops [Which were under my vest top] to attempting to put it back on whilst continuing forward. There was simply too much going off and I know my focus should just have been on getting round. Manhattan approached.

The support throughout the course was amazing. Simply first class. Had I been in the right frame of mind and running they would have given me a real boost and provided the support needed to complete the marathon. As it was the pain was just getting to me and I was loosing focus. Just when I needed it I spotted a runner I recognised and a good friend of mine went zipping past me. I did my best to catch her up and for a few miles we stuck together. I couldn't keep up and knew I was slowing her down. The Bronx was approaching and mentally I knew the final stretch was coming.

The race weaves around the Bronx with some fantastic support. On the map it looked only to be a mile or two and whilst it probably is the pain I was in made it feel a lot longer. The final bridge of the race was here and now I knew it was a straight run down to Central Park and the finish line. Not long to go.

It was beginning to get dark. I was getting cold and I felt like I had been running along the road for forever. I was mentally expecting to run through the park and not alongside it, not sure why but this got to me. I had to push on. Eventually it came the turn into the park. I knew I was almost there now and started to hear the crowds getting louder. I must be nearly there. The finish sort of came out of no where. My face says it all.

Relief it was finally over. Shocked I had actually got round but the pain was intense and I knew I was in serious trouble. The second I got home I would be going to hospital to get it looked at. Now began the very, very long walk back to the hotel.

I would love to go back and run New York again, as marathons go it is a great course with plenty of support and I do not feel like I have done the course any justice. I feel grateful that I managed to get round but unfortunately the injury sustained means it will be next year before I can even think about running again. It turns out running a marathon on a fractured ankle is not a good idea. I am now waiting for further hospital tests and results to find out just how much damage I really did cause. The fracture I sustained prior to the race, no wonder it hurt!

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Loch Ness marathon has been on my bucket list for some time and when the entries opened for this year I was one of the first to sign up. We made a weekend of it and traveled to Inverness on the Friday night.

Staying a short walk from the finish line, which is also the park for the local parkrun meant Saturday morning my daughter and I collected our letter I on one of the flattest parkruns I think I have ever done before collecting my race number.

An early start on Sunday morning for race day. The race is a point to point race so the start line is 26 miles away and as a result coaches are arranged to transport you to the start. There are plenty of porta loos at the finish line, which is where you collect the bus from, and getting on the bus was straight forward. Once on you instantly try to get a little bit of sleep or rest as the early morning and windy roads begin to take their toll on all the runners.

We arrived in what can only be described as the middle of no where. Open Scottish highland, the wind blowing and the rain coming down. It was freezing. We joined a queue, turned out it was a queue for free tea. We joined another queue, this one was for the toilet. Just over an hour of queuing in the cold and all our joints had frozen but it was finally time to start.

The bagpipes played and the race was underway, the Proclaimers playing 500 miles started pouring out the sound system and I crossed the start line. The pace was comfy but it was ever so crowded that it was difficult to get into a proper stride and relax into it. A downhill came but it was hard to capitalise on it and instead I just held back and ran as best I could.

The course profile on line looks to be downhill for the first half, then flat with a few bumps followed by a hill at mile 18 before descending into Inverness at mile 21. I can tell you now that this is all lies. The whole course is undulating and by that I mean hilly. Short sharp and little nasty hills that just zap your energy. Just as you have recovered another one approaches. My legs ached, but my word the scenery was beautiful.

Mile 17 and we hit a beautiful village with loads of support and I knew the big hill was coming. My right leg was cramping up and it was beginning to feel very tight, almost like a rubber band about to snap. I stopped to stretch and try and ease it off. It worked but then the hill came, and the hill kept going and this did not help. Instead my leg got more and more painful and so I knew I had to run and walk so as to not cause myself injury.

Not the race I had wanted but I knew that even doing this I was on for a PB, and figured this was a great achievement. The last few miles once you hit the Tesco feel like they go on forever. The support from here is fantastic and the worst part is you run past the finish on the other side of the River Ness.

Crossing that bridge and coming into the home straight was such a relief. A PB was on the cards and a sub 4.30. My kids were in the crowd cheering me on and as I crossed the line I felt so much relief. I had finished.

Loch Ness marathon is incredibly well organised and there are sections of support which are fantastic. I can safely say it is the most beautiful marathon I have ever done and would love to do it again. I would however train more on the hills to get used to the undulation of the course and I would highly recommend taking some warm trousers and a top which you can leave at the start line as it is a long wait early in the morning on the exposed Scottish Highlands!

After the marathon my right leg was incredibly sore and my left ankle. I attempted a recovery run the week after but both my ankle and leg were far too painful so I abandoned the run. Another run a week later resulted in even more pain so I decided the best plan was to rest before New York and not attempt to run again in October.

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September started with a warm up race and the last race before my next marathon in October. A 6 hour timed challenge in York organised by See York Run York, Turpin challenge. I had wanted to break the 3 hour marker for 20 mile and knew I could do the pace needed to do this. The race however just didn’t go quite to plan in that sense.

The route went around the race course and then up into some woods before starting over for the next lap. I had had pancakes for breakfast, which my eldest daughter had made specially for me, the problem is my stomach does not get on well with pancakes and so I paid for it during this race. In fact I had problems early on but decided to keep going.

I might not have hit the sub 3 mark but I absolutely smashed my 20 mile PB and my 10 mile PB and had enough energy to walk a final lap to round it up to a full marathon. The race was well organised and there was a good supply of cakes at the end, but my stomach unfortunately wasn’t in the right mood for one.

There was no rest and training continued the next week. My watch started playing up and recording runs as running 1km in 25seconds, I can assure you this did not happen and so now all my strava records are completly wrong. I ran to feel and training was going well.

Towards the end of September I attempted a parkrun 5km with the aim of a PB. My PB at parkrun was 27.30 and I knew I had it in me to beat that time. I went to Goole, as the course is relatively flat and minimal turns which I thought would help. I literally ran with my heart and just focused on that finish line. I achieved a new PB of 25.03 and could not have been happier. Although those 3 seconds are now bothering me so I need to break the 25 minute barrier now

Taper then began and my weekly miles started coming down. This doesn’t make training any easier for me, although it is quite nice to be able to go out and get the run done with the majority of my day left. Not long to go now until Loch Ness marathon and I am really looking forward to it.

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The summer holidays meant I had to get a little creative with my training. Juggling three children and fitting training in wasn’t easy but for the most part I managed it. One day a week all three children would go to holiday club and it was on these days I would fit in my long runs. One evening a week I would do a speed session. Anything else I tried to fit in as and when. Sometimes it would be buggy running and others it would be running alongside the girls on their bikes. Often though it would be late at night once the kids were asleep but on the whole I managed between 4 and 5 runs a week.

The high of Endure 24 but the high distance meant I had to start the month of steady. Luckily for me my body seems to be adapting to the high mileage and it wasn’t long before I could be back at distance. I struggled a lot mentally with my running in July and in August. Having lost J in June I was running places where I ran with him often and I would instinctively look for him. I broke down in tears on a number of my runs, even now in September I find certain routes mentally tough.

The heat was relentless throughout the summer months, even if it wasn’t always sunny the heat was always there and it made several of the training runs tougher than perhaps they should have been. I don’t think my mental health was in the right place either and I think that added to the issues I was experiencing.

Beat the street finished and our team won, which also meant I could start running normal routes again without stopping to tap loads of boxes on the way. Although there is a part of me that misses them. Whilst I hope it is not the case I may have also had my last buggy run with Little Man, fingers crossed we do manage to go out again as I have loved running with him but I cannot foresee it happening.

I only had the one race in July and August, Round Donny Run. I ran it last year with my friend, who is known as my ultra hubby as we spend a lot of time together training and running ultras. Round Donny Run is a 35km staged event. Each segment is of a differing length some are short and only a few hundred meters, the longest is just over 10km.

Last year when I did this I had no idea how long each stage was and therefore found it hard to pace it. Running 100m for example is a different pace to running 10km. This year I knew how long each stage was and could therefore work out what pace to run at. It seemed to work and went really well. The last stage however the heat got to me and I was feeling really poorly. A little disappointed with myself and my time, as I know without the heat I could have done much better, but still pleased to have been significantly faster than the previous year which shows progression.

With the kids on school holidays we also made the most of the ability to travel and went to tick off some of the parkruns further away. Our alphabet challenge is almost complete and over summer managed obtain most letters with the letters I, J, Q, U, Z left to complete.

July and August were certainly tricky months to fit training in but overall I am pleased with the amount I did. I couldn’t have physically done any more. Not long now until Loch Ness!

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