On Progress

Last week after complaining on twitter about being slowed down by hoards of slow, unaware students during my last 10 mile tempo run before this weekend's marathon, I received a reply back from a fellow runner who I'd chatted to before but had never gone to the effort of clicking through to read what she was about.  Her twitter profile told me she also ran the Paris marathon this year.  It also told me she ran it pretty darn fast.  And her half time was impressive too.

But it wasn't until I got through to her blog, that I was really impressed.  She's listed all of her races, in date order, and you can see her progression in times.  It's awesome to see how she has progressed. From a 29.20 pb in 2010 Sarah has worked her way all the way to a speedy 20.39 parkrun.  And her longer distances are equally awesome to see get better as time goes past.  

So I thought I'd just show you some of my journey.  Because it really is about taking loads (and I mean thousands) of little tiny baby steps - to make progress.  And it happens! 

In 2004 I entered a 9 mile run to raise money to go travelling.  I can't find any record of the time I finished this event but it felt like the longest thing anyone has ever run, ever.  I trained on country lanes around my parents house before I even owned an ipod! wow, right? 

Back from my travels in 2006 I ran a ' Race for Life' with Mom and Sis. I peed my pants. We all got very sweaty and probably slept all afternoon afterwards.  It was fun though.  Can't find my finishing time but I seem to remember it was somewhere around 35 minutes.  I was just pleased I'd run(/peed) the whole damn way. 

Pretty sure there were several other Race for Life events between the years of 2006-2010 but I can't find any record of finishing times... I can tell you now though, my main concern at the time definitely wasn't getting a pb or even a good time- it was just to run the whole 5k without stopping.  

I ran my first Parkrun at Heaton Park Manchester, early 2011:  27.06

I ran my second Parkrun in Fallowfield Manchester April 2011: 27.47

Fourth Parkrun, Fallowfield Manchester 30th April 2011: 25.40

I ran my first 10k in Manchester May of 2011 and couldn't walk afterwards.  For about a whole day. Finished in 1 hr 4 seconds.

Eighth Parkrun, Fallowfield Manchester 30 July 2011 24.36

I ran my first half marathon in Glasgow in 2011 and cried when I finished and couldn't walk for about 2 days.  It took me 2hrs 6minutes and it was painful! Above left is a 10k trail run I did as part of my training, the Relish Running Dyrham Park 10k.  Very hard but amazing to run alongside herds of deer. Above right is me just after finishing my first half marathon. 

Bupa Manchester 10k May 2012 53 mins

15th Parkrun, 1 September 2012, 23.55

Prague 10k September 2012 52mins

I ran my second half marathon in Petersborough in 2012 and it was pain-free.  The sun shone and I finished in 1 hr 53.

I ran my third half marathon in Wilmslow as part of my training for the Paris marathon.  It was freezing but I finished in 1 hr 49.

18th Parkrun 23 March 2013, 23.30

Completed my first marathon in Paris on 7 April 2013 in 4hr 10 minutes

I ran another pb this year at the Manchester 10k, a super hot day, sun blazing.  28 May 2013 49.26

19th Parkrun 8 June 2013 23.05

Two weekends ago I ran 22.02 at my 20th Parkrun, in 53rd place overall and 1st lady out of a field of 263 runners.  I also came first in my age category.  

This wasn't just an excuse for me to talk about myself loads.  I just wanted to let you know where I started, and I'm always trying to get better, and if you're thinking about starting running but just feel super slow and that you'll never get anywhere well now you know where's good to start.  I started with peeing my pants.  

13 miles

So to catch up with the time I've not been blogging I'll start where I left off.  On September 4th I took part in the Glasgow Great Scottish Run.  The course was rather flat and to be perfectly honest, a little boring (give me cross country hills any day! give me pain!) Crossing the bridge was awesome - as was crossing the finish line.  But maybe it's me not having run 13 miles all in one go before, maybe I just didn't have any good tunes on my ipod (anyone tried listening to audiobooks whilst running? Might try it) and although I didn't stop the whole way, I just wanted something else to do other than just run.

Don't get me wrong, it was painful... at about 9 miles my knee actually started giving me grief and it got worse and worse.  So much so that I was trying all different running styles resulting in the conclusion that the faster I ran, the less it hurt!

Anyways, I finished in 2 hours 6 minutes.  Got me a medal, a banana and unfortunately a very bad knee.  Went straight to a physio who advised me I had iliotibial band friction syndrome, which is good to know if going to run long distances in the future (although at the time I could hardly walk - let alone run - and the thought of running a marathon seemed absolutely unheard of.) (Needless to say now that the pain is a dim and distant memory I'm weighing up which marathon to sign up for.)

Aside from my knee injury I also had a killer headache all night after the run, which continued into the morning - I think it was a lack of salt/sugar, because the next day I paid a visit to Glasgow's west end, found a place called Delizique and murdered a mouthwatering veggie fry up, washed it down with an ice cold can of Irn Bru and was feeling back to normal.

Anyways, here are some shots of me running, taken by spies throughout the race course (I didn't spot any of these photographers! Even that one of me immediately after finishing, with my medal - had no idea what was going on.)

Thanks so everyone who sponsored me.  I raised £125 for the Alzheimer's Society.  If you still want to donate I'll be keeping the page up for another few weeks.  And if you've ever contemplated running a 10k or half marathon, I would 100% say GO for it.  (If you've not done a 1/2, start with a 10k)  It's a great way of setting yourself a goal, training, and mentally preparing for something you've never done before.  And the feeling you get when you cross the line is priceless.