My name is Nicola Forwood and I am a parkrun tourist!

My first taste of parkrun tourism was at Coventry parkrun. This was 2 ½ years after my first run at Leeds! My PhD is in chemistry but I desperately needed a set of biological data so arranged a 2 week placement at The University of Warwick so that I could work with my collaborator on in microbiology. As I was there over the weekends I figured I’d check if there was a parkrun nearby…..and there was! Ben came down to visit me at the weekend and we went over to Coventry parkrun; it was great. A lovely course on a bright sunny day, we had ice-creams and stayed in the park until the afternoon. Ahhhhhhh parkrun life!

          Six months later we were visiting friends in Solihull and I knew there was a parkrun nearby. I suggested it and everyone seemed keen. Many beers later and enthusiasm was weaning but I’m proud to say that the girls got up and ran whilst the lazy boys stayed in bed! Ben still hasn’t run Brueton! The course was lovely but the beers were not and I struggled round this one with NO SPRINT FINISH! My friend who I ran with (Clare-who I am usually faster than) beat me easily, I just ran round regretting having the curry the night before :/ still, another parkrun done!

          I’ve been annoyed for ages that whenever I went back to Norwich there wasn’t a parkrun and I missed out, especially when I was close to the 50 club, I HATED missing them and normally over Christmas this meant missing several weeks. This was frustrating; after all, there are only so many weeks in a year! On my hen-do I made everyone run Leeds parkrun, including my sister Carla. She’d never run a parkrun before but had heard about if from me and knew that mum had run it with me before. Carla loved it; she went on to set up Norwich parkrun where she is one of the race-directors so my next parkrun event was of course Norwich. Now I can parkrun whenever I’m in Norwich visiting family-hooray!

          I couldn’t resist trying out a new parkrun when I was down in London for the VLM. People told me I was mad to parkrun the day before my first marathon but I knew I wasn’t. I wanted to get 10 different events under my belt and make it onto the ‘Most Events’ leader-board so I wanted to do it. I knew there were loads of variables I couldn’t control when running a marathon and I would just try to reach my marathon goal but there was no way I was passing up the chance to do a London parkrun which would be event number 5 and I’d be halfway to my goal of getting on the leader-board. Ben and I met mum at Wimbledon. It was great, hash markings (rather than marshals and signposts) and running through the woods, totally different from any others I’d run, I loved it!

          The next was handed to me on a plate. Roundhay was set up (yes Leeds now had TWO parkruns!). I ran Roundhay event number 3 but it’s a tough course with an uphill finish which ruined my favourite bit. My sprint finish was MUCH less satisfying when going uphill! Not my cup of tea but a great bunch and a beautiful park.

          Now that I had 6 different events under my belt I made a bit of an effort to go to other parkruns and Bradford was next on my list. Ben didn’t want to get up early so off I went on my own and drove over to Bradford. I loved this course; the hill is short and steep and the rest of the course feels like running downhill which I love. The marshals were FANTASTIC and I really enjoyed it. This was the first time I felt like a proper parkrun tourist.

          Pontefract event number 3 was next. With sunshine, beautiful ducklings and little fluffy cygnets I was sold. This was my favourite. I convinced some friends to come the following week “it’s so beautiful, you’ll love it” I said……famous last words! The next week it rained SO hard and was windy too which made the rain horizontal. I had no cap and no waterproof mascara and this was my worst parkrun! The rain was so hard you could barely see where you were putting your feet. How quickly things can change! Still they enjoyed it and Andrew and I sprinted to the line, I think he JUST beat me but it was pretty close to call!

          We were running the GNR so there was no way we were missing Newcastle parkrun. We set off super early that morning to make it for 9am to run through the puddles and cow pats! The highlight of this parkrun was the coffee afterwards. A group of HPH’s had run (me, Ben, Jaz, Tess, Linda and Tom) and we were keen for post-race coffee, but the park café was closed and so it was just us. Tom used his fancy phone to try to locate a café and took us on a massive long walk in circles, while we all pointed out streets we thought we should go down (turned out if we had of picked one of our streets we would have been there in seconds!). The score of ‘Girls & sense of direction’ VS ‘Tom & his fancy phone’ definitely ended up being 1-0 to us! ;) but we made it and had a good old chat about parkrun. Good times and also this was event number 9! Only one more to go!

          Leeds parkrunners like to go on tour every now and then and Les had suggested we try out his home parkrun, Hull. Hull is quite an easy parkrun to sell, great course (PB material), great café and even LLAMAS AND WALLABIES!!! We had a GREAT day being children again. After parkrun (and the best parkrun café breakfast I’ve had to date; veggie sausage buttie-Mmmmmmmm) we went to see all the animals, played on the outdoor gym and there were even musical sculptures to play with! A GREAT day indeed. More importantly that was the first time I met professional parkrun tourist Steve Darby. Steve had posted on the HPH page offering lifts to Hull so me, Ben and Brenda all gratefully accepted (we didn’t really know who he was and thought he was a HPH that we hadn’t met yet). Turned out that he wasn’t in a running club but was an honorary HPH (I’m not sure how?! Maybe by just being a great runner, we’re keen to claim those! Although Steve has since joined another running club…..Booooooo!). Anyway, Steve is right up there on the ‘Most Events’ leader-board and is a parkrun fanatic and has since been responsible for introducing me to Princes parkrun (run with a very hungover Vicki Taylor!), Durham parkrun and Gorleston parkrun (I’ll credit Steve with that one as he was running Norwich Half and staying in Yarmouth so I thought I’d head over and check it out too, although due to car troubles Steve only made this one by the skin of his teeth!). 

          I’ve also run Sheffield Endcliffe Park while visiting friends, and I went over to Huddersfield with mum as I wanted to race the ‘Huddersfield parkrun Bunny’. Luckily for me they had a slower bunny that day and I managed to beat it! HOORAY!!! The only other parkrun I’ve done is Concord which was amazing. For some reason they don’t get many runners so this was my best finishing position ever! I biked to Leeds train station, got an early train and then biked from Meadowhall to Concord (which, I would like to warn anyone thinking of doing the same, is ALL uphill and a hard few miles to bike!). I arrived knackered and just as I locked up my bike I spotted Chris and Liz Jones getting out of their car! Thanks for the lift guys! ;) Actually it was great seeing them there as Chris won which was fantastic and I finished 14^th!!!!!!!  

We drove from Norwich to Leeds today (for New Years Eve in Leeds) and managed to fit in King’s Lynn parkrun which means I’ve now run 17 different parkruns. Liz and Chris Jones are creeping up behind me in the ‘Most Events’ table (they’re on 14) and I still have a way to go to catch Andrew Nicholls (24). Ben is now firmly on the leader-board with 11 so he’s hot on the heels of Liz & Chris! My dream is to get above Steve Darby but he’s so far ahead (59!) I can’t see this happening until he retires from running and judging by his current form I am in for an extremely long wait!

The post-race fruit at King’s Lynn today was offered with an excellent thought; detox now as we’ll be getting wasted later! Well I for one will raise my glass and say to you all “here’s to a great 2012 full of parkrunning!” 

The Truth

So….I have a confession to make. While nothing in my last post was fabricated I missed out one major detail and that is that my general overwhelming feeling about the marathon was………that it was boring! I had listened to so many stories about how great it would be so (although all my training had been with my ipod) on race day I didn’t listen to music as I didn’t want to miss a thing. I wanted to hear every cheer and really embrace the experience. Turned out this was the wrong decision, it didn’t work for me! I NEED BRITNEY!!!

As I crossed the finish line I was expecting to be exhausted, overwhelmed and definitely to cry! I had been told by many I would definitely cry as I crossed the finish line. “It’s SO emotional!” However, somehow I was not that tired (no idea how I pulled that one off, my guess is a mix of training + carb loading? I was later told by BTUK that several supporters didn’t believe I had actually run it all as I stood about chatting while their offspring lay on the floor exhausted! I felt fine, a bit tired but not too bad); I was not particularly overwhelmed (I had every confidence I would complete the 26.2 miles feeling strong, I had trained HARD); and I definitely didn’t cry. I felt a bit like a terrible actor being told to cry and trying really hard to be overcome with emotion but it just didn’t happen! I was left feeling a bit short changed….had I missed my marathon experience?!

I had run 4.38.01, I’d not reached my goal and didn’t have anything to compare this time to, but as time went on and I spoke to more runners I became more and more pleased with my time (especially given how hot it had been). I’d done OK. Now I reckon you can run a marathon with two mindsets; that of a normal person who secretly thinks they are mad for attempting 26.2 miles; or that of a runner who has trained and KNOWS they can run 26.2 miles. I realised that what I’d done was that I’d run as a runner! I was most surprised as I definitely did not consider myself to be a runner. It was a race and that’s how I’d approached it and run it. I seem to remember that I was one, if not THE fastest HPH female! How on earth I managed that I don’t know but when people asked me I remember simply saying “I just kept on running”. For me Forest Gump was right, it really was that simple!

I hadn’t entered the Leeds Half as it was only 3 weeks after London and I was told (by runners much faster and more experienced than me) the rule is you need a days recovery for each mile you have run; so to recover from a marathon you need 26 days recovery (but I felt really good). I kept going to run club and I was running well….I wanted to run Leeds Half. It was full. Race entry closed 3 days ago. I called the organisers and was told I was about the 30^th person to call and ask that Monday! I reckoned they’d all run London and got on well too. Luckily for me all it took was one post on the HPH website and I had found a place. A lovely lady (Sarah Farnell) who was injured had a spare place so I ran and it was great. I smashed my PB by 5 minutes, had the best support at Lawnswood roundabout as so many marshals were HPH’s and then on Kirkstall Road (as well as some lovely Kirkstall Harriers) there was Sarah, who I’d not yet met shouting “THERE’S MY NUMBER!” it was great!

I had previously decided that 2011 was going to be my ‘Year of Running’. I was going to run 5 half marathons as well as my first ever, 10 mile race, 20 mile race, and marathon. All this was to include the UK’s 2 biggest races; the GNR and the VLM. The gap between the VLM and the GNR was 5 months and in those months I suffered the post-marathon blues. This peaked at Eccup 10 miler. I entered this race as it was a club race so loads of HPH’s were running, turns out this is not enough motivation to get you round a 10 miler! I walked A LOT and was very, very grumpy! It just wasn’t for me. On that day I was the slowest HPH overall! I learnt that my head has to want me to run! Luckily I found my mojo in time for the GNR and really enjoyed that race. This may have been because we started the race by hi‑fiving the awesome Mo Farah!

After the GNR I started entering races again. Chris and Vicki Taylor had entered the Woodland Challenge 10km and couldn’t run but they wanted their T-shirts. Enter Team Forwood! We ran in their places and that day I allowed myself to be bullied into entering lots of other races by Kay Jefferies. In the next few months I ran the beasty Guy Fawkes 10 miler, got a massive PB in the Abbey Dash (55.06 VERY PLEASED!), ran Norwich Half (for the second time this year! I got a PB despite the terrible conditions) and I bought my first pair of xc shoes. The thinking behind this was that the PECO series was coming up and I REALLY didn’t want to do it…..but if I bought the shoes then I wouldn’t really have a choice…….

A Fairy – Tale!

I had submitted a Guinness World Record Attempt to make my marathon attempt a little more of a challenge as well as having a bit of fun. I wanted to run as a 3D Brain Tumour UK (BTUK) logo, but they said that having ‘fastest body part’ would be too difficult to moderate so I became a fairy and went for the ‘fastest fairy’ record instead. For this record I had to run in a tutu, wings and with a wand, and I would need to finish in less than 4 hours 30 minutes. I knew that this was an ambitious time but I had trained hard, running through the winter frost, snow and ice (when I wasn’t on holiday that is!) and my 20 mile time was good. I sent my photo to the Guinness World Records team and they approved my fairy status! The best part of being a fairy was my training runs around Leeds dressed in my costume with my wings flapping behind me. I got lots of hoots from cars and smiles from walkers as I ran past.

The logistics of getting down to London, registering at the Expo, getting my number and getting to the start line on time were very stressful. The nerves kicked in and the week beforehand involved lots of tears, frantic planning and a massive amount of pasta! I had read an article which said that most people who think they are carb loading actually aren’t because you have to cut down your protein intake and basically consume your body weight in carbs about three times a day for it to be effective. I took this advice VERY seriously (probably because I love pasta!) but I swear that by the time race day came around I could have been physically sick at the sight of a slice of bread or bowl of pasta!

Our train down to London was delayed with additional stops due to problems on the line. The train was horribly crowded and then, after sitting at Finsbury Park for 20 minutes, we were told that the train couldn’t get to King’s Cross and we would all have to get off here! A rushed tube journey got me to the Expo just before it closed and I got in line to collect my number. PHEW! But wait…..Oh no! Disaster! They don’t have it, THEY DON’T HAVE MY NUMER!!!! This may have been because people attempting World Records get upgraded to the Green start meaning my number had been changed but they said this wasn’t the case as it was a green number that was missing. AARGH WHAT NOW?!?! I had to wait for 30 minutes while they got me a different number; this was now my third number but at least I had one! However, all this was not helping my nerves!

An early night, followed by restless sleep, and before I knew it race day had arrived! A bus and two trains should have got me to my start, but a point’s failure kicked me off two stops early…‘OH NO, the long walk to the start will make my legs tired!’ (I felt the hysteria rising!!!). Ben managed to calm me down and promised he’d get me to my start pen. He found the way and delivered me as promised-my hero! I checked in with the Guinness World Record people and got my sticker; ‘Guinness World Record Official Runner!’ Now the nerves had gone and I was just pure excited. I saw the queue for the toilets and with 45 minutes until the start I decided to get in the queue (which took 30 minutes-phew!). I got in my start pen and looked around: a gingerbread man; a giant star; a marching band; a panda; a giant bottle of Lucozade; and (OH NO!!!!!) a few fast looking fairies… EEK!! “It’s OK” I tell myself, “I’ll run my own race, and the support I have received will get me round”. I calculated that I had been sponsored over £150 per mile; a massive push to keep me going and I still decided to go for 4 hours 30 minutes; after all I had trained for it.

The first few miles went quickly. It was crammed, hectic running with not many spectators. I chatted to an older man from the Wimbledon Windmillers (who I had met at Wimbledon parkrun the day before….yes OF COURSE I ran parkrun the day before!) who was running his 30^th London Marathon. He had run every year since it began; WOW-more inspiration! Around miles three to four I began to get in to my stride, I felt strong and mentally prepared. The only problem I had was that the Guinness World Record sticker had been stuck on my back in the middle of my wings which made them flap differently from in training – there was a lot a lot more drag but I hoped my shoulders would be OK! That stupid saying kept spinning round my head (DON’T DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT ON RACE DAY, well the bloody sticker was something different and I knew the mental games had began!). Luckily I soon got used to the wings and after a few more miles I had forgotten about them.

It was a very hot day and by mile 5 I was pleased to see the first Lucozade stop. A faster runner for BTUK caught me up and gave me some encouragement and then I started searching the crowds. I knew Ben was spectating between miles 6 and 7; I had my phone on me and Ben texted to say he was near some orange balloons. I spotted the orange balloons a mile off “great I’ll easily spot Ben, what a great place to stand”. I looked and looked but couldn’t see him; I searched the crowds but he wasn’t there. My heart sank and I started to get really sad, convinced that I wasn’t going to see him at all. I pushed back the tears and had a word with myself; “Nicola, you’ll see him later, he’s proud of you no matter what, you don’t NEED to see anyone as they’re all running with you anyway!” I picked myself up and told myself “it’s OK. I WILL see him later”. I had my fingers tightly crossed at this point!

The BTUK cheering point was at seven and a half miles so I started looking for them instead. I spotted them with their big banner and they were cheering my name, clapping and waving manically and………there he was…….THERE WAS BEN!!! I jumped in the air twice, frantically waving my wand with the biggest smile on my face. What a lift! I punched the air with both fists and carried on my way.

I was wearing a Pace Band and every mile I checked that I was on track. In fact I was running so well that by mile 10, I was 7 minutes inside my target time… but it was SO hot! At mile 11 I saw Mum, Carla, James and Jan (I knew I wouldn’t miss these guys as mum had attached a weird inflatable bird to a curtain pole and was dangling it out over the runners for me to spot! This was following advice from runners who said “don’t have a helium balloon, EVERYONE will have helium balloons”). Well the weird stork (or whatever it was) worked and I spotted them easily; more smiles, frantic waving etc. I was doing well. There were showers on course to cool runners down but until now I had avoided them as I was worried about chafing. By mile 13, I was getting so hot and tired that I ran through showers and water whenever they were available. There were firemen spraying hoses in the air any water would do; just cool me down please!

Then it happened… at mile 15 … I HIT THE WALL! Every cell in my body told me to stop. It was hopeless, too hot, and over 10 miles to go; “I don’t even like running, why am I even running a bloody marathon, what an idiot, it’s all been a massive mistake-JUST WALK!” Luckily I managed to talk myself round. Firstly I’d run WAY further in training so I knew I should be able to push through and secondly I remembered how much everyone was behind me. I wasn’t being sponsored to cuddle kittens, this was marathon running, and it’s MEANT to be hard. Miles 15 to 17 were SLOW, hellish miles! THANK GOODNESS for the small boy who handed me an ice pop, I truly believe he saved me! What also kept me going was all the small children with wide eyes and massive smiles shouting “Mummy, LOOK it‘s a fairy!!” and all the strangers shouting “looking great, Nicola” “keep going Nicola” I was very pleased I had put my name on my top! By mile 17 I was desperate to see Ben again. I knew he would be around mile 17/18. Then, all of a sudden THERE HE WAS! Standing there with his parents. I ran over and gestured that I wanted a kiss. Ben took this gesture to mean I was hungry and started routing in his bag for food. “A kiss” I shouted, and the crowd around him started saying “kiss her”, “she wants a kiss”! The crowd pushed Ben to the front so I could reach him and after I gave Ben a big sweaty kiss I went on my way.

Directed by the weird floating stork I saw Mum and the rest of the gang at mile 19 and collected more supplies (I had texted mum saying ‘ice’ as I NEEDED to cool down and as I hadn’t been offered anymore ice pops then I just wanted to crunch on some ice. Unfortunately, mum took this to mean that I was injured and needed an ice pack so was holding out a chemical cooling pack! “I can’t eat this” I shrieked as I gave it back and went on my way with my pre-prepared bottle of triple strength Lucozade). By now I was fine with the running. Less than 10 miles to go and I had run through the wall. I knew I could do it although I was pretty slow and so, so hot. More water, more showers but alas, no more ice pops. I had lost my 7 minute lead and was now on pace but I decided 4 hours 30 minutes was out of my grasp. So my new goal was to keep running every single step and to finish with a smile.

At mile 20 I started counting down, 6 miles left… 5… 4… nearly there. Mile 23 was great, ONLY PARKRUN TO GO! The crowds were getting big and there was a big long tunnel to run through with no spectators at all. A runner shouted Oggi, Oggi, Oggi and about 500 runners all replied Oi Oi Oi. I am sure the ground shook, it was magical and I was grinning from ear to ear. I’d taken every gel and energy drink on the course and the last three miles felt relatively easy, my legs were fine. I’d eased off the speed and I was waving to the crowds.

I made a quick stop for Vaseline at mile 24 as my top was rubbing on my arms; I’d poured so much water over me that my clothes were soaked. Well, this stop was not quite as quick as I’d have liked, I had to visit 3 St John’s Ambulance people. The first two looked in their bags as I jogged on the spot and then said “go to the next person, they’ll have some”. When I was told this for the second time I said “where is the next person? YOU’RE already the next person, I’ve already stopped once” and when they told me just to go to the next stop I screamed “BUT WHERE IS IT?! I’VE ALREADY STOPPED TWICE!” oops! It seems I’m not too polite when marathon running! Luckily (more for their safely than for me!) the third one did have Vaseline and they held out the worlds biggest pot. I stuck both hands straight in and smothered it on my arms…..OH NO, I hadn’t thought it through, my hands were now COVERED in Vaseline so I held them out to the St John’s Ambulance man (like a child expecting to be cleaned after eating an ice cream) but he just laughed at me! Oh well, I wiped my hands on my shorts and from there on in it was smooth sailing.

The last two miles were easy and I really enjoyed the last corner by Buckingham Palace with the finish in sight. I waved like mad and got all the crowds cheering “Go Nicola”, “Go Fairy” and then I crossed the line……….I had done it, my first ever marathon……..I HAD RUN THE LONDON MARATHON! Would I do it again? On the day I said “NO WAY, NEVER AGAIN!” 

Down but not out!

When I entered the VLM ballot in 2010 I remember thinking ‘I know people who applied for 5 years and not got in, so, as it’s something I might like to do in the next 5 years I suppose I better start applying now’. Well in my defence there is nothing inherently wrong with this logic….it just doesn’t account for luck and looking back now, that is what I had. Mum called and said “Nicola-WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! There’s a VLM magazine here for you” and that was the first I knew of it. I hadn’t really thought about being ‘lucky’ and it didn’t really occur to me that other people wanted my place until I had a conversation with the Lucozade representative at Leeds parkrun. I decided that (after almost fainting from hunger at the Leeds Half!) I needed some advice on nutrition. What should I eat before, what should I have during etc? I sulkily explained my situation something along the lines of “which of these do you recommend that I try-I’ve gone and got a bloody place in the VLM” to which the lady replied that she had applied for the past 3 years and was yet to be successful, I felt terrible! At least now I knew though and I started treating my place with a little more respect.

          I didn’t have a training plan (or anything that resembled one!) but after training for a half marathon alone, I had just assumed that this would be my tactic; just keep on running. In December we spent 2 weeks in Kenya, I packed my running kit and I am proud to say I ran 5 times (between 5km and 10km). Considering this was on the beach, and in temperatures above 30 degrees, I was very pleased. I have a recommendation for any runners who don’t really enjoy running; RUN IN KENYA! It’s enough to switch anyone on to running. I would set off along the beach and within 300 meters I was leading a group of about 25 men, women and children! They LOVE TO RUN! It was a great experience and one that we Brits could learn from.

Christmas saw more eating than running so I knew I needed to get a wriggle on, although I did run the Bungay Groggy Doggy on Boxing Day. Around 5 miles of cross country but not a hill in sight (my kind of xc!) and luckily the ground was frozen so I didn’t get muddy at all (although I would like to confess I queued for over two minutes to get across the plank of wood traversing the river. A river which most people were RUNNING STRAIGHT THROUGH-madness! I would like to admit at this point that I may have used poetic licence with the term ‘river’). I ran it in 48.31. The Norwich Half had been cancelled in November and rearranged for the 13^th March so I entered that too-it was a start.

After my holiday and Christmas were over I knew I needed to enter more races and more importantly I was desperate for a positive mental association of running in crowds. Ben and I had run the London 10km (11/07/10) to raise money for Brain Tumour UK, I had sub 1 hour in mind as my goal and I REALLY wanted it, I hadn’t had a PB for ages and they were what kept me going! This was a huge race and at corners you were forced to walk as the bunching got so bad. Now you can tell me about negative splits until you are blue in the face but a) I don’t really do all this running jargon and b) if you’re telling me to not do much to start with and then QUICK ALL THE WORK HAS BEEN LEFT UNTIL THE END, then I will think that you are insane. Well, either insane or lazy. Negative splits go against everything I stand for; work hard and if your goal is in sight then (and only then) ease off a bit (so you can actually make it to the end!).

So….off I went pelting along (I actually ran a sub 26min 5km which I have yet to achieve at parkrun…or any 5km for that matter!) so halfway round I knew I should reach my goal of sub 1 hour. Ben was running with me as (at this time) he wasn’t a runner either, he’d done no training and had never run 10km. Kilometers 6-9 were tough, I couldn’t maintain my speed and struggled a bit, but the final kilometer was great as I knew I was going to make it. Now, if you’ve ever run with me then you’ll know I love a good sprint finish (it’s the only bit of running I enjoy!) so coming up to the finish I let my legs do their thing and off I went and sprinted across the finish line. So where did my negative experience come from? Well, right there; at the finish line!

All I remember is sprinting across the line, a few seconds of flying (no I hadn’t got that fast running!) and then skidding on my front across the road. As I lay on the floor bleeding with three paramedics round me I remember hearing Ben saying “she’s fine, she’s fine” and I remember thinking (as I wildly hyperventilated having gone from full sprint to smack, down onto the tarmac) “I’M NOT FINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Of course….I was fine! The only place I had really hurt was my hands which were bleeding, and the blood didn’t help the hyperventilating although I somehow managed to wheeze out “it’s….O….K……I’m……just……hyper….....ventilating”. I was helped away from the finish line; half carried, half attempting to walk, and sat on the pavement sipping water for about 10 minutes surveying the damage. Apart from the ripped clothing and the cut hands I was fine.

So what happened? Well, Ben had been running with me and he had thought ‘we’re running together it’d be nice to cross the finish line together’, I thought Ben was just using me for pace, he could sprint or not but I was focused on my sub 1 hour rather than on holding hands across the finish line. Ben did decide to sprint and was following my line as I weaved through all the people as I overtook them, which was fine until I slowed just across the finish line with Ben still in full sprint; he caught my back leg and took it clear out from under me! Ben said that because there was such a big crowd of spectators that you could hear a massive gasp as I hit the deck! I like to think that it must have looked quite impressive; because I had been sprinting I travelled a few meters in the air before I made contact with the ground again! Anyway Ben felt terrible, and I would like to point out that he didn’t do it on purpose; he has no vision in his lower left quadrant and it was a miscommunication so he was not entirely to blame (although I’m not sure the girl that he took down in a similar fashion at this years Great North Run when she was 200 meters from the finish line would agree!). Anyway I came in under the hour and finished in 58.44. My favourite running word was back; PB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, where was I, OK so I need some positive race experiences as well as increasing my distance to about 18 miles before 17/04/11. I didn’t know where to find race information but I knew where to find people that would know; I decided to try out a running club. Thanks to Google I’d identified two running clubs nearby; the Kirkstall Harriers and the Hyde Park Harriers. On a dark and cold Wednesday night I went and completed my first ever run with a running club. It was all a bit scary, I was a bit intimidated by being asked what ‘minute miles’ I ran; “what minute miles do you run, about 7 or 8, or more 9 or 10?” I had NO IDEA! Firstly I had only ever run in kilometers (and not considering myself a runner I had no idea what the km‑to‑mile conversion was!) and secondly I’d never really worried too much about my pace. So I said “um……I’m not sure……I’m slow”. The run was OK but I didn’t really make any connections with anyone and all the runners seemed….a bit serious….like real runners, there was nobody I considered to be ‘like me’! Maybe the Kirkstall Harriers weren’t for me (I’ve since met loads of lovely Kirkstall Harriers and wonder where they were this night!).

On Tuesday 25^th January (the day before my PhD viva) I went down to The Edge to give the Hyde Park Harriers a go. We were split into groups and I wasn’t asked the dreaded “what minute miles do you run?” This was a much bigger running club and in our group there were several people who were also new, including a lovely girl called Vicky (Vicky Houghton) who I chatted to for most of the run. The group leader was one of the lovely parkrun ladies I kind of knew, Kay Jefferies, and she was FANTASTIC; so welcoming and friendly that I knew I had found my running club.

I immediately got what I needed; information about what races to enter. I was told about a ‘lovely little half marathon’ coming up in just over two weeks so I entered it. It was a tiny event called the Liversedge Half Marathon (now if you have run this you will quickly realise that Liversedge is far from a ‘lovely little half’. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end!). This race was a BEAST! OK I thought, it’s a great time to try a run-walk strategy, ‘I’ll run it and when I struggle I’ll walk’. Now this would be great to try anywhere else but at Liversedge you meet a near vertical hill about half a mile in! It was too soon and I wasn’t ready to walk but the beasty hill left me no choice! Anyway I got round in 2.22.32 (I would have run 10 seconds faster if I’d have known!) and I had learnt that what I hated more than running was run‑walking, this was a very important lesson. The other thing I learnt that day was that 20 mile races existed (I remember thinking ‘what a good idea’) and that was that, I’d entered East Hull 20.

The following month involved a week of skiing, two weeks cruising in the Caribbean and not a great deal of running! Good job I didn’t have a training plan or it would be looking very sad indeed (but don’t give up on me-I was about to get a bit serious about running). In the next month I stepped up my training, I ran the Norwich Half (Another PB!!!! This was much more like it, there was that PB word that I like so much and it was 12 minutes faster than Liversedge!).

I ran the East Hull 20 in 3.30.18. (if I’d have known I would have waited at the finish line for 12 seconds!) I quite enjoyed this race; part of this was because I ran the first hour with a lovely man called Ives (who I’ve since seen at Roundhay parkrun). It was a bit embarrassing, I asked him to hold my drink while I did up my sports bra, ha ha! He helped with my motivation as friend had signed him up and the furthest he had previously run was 10km AND he had an injured ankle, now having recently run a half marathon and with happy ankles I felt quite prepared. We were a similar pace and he was good company for the first 8 miles. Overall I have mixed feelings about the East Hull 20. It was a good run for me, I was pleased with my time but I later found out that Anna Hollingworth (who is now one of my lovely running friends) was in tears at the end, Ben got blisters and had to walk 8 miles of it (finishing an hour after me), and Ives hadn’t been able to completed the race. On top of this there was no medal or T-shirt just a crappy Parker pen! I didn’t run 20 miles for a pen, I NEED a medal! Still for me the run itself was OK and I would do it again, the best thing was that it was exactly 4 weeks before London.

Where it all went wrong!

            On the 28/10/07 I ran my first ever 10km. Now 10km might seem a strange place to start but my mum was going for a tri club run and I said “oh I might come along” (not really having any concept of how long 10km actually was), mums reply was “you’ll never be able to run that far with no training” and that was it-my mind was made up. Off I went and I found that if I ran at mums pace (which was fairly slow) then I was fine, once we were near the end mum told me the route and said “go on, go off ahead” so off I ran to do the last 2km alone (of course within 200 meters I had gone too fast and had to ease back) but I finished the 10km and didn’t feel too bad and that was my first real experience of running as an adult.

I can’t remember how I first heard of parkrun; I think it must have been an email from the university gym. Anyway on Saturday 03/11/07 I ran my first parkrun-Leeds parkrun event number 5. Like most people when they start running, I pushed too hard, felt too slow and although I was pleased to have done it I didn’t enjoy it enough to go back the following week. Without mum to pace me I found the whole 5km tough. In fact it was over 6 months before I ran my 2nd parkrun. Event number 38. I ran 5 seconds faster than before (this is WAY before I discovered Nike+ or Garmin). Still felt pretty slow (although I was running HARD and was totally out of breath) but I had obviously found ‘my pace’ ~32 minutes, close to the back of the field, not fast but getting round as quick as my legs would take me. Or to be precise my lungs, as I have always played sports, netball, football, squash etc my legs were fine but my lungs! They were on fire! I still didn’t particularly enjoy it but I was awarded my first ever PB! Now until the 21/06/08 I didn’t even know what a PB was but I am the first to admit I am SUPER competitive and I was rather pleased with my PB. It wasn’t anyone else’s; only mine and I had earned it. Personal Best…..I quite like the sound of that!

On the 26/07/08 I ran my 3^rd parkrun, event number 43, I still didn’t get it “these people turn up EVERY week to do this??! What’s wrong with them?” I figured they didn’t have my social calendar and certainly not my monster hangovers “its 9am…..ON A SATURDAY, why are we all in this park instead of in bed?” But…….when I was emailed my results later that day-there it was. My 2^nd PB! I’d done it again 31.02 and I had decided that, although I hated the running (and I was adamant about that fact) I rather enjoyed the smug feeling of getting a PB!

So, I hear you ask “where did it ‘go wrong’ then?” I’ll tell you. Friday 22^nd August was my birthday involving drinking, celebrating and definitely NO parkrun the following morning. Mum came to visit me the following weekend and my birthday present was a Nike+ band. Now mum was not sporty when she was younger but when she turned 50 she had a ‘fit and 50’ slogan and was running, entering triathlons etc and I think mum was quite excited that I had started running (I don’t think I had told her I hated running). Mum had also given me a pod to attach to your laces that held the ‘chip’ that communicated with the band on your wrist and calculated how far you had gone. So the Saturday that mum was here we went on a slow 7km trot to test out the Nike+ band. We got back and mapped our route online and found that the band was over a mile out! Oh dear, a running fail! Mum decided this must be due to the chip being in a pod on my laces rather than in the shoe “it’s supposed to be in the shoe” so off we went, into town, to look for some ‘Nike+ running shoes’.

In 2008 running had not yet become fashionable and the Nike+ band can’t have been launched for that long as in the sports shop they only had men’s trainers that were Nike+ compatible AND THEY WERE £80! “They’re WAY too expensive” I said (unconvinced by the Nike+ band in the first place and remember I hadn’t yet told mum that I hated running!). Mum said “Oh let’s just get them” and being a girly girl an ingrained rule of my life was ‘NEVER TURN DOWN A PAIR OF SPARKLY NEW SHOES’ I’m still not convinced that this phrase wasn’t asterisked with ‘unless they are a men’s size 8 and have no heel’! So, we went home with my sparkly new shoes and on the Sunday morning we went for a 4km slow jog: Nike+ Test No. 2. It worked (to this day I still do not know how that first run was so far out, in retrospect I think it can’t be because of the pod-who knows!) we had run 4km and mapping the route online there it was 4km. I was now a teched up runner!

            The pressure that having a new expensive pair of running shoes and a Nike+ band meant that I had to get myself out of bed on a Saturday morning and get to parkrun. On average I ran one parkrun a month for the next six months (OK so it’s not hugely impressive but it was a start!). At Leeds parkrun events 51 and 52 I ran two more PB’s getting down to a time of 28.50 (4 minutes faster than my first parkrun) which would prove difficult to beat and would remain my PB for almost a full year.

Not getting new PB’s meant that parkrun didn’t give me the excitement I needed to keep me going so in a moment of madness I signed up for the Leeds Half marathon. Now I’m not sure what I was thinking but I think it must have been along the lines of “it would be nice to be able to say that I have run a half marathon!” I don’t think I had quite thought it through. Anyway….I trained, got a knee injury two weeks before and had to rest. I was trying to beat mums half time of 2hr 45mins and had no idea if I would achieve it or not. In retrospect, now that I have run a marathon, my thoughts during training make me giggle “I better not run the full distance while training, 13 miles is SO far”, “I can’t eat anything beforehand or I’ll get a stitch” and “I can only drink water, that Gatorade stuff is HORRIBLE!” These things combined with my training got me round in 2.19.12, by the end I was so hungry I was convinced I was going to faint! After eating a MASSIVE burger I decided that I was pretty pleased with my time. :)

That year (2009) I ran 21 parkruns (all at Leeds) and I got my PB down to 28.20. I had caught the parkrun bug. I had become one of the crazy people running round the park at 9am most Saturdays instead of respectably laying in bed, respecting what Saturdays are for and nursing a hangover. I had found out about the 50 Club and I wanted my 50 T-shirt! I took part in the first Red Welly Relay (go girls!) and made a few friends at parkrun. The following year I ran 29 parkruns (although did no other races, only parkrun and one virtual Nike+ 10km; The Human Race), joined the parkrun 50 club, and ran at Coventry, Brueton and Norwich parkruns (the last of which my sister helped to set up and is race director at after I made her run Leeds parkrun on my hen-do!). I was part of the parkrun family.

The reason I decided 2011 would be my year if running was because in a moment of madness I had entered the ballot for the VLM for the first time ever and guess what……………..in September 2010 I found out I’d got a place!

Where it all went wrong!