And so it begins..

My entry is in, is yours? it’s only £30 entry up to the 31st January, or £25 if you are a Manx Telecom mobile customer!

I took a little break from walking since October, and had been struggling with motivation to get back to it. I put this down to my experience in the African Centurion. Whilst it was a great event, I didn’t enjoy it, It was so hot, I was very sick and the course itself was very repetitive. So after I returned in October, I switched to running. I plan to run a Marathon in April, so I have been focusing my efforts into training for it, a change is as good as a rest.

I have a few friends who are entering this year, some for the first time and some who plan on their first finish. They have formed a group, to encourage each other and arrange to meet up for training walks so this was a great way to start to get my love for walking back. I have really enjoyed walking with them, getting some fresh air and having a good chat, it’s so much easier to get out if you have people to train with. Long distance walking can be very lonely.

After a couple of group walks I felt ready to get back to my own training, so Lee and I did our first training walk of the year on the 14th of January, It involved a 10 mile loop of the famous Ballakillowey and Sloc. (Ballakillowey is much tougher than the Sloc!). With having young children it can be hard to fit training in, so we try to do it all with minimum interruptions to our family time which means lots of late nights or early mornings while the little ones are sleeping. We eventually started at 8pm, it was dark and cold out, but we soon warmed up. I was pleased to see that I hadn’t forgotten how to walk and still managed it in a very respectable 1 hour 56 Minutes not a bad start to the year.

Only 149 Days to go!

The photo below was taken by Caitlin during the 100 Miles in South Africa.