A week of celebrations

We had lots of celebrations with Lee’s Birthday and my 50th parkrun!

This week saw my earliest ever training walk on Tuesday, Lee and I set off at 5.20am to get 10 miles in before breakfast. Neither of us are morning people so it was a very quiet walk I don’t think we even spoke a word to each other till the half way point. This could of have been a bonus for Lee having a bit of peace and quiet. Overall I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but I was definitely glad I got it done.

Wednesday was long run day! It was also the coldest night of the year so far. 16 miles I set off from Douglas and Craig set off from Onchan, we met somewhere in the middle. It was really cold out, I had forgotten my gloves and energy gels, I thought I would be fine but I was wrong, just after we met Kathy at the 7 mile mark I started flagging she said she could tell I wasn’t right as I wasn’t talking. At around the same time Craig had started suffering with stomach problems, which he said was from the gels. Craig had a spare energy gel that he wasn’t using so he kindly let me have it, within a few minutes, of taking it I felt great! And carried on happily. At around 10 miles the temperature seemed to drop again, I asked Kathy if it was possible for my fingers to drop off in the cold, she laughed and said she often wondered this about her ears. Thankfully none of my fingers did actually fall off and I survived the distance in a good pace, but I learnt I need to refuel better on these longer ones.

Saturday saw me and Kathy run our 50th parkrun, it was lovely we had cakes and prosecco at the finish line. I was very proud that my eldest daughter Caitlin ran with us on her first ever parkrun. Kathy and I met at the first parkrun practice run so it was great that we hit the milestone together.

Sunday nights have become our main group walk night, Liz had chosen the distance of 16 Miles. We were lucky with the weather, that was until 13 miles, when I said “we have been so lucky with the weather today” and it pretty much turned immediately to the wind in our faces and rain belting down on us. It could have been worse and reminded me of the parish walk I 2008 (I think) when it rained pretty much the whole day.

138 days to go..