I Heart Running !

Last night I spent about 30 minutes working out a route for my run this morning.  According to My Asics training plan I needed to do 8k and as I'm doing Bedgebury Trailblazer in a couple of weeks I'm doing all my runs on grass/dirt.   I'd worked out a nice route from Newhaven to Southease along the banks of the River Ouse - the flat route gave me the option of turning back at 4k or carrying on to return home via a bridge crossing the river and running back home for a massive 11k, with a lovely hill between 8 and 9k.

I was quite excited this morning when I got up, Shaun had said he wanted me to take my phone so at least if I got into trouble or broke my ankle (thanks for the vote of confidence) I could ring him and he could pick me up at the bridge at Southease.   I set off towards the incinerator where the footpath begins, the first 1k-ish is on road and in trail shoes felt a little weird.  When I got to where the footpath crosses the railway line I was a bit pissed off to see that the footpath had been closed - flipping big padlocks on the gates and a Notice from the Local Authority advising that the footpath was closed!  Great, now what do I do?  Go home and sulk and change into my pavement pounders or find a different route to suit my new trail shoes?  After a bit of a dither I decided to head to the hills which are a bit further on.  A bit more running on tarmac and uphill!   I had forgotten about the current planting on the surrounding hills and was met by this sight when I got to the footpath

An asthmatics/hay fever sufferers nightmare!  Things were not going well were they?  Oh well just had to get on with it, so that's what I did.   I just ran (well run might be an exaggeration, there were a couple of walky type bits).  At the top of hill is a nice flat bit, a bit more of an uphill and then a lovely sweep downhill.   It was at this point that I started to chuckle to myself and was really enjoying having to concentrate on where I put my feet.  I had a huge grin on my face too, thankfully there was no-one around to see or hear or I think I would've been carted off to the loony bin. 

After the sweeping bit down there's another uphill and having tried to run up most of the hills already I stopped to take in the view - luckily I had my phone on me so I could share these

 and a picture of myself!

I went a bit further along before dropping down back into Denton - the road going down is pretty steep, glad I didn't run up it!  Nowhere near a quick 8k but who cares.

I absolutely love runs like today's, especially finding a whole new route that I can improve on over the summer, and I will be doing that riverbank run too.  

Here's to more giggly, smiley runs!

Being Heroic !

On Sunday I ran my first 10k event of the year - Heroes Brighton.   I've been a bit excited about doing this event, not sure why because as usual my preparation for the event was shocking, but it was billed as a "fun run" so with that in mind I relaxed, no pb chasing, just go out and enjoy!

Alma had entered as well so we decided to go dressed as Batgirl.  The first thing was to find something comfortable to run in.   We decided to go for a simple vest top with the batman logo on the front with a cape attached and an eye mask each.  I think we both look brilliant!

Heroes is also a great opportunity to support a different charity, this time Pass It On Africa which is currently working on school building projects in Ghana, Kenya and The Gambia.

I got to Hove Lawns dead on 9am.   It was great to see the little ones dressed up in superhero outfits.  They have their own 500m Dash, which is lovely to see them charging along.  It was starting to get very busy and Alma was running late thanks to the trains.   Soon after she arrived we were making our way to the start area.  We stood near the back, knowing that everyone in front of us would go charging off.   Apparently there was a warm up going on, but being at the back we had no idea what we were supposed to be doing!  Here's a video of the start 

We started off at a gentle pace, I didn't want to wear myself out before we reached halfway.

What I hadn't taken into account was the fact that the race route was two 5k laps (have I ever mentioned how much I dislike laps?)  The route headed west from Hove Lawns along the prom - nice enough but the memories of the Brighton Half and the flipping endless line of beach huts was rather fresh in my memory!   At 2.5k we headed back up on to Kingsway and headed back to Hove Lawns for the turn around point

Getting ready for the turnaround!

Here we go again!

We hit the 5k point at 35 mins (the fastest I've run 5k in a very long while).  The second lap wasn't so bad, being with Alma makes the time go really quickly!

Clark Kent/Superman!

 Alma just happened to mention that we were currently on target to finish at about 1hr 8 mins but only if we sped up slightly.

I was nearly dying and gasping for breath when we crossed the line at 1hr 8mins - the best I've ever run 10k since I started running!

Celebratory hugs were exchanged and Alma left us to go home.   I headed to Brighton Marina with Shaun and Mum & Dad to have a yummy lunch of ham, egg & chips and a Stowford Press!

All in all I loved this event, despite the laps and not because of the pb.  The atmosphere was brilliant and it was great to see so many different costumes.  It was nice to have a relaxed attitude, no timing chip and no expectation of finishing fast - just what I needed, even if we did "leg it" to finish!

Next stop is Bedgebury 10k on 8th June so from tomorrow onwards I'm hitting the footpaths to break my trail shoes in properly.

I'm not taking part in Juneathon this year.   With everything going on at home at the moment and my stress diagnosis earlier this year, I've decided putting myself through the stress of daily running and blogging will be too much.  If I did it I would want to run further than I did last year, and with two more running events to get through next month and in July I want to concentrate on training for those.

Fingers crossed for good weather in a couple of weeks time!

Fashion Targets Breast Cancer

I've recently been approached by Breakthrough Breast Cancer to share their latest campaign to raise funds for research into breast cancer.  Each year 50,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer accounts for nearly one in three of all female cancers and one in eight women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in their lifetime. 

This year the campaign hopes to raise funds through Wear Your Support with fashion items being sold in well known outlets Marks & Spencer, River Island, Warehouse, Topshop, my-wardrobe.com, Coast, Laura Ashley and Debenhams, with a minimum 30% donation going to the charity for each item in the collection sold. 

Click on the logo on the right to take you to the shop!   There's something for everyone, every budget.  From lovely dresses, Tshirts, shorts and swimwear to bags, scarves and keyrings.

The campaign is being backed by celebrity mothers and daughters, Sharon and Kelly Osbourne and Pearl and Daisy Lowe

 who are encouraging everybody to join in and "Wear Your Support".

Please join in and encourage everybody to #WearYourSupport (Twitter: @FashionTargets / Instagram: FashionTargetsBreastCancer / Facebook: Fashion Targets Breast Cancer UK).