Attacked on a run

I still have a couple of posts to share; marshaling at the Country to Capital, The National Running Show, Dan’s impressive improvement from a 30 minute parkrun time to smashing a sub 24 minute time…
But I just nipped on this morning to write a post about what happened whilst I was out on my run last night, – when I was attacked by a guy on a bike.

Last night I should have been at running club. Dan goes into work a little early on a Thursday morning in order to finish at an earlier time and make it back so that I can hand over Oscar and rush off to run with my club in Wellingborough. There isn’t much turnaround time in-between and with him arriving back a few minutes late last night and us waking Oscar from a sneaky nap, Oscar then became very tearful and only wanted me. I couldn’t leave him.

I had arranged to drop off some old running kit to a friend in Wellingborough who was collecting for a disadvantaged school project and also to collect a memory stick from another friend in town, so once I had settled Oscar down I drove through to town anyway. By the time I got back home again it was a little past 8pm. I laced up my trainers, started my Garmin and headed out on my run.
I live in a nice area, in a quiet little close in the far corner of the town. The roads around my house are not really a direct route to anywhere other than the other houses on the estate so we don’t get a whole load of traffic or unwanted noise out our way. Our neighbours are lovely and we’ve made great friends since we moved back in 2015.

Despite this, if I find myself having to run alone at night or early morning in the dark I stick to a one mile loop around my house so that I am never more than a half mile from home. The entire route is street-lit and on wide roads and I’ve never felt unsafe running along there. Repeats of the same mile loop doesn’t make for a very exciting run but Dan always knows where I am and especially when it comes to hitting paces on a speed session or tempo run I don’t have to think about road crossings or rough terrain, so I can remain consistent without too much thought.

Last night my plan dictated that I was to run 7 miles at marathon pace. Although I am hoping for a sub 4:30 marathon at London in April I decided when writing the plan into my calendar to use the paces for a 4:15 marathon to train, in order to give myself a little leeway on the day. 7 miles at 9:45mm pace. I set my watch up for the session. (I find it so motivating and encouraging when my watch beeps if I am running too fast or slow for the pace I’m meant to be running at.)
I was actually running really well last night and struggled to keep my pace slow enough for the first few miles. It was one of those runs where everything is going right and you feel on top of the world as you realise another mile has gone by at goal pace.

As I reached mile four I was running along the pavement of a wide road. A guy in his late teens biked along the middle of the road in the other direction. I didn’t pay too much attention as I had seen a few people out either walking dogs or on bikes that night. There was nobody else around now though, and after he passed I became aware that he had turned the bike around and was now biking very fast back in the same direction as me. I had the feeling he had mounted the pavement with his bike although I didn’t want to turn around to appear on edge. As he biked past he grabbed my bum, squeezed it and then pushed me aside, so that I stumbled across the curb. As I loudly shouted at him he quickly biked off into the distance.

I was shaking and thought about turning in and cutting my run short at this point, but it had been going so well. I was determined to finish it and so continued on my path, assuming that he would be long gone in the distance, having seen his opportunity to harass and already taken it.
I was still nearly half a mile from home, and as I passed my house the shaking had subsided and turned to rage that somebody had the audacity to do something like that to me. I was not going to let him run my fabulous run that night!
So I continued.

I passed a few dog walkers in the next mile which helped to make me feel a little safer – there were other people still out that I could shout for if needed. I had relaxed by the time I reached mile five and then suddenly the wind slowed and I could hear every little noise and everything made me jumpy. A car slowed behind me and I was convinced that guy was inside ready to push me over again or throw things out at me or much worse. In actual fact, the car was slowing only to take a turning I had just passed. But then I heard the bike again. There was no mistaking it even though it was made barely any noise. The guy was back on the pavement behind me and speeding up. I jumped around and shouted at him as loudly as I could which put him off his path and he pulled back out onto the road, peddling away with his arms raised up in the air. This time I was really shaking and when I passed my house at 5.6 miles I stopped and rushed inside to escape, then worried that the guy had seen where I lived and would continue to harass me at my home.

I did manage to establish that it was a white male in his late teens wearing a black hoodie. He had the hood up and was wearing a white drawstring sports bag diagonally across his back. Although not a lot to go on, when reporting it to the police a little while later they assured me that it might help them build up a picture if other attacks had happened in the area or anybody else had reported malicious behaviour that night.

Initially I hadn’t intended on making a formal report to the police. When I had first reported being egged on a run in Norfolk a couple of years ago, the initial police officer that took the incident details told me they wouldn’t be able to do anything and dismissed the incident immediately. (He did later ring back and apologise but it didn’t leave me feeling very confident.) As soon as I had got inside and had locked the doors last night I posted details of the attack on my running club Facebook page so that other people who might be running alone in the same area were aware. A number of people convinced me to report what had happened.

I spoke to an operator using the 101 number who said that the incident would be listed as a sexual assault and they would be sending officers around later that evening to gather more details from me. Within an hour two officers had arrived at my door, and Dan invited them to sit in our very dusty and bare lounge (thanks to the current garage conversion!)

It was good to feel like my incident was being taken seriously. The officers took down details of the route I ran. When I had returned, Dan had headed out along my route (with the intention of finding the guy on a bike) but also made a note of the houses which had CCTV on them, which he then passed onto the police. The police gave me a crime number, and told me they would be knocking on any houses down that street with lights still on that evening after they had left mine and asking to see if anybody had seen a guy riding around on a bike earlier that night or had heard anything when I shouted out. The following morning they would be making enquires with the houses which had CCTV present and would be questioning more people. They will also be putting out a social media appeal in case he attacked anybody else who hasn’t come forward. They were concerned that the guy came back and tried to attack me a second time, and that he wasn’t with friends so it was with more intention than if he had been ‘just showing off in front of his mates’.

I was supposed to run a 7 mile easy run at 5:30am this morning before Dan left for work but as Oscar is in nursery today so that I can work from our home office I decided that I will get my run in during the daytime today instead, and just work a little later tonight if needs be.

It’s so hard to juggle running around a family. There’s a lot of talk about the #JogOn Avon and Somerset police campaign at the moment. They are trying to encourage women to run in packs rather than alone so that they are safer. A lot of female runners have hit back at the campaign though, rightly arguing that they shouldn’t have to change their behaviour – they’re not the ones in the wrong. Surely it’s the behaviour of the attackers which should change?! For lots of us with young families, it’s hard enough to fit in running on our own – running with friends is quite often an impossibility at times.

A few people have suggested rape alarms to me since mentioning my attack on social media, but these would just be something to use after/during an attack, not a prevention. My shouting did the same job I feel. Had anybody been nearby they would have heard either an alarm or my shout.

A friend shared a post with me earlier today from Facebook which showed details of a theft which happened two roads across from mine with a guy of similar description and wearing the same bag I detailed in my report to the police, so it sounds like the guy did the rounds yesterday evening.

Do you often run alone?
Do you feel safe?

February 8, 2019 Mary2 Comments

January 18, 2019January 18, 2019 Mary4 Comments

My goals for 2019

So it’s that time of year when I try and look back over what I had hoped to achieve during the previous year and set myself some aims and goals for the year ahead.
I’ll start by reviewing the goals I had for 2018:

Volunteer at least six times at parkrun including in the role of pacer

Not quite. This year I’ve volunteered in the role of pacer (30 minutes), barcode scanner, pre-event setup and post-event close down, so I’ve only managed to volunteer four of the six times I had hoped to volunteer during 2018. (Parkrun suggest that volunteering three times a year is a good target to aim for.) Although I haven’t met this target, I’m happy that I managed to volunteer four times. Early in the year, getting to parkrun at all was rather difficult, as I was working through the night until 7am on a Saturday morning each week. Now volunteering has become more challenging as I often have Oscar with me, but there are still plenty of roles I can help out in and intend to during 2019. (See 2019 goals further down the page.)

Complete at least six more distances of marathon and above

Done. I actually didn’t think I had achieved this goal until I sat down and worked it all out the other night though. But I ran the South Downs Way 50m in April, the Milton Keynes Marathon and Shires and Spires 35m back in May, Robin Hood 100m in September, Dusk ’til Dawn Marathon in October and then Gower Marathon in November. My marathon total is now 16, and I’ve also run a further 11 ultras in distances up to 100 miles. That’s 27 events on the list…I’ll soon be heading towards 100 Marathon Club entry…

Complete a 100 mile race

I was so, so happy to have completed the Robin Hood 100 in the Autumn! It meant so much for me to cross that finish line and I will forever be in debt to all the people who helped me get to the start and finish of the race that day.

PB at 5k, half and marathon distances

Fail, fail and mighty fail! Haha! 2019 was definitely not the year of the PB (unlike 2015!) My fastest 5k time in 2018 was 27:06 (compared to my PB set in 2017 of 26:35), I walked the majority of Milton Keynes Half in March following an injury (finishing in 2:50:42, when my PB from 2012 is 2:09:16) and the only road marathon I ran during the year was in 28 degree heat. When I found myself dodging nothing but walkers out on the course by mile 11, I decided to just enjoy the race instead, making the most of the race atmosphere and finishing in 5:32:01, a long way short of the 4:54:08 PB I set for myself back at the end of 2015.

Put aside £500 from side hussles each month towards the deposit for a second property

This has been a big success surprisingly. Without including my standard wage from my supermarket job,-I’ve still managed to bring in a minimum of £500 each month on top of that, whilst still Mumming full time. I’ve picked up a bit of social media work for a few companies, a couple of design jobs, the odd bit of overtime from my supermarket job, a monthly paper round, some work marking coursework for an exam board, filled in a number of quizzes on Prolific, sold some unused items in our house and have recently started my journey into matched betting.

Rather than go on a deposit for a second property the money has actually all been put aside to pay for our garage to be converted into a playroom for Oscar. Work begins on the conversion this coming Monday and I can’t wait to be able to give Oscar a space of his own for his toys and games. So, although the money hasn’t been put aside for a house deposit, it has been used wisely (I hope!), will add value to our house (we already have enough drive space for two cars, and who uses garages nowadays anyway?!). Working hard to ensure I hit this target each month has shown me that I can side hussle enough money away on a regular basis to make a difference whilst still living reasonably comfortably.

I’ve had a few people ask me about Prolific just lately. It’s a survey site used by academics. You fill out a large number of screening questions when you first sign up for an account but then are only sent surveys you are able to answer and won’t be screened out of which is great. When Oscar is in nursery on a Friday, I spend most of the day catching up with freelance work in our home office on the computer and have Prolific open in a tab in the background. Most of the surveys are only a few minutes long so if one pops up whilst I’m working I usually switch tabs and complete it. Fridays are the only day I get on the computer now really since having Oscar, but I have still managed to cash out several hundred pounds over the last year which has definitely helped with household bills! If you are interested and would like to sign up and give it a go, please use my Prolific referral link. (I will get a small reward from Prolific when you cash out for the first time for sending you in their direction.)

Respond to/clear notifications on my phone quickly

I’m so much better at this than I used to be! I did have notifications set on my phone for lots of rubbish that I never really ever got time to check. I had a big cull a few months back where I stopped notifications every time certain people tweeted or posted on Instagram and that made a big difference. I find I really have to be in the mood to be actively engaged on Twitter and I was just letting the notifications all build up at the top of my screen until I had time to go through them, which was never! Now that I’m not forever clicking through notifications I have a bit more genuine time for Twitter which is nice, as it does tend to be my preferred social media platform.

Eat less processed food and encourage my Dad to do the same

I’ve cut back a bit, although not yet as much as I would like, but more importantly my Dad has made a massive overhaul to his diet. For somebody who wouldn’t think twice about eating several chocolates a day, (living near to a chocolate factory he was always stocking up on reduced chocolates!) he no longer buys in bags of chocolate for the house. He has also stopped having rich foods in the evenings and doesn’t eat after a certain time each evening as he realised that his choice of food and drink was affecting his sleep and the way that he felt. I am very proud of him. He’s had such a hard year; losing my Mum, his dog, four cousins and going from living in a large bungalow with three adults and a dog to just him, having to learn simple but vital tasks like online banking, writing and sending out Christmas cards (on time!) and keeping on top of the cleaning. All the jobs that my Mum used to take care of around the house. He’s definitely picked himself back up and is taking more control again now which is good.

Move at least 10,000 steps each day

I was definitely on target for this. It gave me a real motivation to get up and moving every day, even on the days I really didn’t feel like it. Unfortunately my Garmin Vivofit died in the middle of November though and I don’t have the spare money to replace it right now. Although I didn’t hit 10,000 steps every day, I managed several streaks of 50+ days across the year and easily maintained an average of 12,265 daily steps for 2018 despite the 6 missing weeks of data at the end of the year. I’m hoping perhaps next year I can justify spending on another fitness tracker, but for now, my arm is fitness tracker free.
I know I’m hitting a minimum of 10,000 steps a day at the moment anyway. I work overnight into Monday mornings, and I have always covered more than 10,000 steps during a shift. I then run the remaining six days of the week, with no run (other than my Saturday parkrun) shorter than 6 miles in distance.

Raise money for a cancer charity

I’m only really releasing details of my fundraising plans this week, so the bulk of my fundraising money will be collected during 2019.

Ronnie Staton, Race Director of HoboPace has incredibly generously offered to come and put on a talk for me to help raise funds for Cancer Research on the evening of the 29th March in Wellingborough. He intends to tell tales of extreme running adventures that he has encountered as a coach and as an athlete himself. Although this event has been arranged for a while now, I haven’t announced it until this point as Ronnie sadly suffered a stroke shortly before Christmas. His recovery has been going well though, and he has insisted he still wants to help make my fundraising evening happen. I am so thankful for the time he intends to put in towards making this work. I am just waiting for a couple of details to be confirmed on the tickets and then I will advertise tickets on the blog for anybody who would be interested in coming along.

Goals for 2019:

Become more confident talking to successful people

I once met Mimi Anderson (at a Write this Run event back in 2013?!) I sat in the corner of the room quietly whilst other runners posed for selfies with her. On meeting Will Mellor at a University club night I awkwardly just said “Can I have a photo?” when he tried to start up a conversation with me. I’ve met quite a few famous people over the years. (I had lunch with Katy Hill as a teenager and once sat and chatted to Frankie Dettori for a good twenty minutes. – I didn’t know who he was until afterwards, but that’s a whole other story!)

I want to become more confident with talking to people I view as successful. I find myself mumbling and without anything interesting to say, when I know that chances of a lifetime are slipping away! This coming weekend I’m heading to The Running Show as an ambassador for the event. I will be having photos taken alongside the other ambassadors and speakers on both days. Having my photo taken alongside such inspiring people as Paula Radcliffe, Jo Pavey and Nell McAndrew, – heroes of mine. I want to challenge myself to step outside of my comfort zone, ask for selfies, chat to those people and learn as much as I can from the experience. With my VIP entry I also have access to the VIP room and the VIP meet and greet area. I am so looking forward to the experience and really hope I can come out of my shell enough in order to make the most of the weekend.

(Picture from 2008 – there’s a blast from the past!)

Run a sub 4h 30m marathon

This WILL happen. It’s my main focus for the year. At the moment I’m putting everything into my London marathon training. No shiny ultras are going to distract me along the way this time!

Raise £3000+ for Cancer Research

Too many members of my family have died from cancer during the last 18 months. It scares me to think that without research even more family members could go down the same horrible route as my Mum. It scares me to think that Oscar’s family could slip away from him all due to the horrible illness. I want to be a part in helping to raise money for research to a cure and prevention.

Volunteer at parkrun at least six times, including in a new volunteer role

At the back of my mind I still really want to get a parkrun set up in our area, closer to home. I’ve had a couple of knock backs from local parks this past year but one day I’ll get there and I’ll be able to set something up I’m sure. When that day comes I’d like to have enough experience in the different roles to be able to assess what is required at the new event. I love the whole parkrun concept, and have known so many non-runners find the running bug after starting their running lives at the free 5k parkrun on a Saturday morning.

Declutter our house

This is a big thing for me.

My Dad is a hoarder. Not the kind you see on Channel four shows where the occupants of a house can barely make their way to the chair in the corner of the room and the bed hasn’t been seen for weeks. But, he’s always been a bit of a wheeler-dealer. He’s brought ‘bargains’ back from auctionhouses with the intention of selling them on for profit, and rarely throws anything away, just in case it comes in useful one day. His large five bed bungalow is very much full, and when my Nan (his Mum) died back in 2003 he built a large cabin-type shed in the garden to store her belongings. It still contains china and furniture and hundreds of photographs which he has put off sorting through.

I take after my Dad. An eye for a bargain and a hoarder of nostalgia. I have boxes of items of belongings that are only meaningful to me.
Having grown up sharing a room with his brother, when I first met Dan he had very few personal belongings. You could fit them all into one very small box. He has a few more now, but still nothing in comparison to the items I have in our house.

This past year though, since my Mum died and since having Oscar I feel as though I’m finally ready to start letting go of some of those belongings. I would much rather be spending quality time with my family than digging through boxes of paperwork to find a guarantee for something I never got round to filing, or having to spend time tidying away and cleaning under piles of things I don’t pick up for years at a time.

I’ve bought very few things into the house during 2018, as we have made huge cut-backs in order that I can remain a full time Mum to Oscar. It has done wonders for the clutter and staying at home has also given me a chance to begin clearing out and organising the space we do have. It also helps that I’ve become addicted to shows like Tidying Up and Consumed on Netflix since the start of the year! I want to spend my time with people, not things. This year I really want to clear out a good 30% of our items and become more minimalist about our belongings. My Dad has also asked me on a number of occasions now if I will help clear his house, so it will be a good year for us both I hope.

Continue blogging each week and retain blogging friendships

This is probably the hardest item on the list. To find a spare three hours or so to write a meaningful blog post each week is a really tough ask when I already cram so much else into my week, but I hate it when I don’t get time to write about a race, or leave it so long to write up my recap that I’ve forgotten half of the details. I love the blogging life – it’s become a real outlet for me over the past few years. I’ve gone from hiding away, hoping nobody I knew found out about my little corner on the internet, to sharing my blog address with runners from my running club and letting real life friends follow my AHM Instagram account. I’ve been invited to some fantastic events over the years and met some lovely people through blogging that I’m proud to call friends now. I hate that I don’t have the time to put into blogging and reading the blogs of friends that I once had, but hope to put more of a focus on this again during 2019.

How many hours do you spend writing blog posts?
Are you a hoarder?
Ever met anybody famous? Do you go all shy or ask for a picture?

A new Garmin

Lack of blogging

Desperation to run the London marathon

January 18, 2019January 18, 2019 Mary4 Comments

January 12, 2019January 12, 2019 Mary5 Comments

A look back at 2018

2018 has been another year with not as much blogging as I would have really liked. (Just 35 posts in 2018!) But it has been a year filled with action packed fun and adventure when I looked back through my calendar and in my blog posts this weekend. (When is my life ever not filled with fun and adventure?!)

Once again, I’ve loved putting together this post and reminiscing over the past year of fun. Here goes…

My 2018bestnine from Instagram:Obviously lots and lots of running in there!

* Super tasty meal out with Dan on our first date day since having Oscar.
* At the finish of the Robin Hood 100 in September. I finally ran 100 miles! My face says it all.
* At the end of the Milton Keynes Marathon in May. Such a ridiculously hot day. The support from the locals was incredible though.
* Headed up the first big hill of the South Downs Way 50 in April. I had such an epic race that day. Everything fell into place for me out on the trails.
* My Shires and Spires 35m medal from May. I ran my second fastest time on the course despite only using the race as a training run for my first 100 event.
* Volunteering as 30 minute pacer for the first time at Northampton parkrun at the start of the year.
* High fiving Oscar at the 85 mile point of my 100.
* Playing rounders on the roof of the Decathlon building in London.
* Comparing this year’s SDW50 medal with last year’s. A few seconds shy of an hour PB!

My 2018bestnine from my fromteachertomum account on Instagram:

* Oscar playing at Wickstead Park.
* Enjoying his first time paddling in the sea at Wells in Norfolk.
* Our family holiday to the Isle of Wight and one of my favourite pictures of the three of us from the year.
* Just a sunny Saturday afternoon at the park across the road from us.
* Helping to collect potatoes for dinner at Grandad’s house.
* Oscar’s first ice skating trip at Beckworth Emporium.
* Watching the ducks with Grandad in Norfolk.
* My little mini me!
* Enjoying shoulder rides with Daddy at Irchester Country Park.

January:

Obviously a parkrun double was on the cards at the start of the year and I chose to run the Linford Wood/Milton Keynes double again with Laura.

View this post on Instagram

Surrounded by large numbers of runners listening to a parkrun briefing… . #linfordwoodparkrun #NewYearsDay #loveparkrun #parkrundouble #project365

A post shared by Mary (@ahealthiermoo) on Jan 3, 2018 at 9:06am PST

Unfortunately it seems I never got round to blogging about the double event. (Damn being a busy working Mum and having no time!!!)

The following day Dan, Oscar and I traveled to Wolverhampton for a funeral. Dan’s Nan had died at the end of November and her funeral was held on the 2nd January.

I marshaled at checkpoint 3 of the Country to Capital ultra. (I was there again this morning, but working registration and checkpoint 1 this time.)

In January I was frequently working three night shifts a week, managing the occasional parkrun on a Saturday morning and then trying to blog, train for my 100, keep on top of housework and Mum the rest of the time. Somehow I managed a few parkruns straight on the back of a night shift before heading home to bed, and one weekend after having already worked a back to back night I drove to Biggleswade, slept (if you can call it that!) for an hour in the front of my car, changed into my cross-country kit and ran the final cross-country race of the season!

It was also around this time that I had a health scare and was taken into hospital for a few scans. Although hopefully nothing to worry about I am still being monitored following that first hospital trip.

2018 was the first year of the National Running Show and I was so excited to visit in January. I was looking to meet new people and spend lots of money on fun running things! There were some great guest speakers and I bumped into a couple of people I knew through blogging at the show which was fun. I also managed to pick up some pace bands, which I’m hoping are going to come in handy for when I run London Marathon in April later this year.
I’m an ambassador for the event this year and although I’m poor and can’t really afford to spend any money at the show this time round, I can’t wait to see and hear all of the fantastic guest speakers they have lined up for next weekend!

I volunteered for first time as pacer for 30 minutes at Northampton parkrun, coming in at 29:58 – I couldn’t have gotten much closer to target than that!

At the end of the month we had a second funeral to attend for my Dad’s cousin. Another cancer victim in our family

February:

Dan was taken all over the country with work during 2018, often away for days at a time. I put a shoutout on our club Facebook page to see if anybody would be able to loan me a treadmill in the build up to the South Downs Way 100 and I was lucky enough to be able to borrow a treadmill!

After 17 months, Oscar finally started walking on his own on Valentine’s Day!

I also worked on the registration desk of our club trail race, the Welly Trail Half.

March:

I ran the Milton Keynes Half on Mother’s Day. The first Mother’s Day without my own Mum. Initially hoping for a shiny new half marathon PB, my dreams turned to dust when I had to pull over and limp the final eight miles after getting a sharp pain in my calf at mile 5. I was absolutely gutted and there were a few tears that morning.

The following day though, Dan, Oscar and I hopped into a very full car and headed off to York for our first family holiday. It was very much needed and I really enjoyed taking some time off from work, running and actually getting to spend some precious time with my boys.

Following my calf injury I booked in to see Fred at StrongLines. He taped up my calf and gave me a number of exercises to complete over the coming months to strengthen my weaker areas and ensure I made it to the start line of my 100 in June.

I nearly collapsed as I stood scanning barcodes at Northampton parkrun in the freezing cold one Saturday, luckily feeling much better after a trip to Magee’s and with a hot chocolate in hand to increase my sugar levels.

April:

Laura and I ran our traditional pre-Stanwick 10k run. It tipped it down this year and the usual route was flooded so they had to divert the course. (Laura and I still made it across the ford, but barely!)

I stepped down as website editor from my running club committee, and received a lovely bunch of flowers and thanks at the AGM.

One of my goals for the year was to complete the South Downs Way 50 in a faster time than I had the previous year as I’d still been breastfeeding back in 2017 and had stopped to express along the way! I’d have been pretty gutted if I had not been able to run the 2018 event faster!
Luckily, I achieved my goal, and finished nearly an hour faster than I had ran the event the previous year, smashing all of my goals for the race and building my confidence ready for the 100 miles along the same piece of course later on in the year.

I started working for OCR (the exam board) and as my training day meant spending a Saturday morning in Coventry, I obviously tied it in with some parkrun tourism! 😉

I then spectacularly managed to mess up some parkrun tourism when I arranged to meet Laura at Luton parkrun. Turns out there are two parkruns in Luton! Luckily we each turned up at an event we hadn’t run before so still increased our tourism count even though we didn’t see each other that morning! Not my finest moment though! To think I was so chuffed to have arrived before Laura that day, when I always leave everything to the last minute!

May:

This year we attended four weddings and two Christenings, the first Christening fell on the first weekend in May for my friend Zoë’s little boy Oliver.

The following day was the Milton Keynes Marathon. Probably the hottest weather I have ever run in! I had decided by mile 11 to just enjoy the run rather than to run hard, and I had such a fun race!

A few weeks later I offered to pace another runner to a PB at the Shires and Spires ultra. The runner I was pacing achieved more than she had hoped for, taking over an hour off from her previous best, and crossing the lady as third in her age category, winning a trophy along the way!

June:

I didn’t blog much in June. (Once, about the Shires and Spires race.) All of my time was spent marking for OCR, working shifts at Tesco and preparing to run 100 miles at the South Downs Way.

I ran my first attempt at the 100 mile distance on the 2nd weekend in June, managing to get to 78 miles. Possibly the busy lead up to the event was what caused my downfall in not completing the race.

July:

As an ambassador for Decathlon I was invited to go and take part in filming for their Summer campaign – Sport for Every Body. I had so much fun down in London with a bunch of like-minded fitness bloggers and was sad when the day came to an end, even though I had the most stressful trip down and my interview answers on camera were so poorly constructed!

We started to make a massive dent in our garden this Summer, but due to the heatwave, could only get so far so that’s another mission to add to our 2019 to do list!

Oscar ran his first toddler dash at our club race at the end of July. Although I had visions of him happily toddling the whole length of the race, arms in air as he crossed the finish line, in reality it rained heavily for the duration of the race and Oscar sulked as soon as he realised the other toddlers were much older and bigger, therefore faster than him. He ducked under the barrier at the first opportunity and it took a lot of convincing from Dan and Me to keep him going until the end!

August:

I went to support Guy at the Grim Reaper race at the start of August. He was attempting the 70 mile distance, which had been where I ran my first 70. He had horrific heat for his attempt though, so I went along armed with ice lollies for him and the rest of his support crew. Sadly the heat got to him and the blisters which grew on his feet prevented him from getting past 40 miles on the day.

We met up with friends and their toddler at Clumber Park later in the week, not realising at the time that I would actually be running part of my 100 miler around the park later in the year.

It was also our fourth wedding anniversary on the 9th August. (That time has gone by so quickly!) A fourth anniversary is represented by flowers and fruit. I bought Dan a plant for our lounge and he treated me to a delivery of roses then we headed out for a date night dinner with Oscar in the evening after Dan had finished work.

August was also Dan’s 30th birthday, which we celebrated by having some of his closest friends over for the day. It was a fairly quiet celebration, as we were due to head off for a holiday to the Isle of Wight the next day.

We made a break for four days to the Isle of Wight to stay in a static caravan owned by Dan’s parents. It was the first time I had ever been to the Isle of Wight (or stayed in a caravan!), and we had a fantastic time away.

We headed back home ready for the weekend so that I may work and then we continued our Summer adventures by visiting my Dad in Norfolk the following week. So much lovely family time together, although we did have to attend the third family funeral of the year whilst we were back – for my Aunt/Godmother. Another cancer victim.

September:

I booked to run the Dunstable Downs marathon at the start of September rather last minute. The race fell a fortnight before my second 100 mile attempt, but I didn’t feel well going into the event and made the decision to pull before even getting to halfway, resulting in a massive knock to my confidence before goal race day.

I gained a new niece – my brother had a baby girl, Evie. Our second niece by that name. (Obviously the first by my brother!)

September was all about the completing my first 100 miler – the Robin Hood 100. I was so, so happy to cross that finish line and know that I had completed the distance I had set out to complete as one of my main goals at the start of the year!

We also celebrated Oscar’s 2nd birthday with friends at West Lodge Farm this month.

I followed my 100 up with the Squeaky Bone relay race a few weeks later, running with three good friends as part of a relay team.

At the end of the month I was chosen as an Ambassador for The National Running Show, which is something I’m really looking forward to attending again this year.

October:

In October I offered to show other local members of the Run Mummy Run community some local running routes, and have regularly run out with a little group that live nearby since. I also got involved with the RMR takeover at Kettering parkrun, volunteering to set up and take down the equipment after the run.

Dan, Oscar and I took a trip to Wolverhampton to meet a friend’s baby.

Oscar got sick the following week and ended up hospitalised with pneumonia which was a rather scary time. The day after he left hospital I headed up to the Peak District to run the Dusk ’til Dawn marathon through the night with friends. I had so much fun, even though it was freezing out there!

My birthday is the 31st October and I celebrated(!) by hosting a Halloween party for four of Oscar’s friends and their Mums, and then did my paper-round in the evening! Oh how glamorous it is being a stay-at-home Mum in my 30s(!) We had so much fun at the party though!

November:

Dan had treated me to a spa day for my birthday, so on the first Friday in November we headed to a spa in Kettering for the day. It was lovely actually being able to spend time with just Dan again after so long.

I ran the first cross-country race of the season at Dunstable. It was ridiculously hard!

A trip to Gower with friends for the marathon came the following weekend and it was nice to have some time completely away from being Mum for a couple of days and escape the madness of working five jobs!

The following weekend was the second cross-country event in the series. Our home race and again, ridiculously hard. Made even harder by the fact that a friend and fellow runner from the club had died the morning before following a cardiac arrest whilst out on a run. (Guy, who I had supported at Grim earlier in the year, and who had paced me at the Robin Hood 100.)

December:

December was a brighter month. With Christmas on the way, Dan, Oscar and I were invited down to London to film for the Decathlon campaign ‘Bikes are for Christmas’.

As Oscar was of an age where he understood the magic of Christmas a little better this year we made sure to fit as much of that Christmas magic into the month as possible.

We took him Ice Skating at Beckworth Emporium…

…to have our photo taken in a giant snow globe at Bosworths Garden Centre…

…and to West Lodge Farm Park to meet Santa.

We spent Christmas with my Dad, Aunt and Great Aunt in Norfolk and then just enjoyed having some time off as a family for the remaining few days that Dan had off before needing to return to work.

And then, just like that, we’re already two weeks into 2019!

What were the highlights of your 2019?

Preparing for the 12 hour Conti race

Boyfriend pressure…

A busy weekend

January 12, 2019January 12, 2019 Mary5 Comments

January 11, 2019 Mary2 Comments

The Runner’s Runner of the Year 2018

As always in December I produced the ‘Runner’s Runner of the Year’ videos for my running club awards evening. Annoyingly this year I was unable to attend the actual awards evening as Dan’s work do fell on the same night and we were unable to get anybody else to look after Oscar for the evening. It was a shame as I love watching the expressions on the faces of runners at the evening as they realise that they have been nominated and they become engrossed in reading the lovely comments that have been sent in about their running over the year.

Due to time constraints I’m not even on the club committee anymore, but I was still asked to make the videos this year. It’s a job I really enjoy though, as it’s so lovely reading all of the amazing achievements that each of the runners at our club have had over the course of the year.

Our club awards evening is held at the start of December, and in the weeks leading up to the awards evening members are asked to nominate both a male and female runner who they feel have been inspiring, encouraging, supportive, hard working, have improved a great deal or have just been a fantastic runner across the year! It’s an opportunity for an award to go to somebody who isn’t necessarily the fastest runner at the club and is an award viewed very highly by all club members.

Once nominations are closed, I usually have about a week to put together the videos, choosing one or two reasons given for each person nominated to display on the video alongside images of them in action throughout the year. The videos take me probably about 20 or so hours to create in total – with the picture-finding being the most time consuming part!

Male video for 2018:

(Winner: Craig Clements)

Female video for 2018:

(Winner: Sarah Rowse)

Once again I received a few nominations this year.

* Mary’s achievements this year speak for themselves but her determination and belief in herself is unmatched. Go Mary!!

* Mary is one of the strongest people I know! There is no challenge too big and once she’s made her mind up, she will keep going until she’s absolutely smashed it. Even though she’s completed huge challenges such as her 100 miler, she could not be more humble and is always so supportive of other runners with their goals too. Mary is simply an inspiration.

* Mary has shown so much True Grit this year after her setback on the SDW100. She has shown that with hard work you can achieve your dreams, from training in the wee hours to get the miles in, to dragging herself off the floor at mile 74.

Super sappy, but I say it every year – whenever I watch the videos back and look at all the fun times and achievements everybody I run with has had it instantly picks me up and makes me want to get back outside running with my friends again. So, so glad that I decided to join that beginner running group way back in 2011.

Does your running club do anything similar?