Windsor & Eton Winter Fun Run

Dorney lake is starting to feel like a second home. In the past year I've taken part in three events there and last weekend was my fourth. The site lends itself well to open water swims, duathlon and triathlon but this was the first time I'd taken part in a plain ol' running race; one of the Windsor and Eton Winter Fun Run series organised by F3. I'd chosen the 10k distance. Unusually for a race, the start time was at 12:30 and we were under strict instruction that we would not be allowed on site until 11:30 at the earliest as there was a duathlon taking place in the morning.

Dorney Lake is not a complex site. However it turns out that what a marshal who's been there since some ungodly hour that morning means by the instruction "follow the road" is in fact "bear right where the road splits". This slight misinterpretation meant that I spent the first 10 minutes on site driving up and down the outer road trying to find somewhere to park that wasn't a kilometre from the start. Never mind.

The registration and start area, though tiny compare to all the other events I'd attended here, was perfectly formed. I was in, out, branded (with felt tip), goody bagged up, ankle tag in hand and waving the smell of the catering table out of my hair in around 5 minutes. My warm up took the form of walking backwards and forwards to the car twice to drop of my bag and then retrieve the ankle tag I'd left in my fleece pocket and then doing some stretches in the toilet queue.

The small number of entrants meant that the race briefing cold be given without the need for a megaphone and soon we were all marched across to the start line. No timing mat, no inflatable start, just a virtual line and an air horn. Simple but it seemed to work. It didn't take long for me to realise I was seriously overdressed for the occasion. I'd left home early to volunteer at parkrun and hadn't anticipated how warm it would get later in the day. Thermal leggings and a long sleeved merino top were a bit over the top on what was a sunny and warm, all be it breezy, day although I was glad of the sleeves… if there was no breath of air in the rest of the country I reckon it would still be windy across the lake.

The course was wonderfully flat, with the only inclines being over the bridges on the path that runs down the interior spur of the lake. It's the kind of course you could well expect to run a PB on and that's what I was aiming for. Despite my lack of training I was psyched up to give it a shot. Running the 10k distance involved running 2 laps which meant 5k of sheltered running and 5k of running into a headwind. I paced myself against other people, picked a few people off, thought it wise to take a short walk break to drink at the halfway mark and was focusing and so hard on the finish line in the last 2k, pushing my legs to keep on going, that my vision went a bit funny. A recovery shake never disappeared so fast nor tasted so good as after that.

Toffee Fudge… my new favourite flavour. I'd keep racing just to have these.

It was all worth it though. I knew I couldn't have run much harder without doing myself a damage and I am in love with my wonderful chunky medal. It wasn't until two days later that I realised I'd exactly equalled my PB, something I'm incredibly happy about, all things considered, and I'm not disappointed to have come 48th out of 77 ladies running the 10k.

Bling bling!

A phenomenal number of events are held at Dorney Lake every year there on top of providing a training ground. Human Race organise a lot as do F3 so if you're keen to try something new or aim for a PB any event here would be ideal. Check out the organiser sites for upcoming races. My event was the second of a series of four, the next ones being on Sunday 23rd March and Saturday 19th April with the choice of running 5, 10, 15 or even 20km so you still have a chance to enter one if it takes your fancy.

I got my race place thanks to the wonderful Write This Run team. My result here gave me so much reassurance and confidence. Thank you.

Wow what a year!

This really has been the most amazing year. It’s not been a straightforward one. There have been sad, difficult and painful times but a lot of joy, fun, surprises and flat out incredible moments. I’m not exactly where I thought I’d be, I reckon I overshot the mark there and I certainly achieved more than I thought possible, in so many ways.

I find it useful to take stock at the end of each year, to think about the events, what I’m thankful for and to get a feel for the coming 12 months and this year I’d like to say a few things publicly.

Thanks

Firstly, a few thank you's. Thank you to all of you for reading my blog, for interacting here, on facebook or twitter and stopping me from just typing into the void. You guys make this a whole lot more fun.

Thank you to everyone who sponsored me early in the year and helped me to support the Scleroderma Society. Together we made a huge difference to a small charity.

Me and my Aunt, who inspired my charity choice

Thank you to all of my friends who have stuck by me. You’ve helped me through house moves, crazy training and race schedules, put up with me talking incessantly about said crazy training and race schedules and even encouraged me and pushed me to achieve some of the amazing things I’ve done this year. Without Anita-the-Crazy I certainly wouldn’t have done Tough Mudder, for instance.

Most of all thank you to my family, in particular my mum, dad, aunt and godparents. You mean the world to me and have done SO much for me this year.

Dad-hug post-marathon

Gratitude

I’m grateful for the opportunities this blog and the health and fitness community have afforded me. I wouldn’t have met @amerbob for some of the most fun runs I’ve done this year, I wouldn’t have gone to the Run MummyRun social and made new friends there, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to write for The Protein Works or go to the Write This Run conference and I wouldn’t have been able to write blogs or articles for other sites either.

@amerbob, Anna and me - who knew marathon running could be so fun

I’m grateful for the life change in February that meant I threw myself into my training as a coping mechanism. Silver linings…

I’m grateful for my health, especially now I’m not 100%, and for the fact I managed to get through the year injury-free.

Achievements

This year I’ve taken part in 21 races: 2 marathons, 3 half marathons, 7 x 10k’s, 2 x 5ks, 3 triathlons, an open water swim and 5 others that don’t fall into a category. I’ve gotten through 2 pairs of trainers, logged 634 running miles on the Garmin, swum 10,200 meters and cycled around 143 miles. I’ve set 8 new PBs in the process. I also had my first microadventure, started my Advanced Diploma in Personal Training and became a qualified Gym Instructor.

Plans

I have lots of exciting plans for next year. I aim to be a qualified Personal Trainer by the end of June and will hopefully finish the entire qualification by the end of the year. I would love to start working as a PT and to continue writing for and working with the brands I’ve connected with this year. My studies are going to take quite a bit of time so I won’t be racing as much but I do want to work on my speed and hope to set new PBs of sub-25 for 5k, sub 55 for 10k and sub 2 hour half marathon. I am registered for the following races already:

10 miles Carnival Du Nice

Dorney Lake 10k

Surrey Half Marathon

Electric Run

Bacchus Half Marathon

And I intend to do my first ultra and/or 24 hour event (as part of a team). I’m considering these other events:

Glow in the Park

Royal Berkshire 10k

Samaritans 10k

Equinox24

Gatliff 50k

It would be great to know if you’re taking part in any of them too. Perhaps we can say hi to each other. I’d love to hear about your plans for next year and how you feel about 2013. Did you have goals? Did you meet them? Did you surprise yourself? Feel free to write a few words or pop a link to your blog post in the comments below.

In any case, I hope this point in the year finds you happy and healthy and that 2014 is full of adventures for you.

Write This Run Conference

One thing I didn’t expect from this weekend was to meet quite so many Santana fans but it just goes to show that there’s more than meets the eye to the people who attended the Write This Run conference at the Running Show this year.

Laura… not talking about sports bras

For those of you not in the know, Write This Run is a community for bringing people who are passionate about running and writing together. I’d known about them for a while, had heard excellent things about their workshops, met the girls at the Women’s Running 10k in London earlier in the year and so pounced on the opportunity to attend their second conference.

The Better Blogging panel

A rather over air-conditioned room at the back of the Running Show venue at Sandown park hosted around 5 hours of truly inspirational talks and panels which were broken up into themes which were in turn broken up by lunch (provided) and coffee breaks. My favourite personalities of the day were Jody Raynsford, Bangs and a Bun, Sophie Walker and Robbie Britton who made me belly laugh and is responsible for inspiring me to try 24 hour events, thereby giving my mum a few more grey hairs. The day was rounded off with a choice of a yoga session or a running techniques class. Also included in the ticket price was entry to the show and the 5k or 10k run on Sunday, which Idecided to take full advantage of.

Trying out a wordplay bag in the coffee break

Technically we had some time to look around the show before, during coffee and lunch breaks but really most of us just wanted to chat and get to know each other. Although I once again failed to pluck up the courage to go and talk to Bangs, I had a lovely time chatting to Lucy from Lucy Lemon, Lucy from Black and Tabby Runs, the Veggie Runners and Katherine Selby, Christina Macdonald and one of the lovely photographers from Women’s Running. In fact I got randomly chatting to quite a lot of people, even outside of the conference. I love that about the running community… it’s so friendly!

Brands and Bloggers panel

Indeed we created a bit of a buzz at the show all weekend. Almost every stand I went to asked if I was with the conference and when I went back to look around the Running Show properly on Sunday I got chatting to someone from the Run Mummy Run community (identified thanks to the funkycompression socks) who had thought about going to the conference but didn’t. I was fairly singing its praises and reducing my chances of getting a ticket next time.

As I sat in my car afterwards eating a bag of chips, bought purely because I needed to warm up from the inside, I reflected on the day. I’d come away with a fantastic goody bag including a lululemon yoga mat, nicely relaxed after a half hour of (chilly) yoga and a glass of vino from the after event social at the G!ro café down the road. I had met some great people, become inspired, enthused and felt full of confidence. That feeling hasn’t really left yet. And despite lusting over lots of lovely new kit and innovations I managed to resist and only spend a total of £10 - result!

Socialising at the G!ro Cafe

Oh and the Santana fans… well it so happened that after the show I was going to see Viva Santana at the Boom Boom club down the road in Sutton. Everyone I mentioned it to claimed to really enjoy Santana’s music… who’d have thought!