Fat Girl to Ironman

5 August 2023

9th parkrun at Penrose

The last time I visited Penrose parkrun was New Year’s Day 2020, so it’s over 3.5 years since I last ran there. I’ve run it with my nephews, my mum and Stuart, but M has never completed the run there herself. As well as giving M a chance to increase the number of different parkrun events she’s done, I thought...

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29 May 2023

A month off running (and no post-marathon blues)

London Marathon was a month ago and since then I’ve barely run. It’s not because I haven’t wanted to, but because I’ve had to catch up with everything I postponed whilst training. The housework has been neglected and I needed to do some studying. However, the benefit of the enforced break is that my knee has had some time to...

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22 April 2023

Final prep and Marathon Expo

My final week of light training ahead of London Marathon has been tough. I haven’t lost as much weight as I’d hoped to and don’t feel well enough prepared. Monday night training with Lordshill Road Runners – Avenue of Pain On Monday, I went to my usual Monday night training session with Lordshill. My heart sank when I realised it...

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16 April 2023

Blue 9, your time is up!

It’s starting to get real – I’ve now received my email from London Marathon letting me know my start colour and wave – I’m in Blue 9. I’ve also got my bib number: 54632. This means that you can track me, either online or using the London Marathon 2023 app. Remember that Blue 9 is supposed to start at 10:36,...

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9 April 2023

The final countdown

I’ve now done my last really long run ahead of London Marathon. I’m onto the final countdown to the race with just a 16km run to go. I can’t believe I’ve got this far, but I’m frustrated that I’ve not lost weight and am not as fast as I’d like to be. LRR Monday night training session After my 20...

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2 April 2023

Pacing ABP Southampton 10k

Today was my first race since last summer. I was asked to arrive by 8:30am for the pacer photo, which was 90 minutes before Southampton 10k started. I also needed to fit in a 32km run according to my training plan. As a consequence, I planned to run 10km before the race, do 10km during the race, run 5km home...

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1 April 2023

A week in Lancaster and Southampton parkrun

On Sunday, I travelled up to Lancaster for a study week. I travelled by Avanti West Coast trains and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the train carriage. The tables had extra legroom, plug sockets and wireless charging. (In contrast, I travelled back via Manchester on a cramped older train, which wasn’t a pleasant experience). Lancaster University morning run...

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18 March 2023

Sunday Runday, a 20-miler and some baking

The last week has been really busy and I’m finding it hard to fit everything in. Work is always busy, so fitting in studying and London Marathon training around that isn’t easy. The final Sunday Runday Last Sunday was the final Sunday Runday ahead of ABP Southampton Marathon, Half Marathon and 10k. My training schedule said that I needed to...

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11 March 2023

My fastest 5k in over 3 years

This has been such a week of highs and lows. I’ve been away from home, so have missed some training sessions and haven’t eaten healthily, but I’ve also run my fastest 5k in over 3 years! Trip to Birmingham After missing my long run on Sunday, I had a busy day on Monday. I spent the morning at work and...

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5 March 2023

Return to Netley Abbey parkrun

After having a good time at Monday night training, I was looking forward to this week’s running. I planned to do the Thursday night endurance session, Netley Abbey parkrun and then a long run on Sunday. Lordshill Thursday night endurance session Several of the usual runners weren’t at the Thursday night session, but it was nice to chat with Elaine...

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