Date: August 20, 2023
Distance: None
Listened to: Center day 20 for yoga
This blog covers six months of running and two of not running! It has been a bizarre year that just has not worked out the way I thought it would. Not that I had any real grand plans. It was my year of being 50 so was thinking I might try for another marathon and maybe try to get a little bit faster. I was also keen to keep doing at least one half marathon each month as either an official race or a DIY effort.
It started off well. I had booked the Exeter City Community Trust Half Marathon to give me the impetus I needed for training. I weirdly like tramping the pavements in the cold dark evenings. The programme was also helped by several friends training for the London Marathon. We were all tramping the streets in January!
The January half was a DIY affair with a route up to Five Mile Lane and back. At nine miles, I was scooped up by London Marathon training duo Cath and Abs. Their faces are always welcome on any run…and the chat is always epic too. Basically, life gets sorted!
The Exeter Half was on the second weekend of February and involved two loops of half the waterfront and a visit to the Audi garage…twice! I travelled up with superhero runner Kate and her niece Chloe, who was running her first half. Funny story…Kate thought I might run with her! This woman is a marvellous machine (more on that later) that I could only dream of running alongside. Chloe was a little nervous and asked if I minded if she ran with me. We reckoned we had similar paces, so we should be good companions.
Now, Chloe is young and lives in a very hilly place. The Exeter course is almost all flat. So rather than the 9min 30sec miles we planned, her youth and enthusiasm meant we were nearing 9-minute miles at times. What on earth? This meant I recorded my best 10k time of 55mins 58secs with an average 9-minute mile pace.
I wish – I really wish – I could have sustained that pace, but at the halfway mark I made Chloe go on so I could take a breather and a drink. A few walky bits in the second half and I came in with a personal best of 2hours 43secs. Chloe went under two hours and Kate was in way before us! I was so close to that two hours, which is a time I never really thought I could break, let along get close to. I could kick myself for the two walk breaks I took. Lesson learned I guess, but equally my hip and knee had started to hurt and that was all I thought I had in me.
On the bright side, I got a load of gongs on Strava for personal bests with 20k, 10 miles and 15k to add to the half and the 10k times. It had been a good day. It also finished off my Doddie Aid challenge for 2023. Kate and I wore our Doddie snoods to remember the big man and clock our final miles.
Before my half in March, I agreed to run the Granite Way 10-miler with Rachel…except she was doing the 20-miler. Lordy, the first five miles were tough. I ended up tucking behind two women with one half of the duo shouting encouragement to the people who were running along the home leg. She was awesome. For every runner who passed us running the other way, she shouted: “Well done – keep going!” I needed her positivity in my life. Meanwhile, her friend was struggling like me. I felt I had found my clan! And what do you know, as soon as I turned the bend to run the remaining five miles back, I knew why we had found it tough; it had been a very slow uphill climb reminiscent of the out and back section of the Great West Run. Why can’t I see these hills? I must admit that I ditched the cheering squad and trundled my way back to the finish with fresh hope in my legs, seeing Rachel on the way out for her second loop. I was so relieved to get it done and excited to see Rachel finish so fast behind me.
I had another race booked for March with a return to the Hampton Court Palace Half Marathon. This was where I did my first half back in 2019, where I recorded a solid and very moany 2hours 27mins. I had secret hopes of maybe going under two hours at this one, but I did not even get to the start line on time! Rather a lot of rain meant people were keen to leave bags at the drop-off point, so getting to the start was a challenge (I did not even get a chance to have a last-minute wee), and the usually lovely riverside paths were beset with puddles meaning people were trying to run along the bottle-necked muddy verges. My gorgeous friend Mel and my godson Sam came to cheer me on, and I enjoyed the first 11 miles until the hip and knee started hurting again and I walked much of the park area behind the palace. I took 12 minutes off my previous time though and got to meet a fake Henry VIII (and his codpiece!)
The sore body saw me skip the April half, but I made up for it by walking a half marathon watching Cath and Abs achieve their dream of running the London Marathon. I managed to see them three times along the way, bursting with pride each time…but somehow managed not to see any of the other wonder women running it that day. In the mix was Kate, who was running London having run Boston just six days before. She went on to run the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon a few weeks later too. Total legend! I also missed Rachel who recorded her fastest ever marathon. It’s not easy being friends with these people…actually it is easy, they are just fast!
I got back on track-ish for May to mark my Dad’s birthday. Again, Cath and Abs (below) scooped me up for the final four miles. They are my rocks.
And then it all went a bit wrong. Despite adding in strength training, Clubbercise and Zumba into the mix to do the best job I could for my ageing body, running was becoming really hard. I would find myself out of breath after half a mile and constantly needing to stop. I had lost my stamina for going slightly longer distances too. Meanwhile, my work life had become very stressful, and I felt like I was heading from the perimenopause stage into the menopause. It was a fun time folks!
The final turning point was when we went on holiday to France, and I started suffering from a sore throat that made it hard to swallow. Then I found I had lost three kilos in weight despite having come back from a week where I had eaten pastries every single day and drank a fair amount of wine!
A load of blood tests later and I was diagnosed with thyroiditis. I was not just stressed and/or menopausal, I was sick. I must give credit to my friend Lou for diagnosing a thyroid issue before the doctor did! Aside from the weight loss and the shortness of breath, the symptoms were consistent with stress and menopause: sensitivity to heat, aching, difficulty sleeping, increased anxiety, so easy to see why I just ignored the warning signs. I simply had not realised I was sick and was just ploughing on. With the diagnosis came the advice to quit doing exercise that raised my heart rate and I am still in this situation six long weeks later.
I feel well now and am just walking the dog and doing some yoga (usually with Derek too). The five-year anniversary of Dad’s death arrived, and I could not mark it with a run as usual, so I opted for swim in the sea instead. He would have approved. I am now just waiting for the blood tests to reveal my thyroid levels are good again and for GP to let me know I can go back to more strenuous exercise. It will feel like starting from zero but I had to listen to my body (and my friends and family). I hope the last third of the year fares a little better. I won’t be trying to squeeze a marathon in there!
Running for Dad 