Well, what a week this is turning out to be!
Firstly, on Saturday I went along to Merthyr Parkrun. If you’ve never been before then I highly recommend it whatever stage of your running journey you’re at. It’s a no pressure, highly supportive, well organised, timed run (you can also walk if that’s your current ability). You’ll never be left behind because there’s always a friendly tail walker to keep your spirits up. It’s not a race and the only competiveness I feel is with myself. It was this competiveness that spurred me on this week and I achieved a personal best for 5k. Woohoo!!
Secondly this week, as a result of my blog (and a little bit of cheekiness) I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to review an amazing piece of kit and the review was published on Tuesday. If you want to read all about it then feel free to have a gander at my previous blog.
Thirdly, one morning last week I awoke to a message asking me if I’d like to write a piece for Run Wales for a section called “Why I Run.” Of course I said yes! I’ve always liked writing so to be actually asked to do it is amazing! That piece was posted online this afternoon (Wednesday) and you can find that, and many other inspiring stories and bits of information, by following this link https://irun.wales/news/whyirun-makes-better-person/
Writing that piece for Run Wales really made me think about why I run. I know the health benefits and stuff but it means so much more to me. It has to really, otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it. Anyway, have a look.
Lastly, on Sunday (2nd September) I’ll be running Cardiff 10k and after achieving a Parkrun personal best it occurred to me that I haven’t run further than 5k since Barry Island 10k at the beginning of August. My next run day was planned for Tuesday so I knew that this was my absolute last chance to get a longer distance under my belt before Cardiff. Tuesday arrived and I had decided to aim for 8k. I didn’t want to do the full 10k because a) I didn’t want to risk failing and then feeling unprepared for the actual race and b) fear of boredom. I’m still not over the whole running long distances alone thing. On that note, I’ve been considering and researching running clubs recently, but that’s another story.
I decided to run along the Taff Trail. 4k down and 4k back. I also decided that I was going to leave my music and podcasts at home for today. The main reason was that the wires for my earphones were becoming a little annoying, but also that I just wanted to be out running with no distractions. So a bit of stretching later and I was off.
The first 5k was standard. I tried to go slow and pace myself but I found that my natural speed is hard to shake off. By the time I hit 7.25k I was starting to struggle, but I was almost there. Another half a kilometer along and that annoying voice in my head started, “Just 2 more and that’s 10. Just do 1 more and then you know you’ll do the other 1!” So very annoying because once it starts I know that I’ll listen. So that was it; an unplanned 10k and my second personal best of the week! What is going on?
Well I did say it has been quite a week…and its only Wednesday!
Running towards a better me 