Katie's Classics

 One down - two to go.  The London Triathlon, number one of my three London endurance challenges is complete. Just over a week later and my legs are working normally again.  I ran 10km on Saturday - SLOWER than my tri 10km. SLOWER!! I knew that the tri was going to be the easiest of the 3 events. Yes I know how that sounds, but bear with me. I have done one before, on a much tougher course. And, the variety of doing three different events is good for me, it lets all of me get tired. Not just my feet (i'm looking at your marathon) or my shoulders (swim pain is real).  I had targets for the race.  1. Don't die. 2. 32 minute swim  3. Eat on the bike  4.  1.15 Run.  I am alive! I missed the swim time, but I am pretty happy with a 35minutes in water that resembled a washing machine and I got kicked in the head by an over competitive boy!  In my last tri I did not consume fluids or calories on the bike which fankly left me a bit of a mess by t...

 Well, it has been an interesting year hasn't it? But here we are in August 2021, I know I am a little bit last minute returning to the marathon party but please do forgive me. Fellow YST marathon runner Becks Ward and I had to take a bit of time out to get married! Just like everything else planned for 2020 it was a bit late, but we did it 😁 We honeymooned on Hardrian's Wall, taking a casual 10 days to walk from west to east, making sure we had plenty of time for pints and picture taking. And fortifying ourselves well with daily bacon. We counted this as training for the marathon under the 'time on feet' category. Although the bacon was perhaps less appropriate for the training programme.  Of course this is all working up to October 3rd and the London marathon, but it wouldn't be me if I didn't decide to make it a bit more challenging....  So in August (next weekend in fact) the YST vest will be making its first outing at the London Triathlon. At the start of ...

**  Here is my Virgin Money Giving page for anyone who wants to sponsor me **   L ondon Marathon - April 26th, 2020 - Pandemic says no.  London Marathon My Way - October 4th, 2020 - weather says 'have fun' The time, the place, the company, none of it turned out how I had planned my London Marathon to be this year. The only thing that made me consider running that far in the first place was the crowd, the thousands of people on the streets cheering you on. However, a pandemic happened so that didn't but being out in the rain on Sunday wearing a race number there were so many people who cheered, honked car horns (even an Ocado delivery driver) and other runners who waved or stopped for a chat... it was incredible, what is more incredible to me is that those 45 000 people that should have been in London were all over the world still running together and sharing their stories and challenges. This is social media at its best, as a community as support from all around the ...

I had been struggling for motivation a bit this week and hadn't been out but I had decided that I was going to do my Local Landmarks run - www.llhm.co.uk/local-landmarks and I had been really looking forward to it all week. Not being people for doing things by halves me and the future Mrs Katie went the whole hog. She didn't run with me today because she is still a bit broken but we will swap roles soon when she does her local landmarks. So here is my run (solo and at appropriate distances from other runners) ... (I must also acknowledge how lucky I am that these world famous landmarks are on a 13 mile loop from home)  Bag drop attendant was suitably grumpy To be honest I could have done with the starting gantry being a bit bigger but in times of crisis you make do with what you can get I suppose! Neighbourhood number 1 - Greenwich. The Royal Observatory and the meridian line - good place to start really! The Naval College - In less contagious times...

Well.... my annual leave renews at the end of January and I had some days to take. I fully expected to spend them at home inside reading a book and having to go out running, against my will, in the cold, wet, windy misery of the English coast in January. Last Thursday this was looking likely - the sea was rough and there were a LOT of stones where there shouldn't have been stones! For those familiar with Brighton sea front - this is the worst I have seen it in 10 years of living there. However, an area of high pressure settled in and it has been a glorious extended weekend. Huge kudos to the Prom Parkrun sweepers who went out and moved a lot of the stones for Saturday morning before the council came in with the big machines and to the 514 people that turned out on Saturday morning in the glorious cold. Now for a note on the cold and appropriate clothing for those long winter runs (I did one of those as well in the sunshine on the prom). I am the kind of runner who lik...

Yesterday I did  my first Parkrun of 2020 after missing New Years Day injured and it was my home run of Hove Prom Parkrun. Easily the best Parkrun in the country! The reasons being: 1. I just need to roll out of the front door and I am there 2. It is flat (although the weather can be challenging at times) 3. It has the sea - which makes me happy (although as in point 2 can cause weather related challeneges)  and then there are all the reasons why I love Parkrun generally - even though, when asked, I will always claim to hate running. The diversity and friendliness of the Parkrun community amazes me. It is such a supportive atmosphere. My 2020 challenge is a marathon but for many it could just be to get out in the fresh air more, do a bit more exercise, meet people, to get stronger, to get faster or just to run a 5km. Parkrun, whereever you are allows you to do all of these things. You can run - Hove prom has some seriously fast club runners if that is your challeng...