Marrakech Half Marathon, Morocco

Last weekend was big event number one of 2012 - the Marrakech Half Marathon. Susan and I headed off on our flight to Morocco on Friday and arrived that evening. We were whisked away in a taxi to the Medina in Marrakech, and a man came to meet us at the car park and took us to our riad (traditional Moroccon hotel). The narrow streets were full of people walking, on bikes, scooters, the odd car! It was the hustle and bustle I'd imagined. The door to our riad was hidden away in a corner, but as soon as you stepped off the busy street you were in a world of peace and tranquility. After venturing out for dinner of tajine and couscous we headed back for a good night's sleep. The Saturday we headed to the Marathon village to collect our race numbers, and we had an explore around to get our bearings. Really enjoyed visiting the souks, but the amount of hassle you get to buy stuff is something else!! We went to a nice restaurant by our riad for dinner. We wanted to make sure we had something 'safe' and not experiment the night before the race. We had some really tasty salad and chicken/vegetable coucous - just what was needed. The mint tea which is traditionally drank in Morocco was very tasty too.

The next morning the riad staff brought us some hot water to our room and we made our porridge pots. My half was at 8:30am and Susan's marathon at 9am. The temperature in Morocco isn't actually that warm in January, and at that time of the morning still fairly cold! We jogged down to the start and I managed to squeeze myself somewhere near the front of the mass of runners. Fortunately it was a chip number so the timer didn't start till I crossed the line. The first mile was quite chaotic - lots of people everywhere. But then as the miles rolled by the field opened up a bit. There were some long, straight roads which meant I could get into a good rythmn and get some quicker miles in. I felt pretty good and considering my ankle problems in the weeks leading up to the race I was pleased with how I felt. I didn't see many other women around me till about mile 7 or 8 when I spotted a couple in front of me. This spurred me on to pick up the pace a bit and I managed to reel one of them in. It was great running in these new and different surroundings, quite an experience. The last couple of miles were a bit of a struggle as the sun was coming out, but I hung in there to finish 23rd woman (out of 603 apparently!) and in a time of 1hr34:36. Pleased with that as only around 45 seconds slower than my PB. Susan did really well in some hot conditions to finish 30th woman in the marathon in a time of 3hr59.58, so just getting under the 4 hours! Even better I'm up to £500 on my fundraising efforts for Pancreatic Cancer UK, so a massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored me so far!

The next day we headed out on a day trip to the Atlas mountains which were fantastic - would love to go back there some day and hike up Mount Toubkal!
Next race is the Portsmouth Half marathon in a couple of weekends time - hoping to go a bit quicker if I can!

2012 - the year ahead

So 2011 is well and truly over. I enjoyed a great New Year weekend with Rosie and Martyn and spent the last day of the year exploring the beautiful Dorset coast on foot, and the first day of 2012 mountain biking in some pretty challenging conditions!! 2011 has been a good one - not as many PBs as the previous year, but did manage to get my half marathon time down to 1hr33, and in the meantime got to visit another of the Outer Hebrides islands, this time in the form of the Isle of Lewis. One of the highlights of the year has to be my week of trekking in the Julian Alps in Slovenia. What a fantastic country and amazing hiking to be done. Has left me wanting to explore more of Eastern Europe. Another highlight was the Avebury - Stone Henge 26 mile trek I did with my Dad to raise money for Help for Heroes in the summer. The furthest my Dad had ever walked and a great achievement, especially in the hot conditions we had that day!

So, here I am in 2012 and I have some exciting challenges and adventures for the coming year. On 22nd December last year, I was lucky enough to win a Corstorphine AAC 'club entry' place for the London Marathon, along with Jillian Hogg. Many other CAACers have also got an entry due to having a 'good for age' or 'championship' place. So on April 22nd I will be on the start line of the London marathon and I can't wait! I'm following a 16-week training plan which started last Monday - week 1 almost done and so far so good. A long way to go though! I will be running not only for Corstorphine AAC, but also for the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK, and I will post further details of this soon. So in the meantime, I have the following plans in the coming year....

January 29th - Marrakech Half Marathon, Morocco
Susan and I are heading to Africa for a bit of a warm weather race. I will be doing the half and Susan the full marathon. Training for this is going well. No idea how the temperature will affect our running, but looking forward to a very exciting race in very different surroundings.

February 12th - Portsmouth Half Marathon
Two weeks later I'll be heading back to my home city to give the Portsmouth half marathon a go. I originally thought this might be a fast course seeing as it is flat along the coast, but have since found out part of the race is along the shingle beach. Looking forward to it though, and support from family, friends and previous training buddies will be great!

March 11th -18th - Snow shoe trek, Southern Alps, France
My legs will have a rest from running this week, and I will swap my trainer for snow shoes. Heading to the Southern Alps in France with Alison to trek hut to hut across some beautiful Alpine mountains! Haven't tried snow shoeing before! Should be great fun!

March 31st - Coniston 14
I have long wanted to give this race a go, so have decided that this is the year. Along with a few fellow runners I will be heading to the Lake District to do this scenic run.

April 22nd - London Marathon
The big day!!

16th September - Spire to Spire Trek
Last year it was 26 miles to Stone Henge to raise money for Help for Heroes, this year, my Dad and I will be walking 26 miles from Winchester Cathedral to Salisbury Cathedral. Another great challenge and a chance to explore another part of the UK. Being in September, it hopefully won't be as hot as last year's walk!




In between these I hope to have some great training runs and other smaller local races. Here's to a great 2012 and best of luck to everyone in their dreams for this year, whatever they may be! Watch out 2012 - I'm coming to get you!!

Eastleigh Parkrun - New Years Eve

I decided to give the Eastleigh parkrun a go on New Years Eve. As I was on my way to stay with Rosie and Martyn for the weekend, I did it en route to Poole. It's quite different to Edinburgh parkrun. This one is off road and is three laps of the University of Southampton playing fields. There had been quite a lot of rain the previous few days and the ground was pretty muddy and slippy. Wasn't too sure how I'd go in my road shoes! My Garmin battery had died so I was running without the aid of the pacer on my watch to see how I was getting on. I have to admit, I struggled on some sections to get any kind of grip, especially around the corners. I also wasn't feeling as sharp as previous runs. Perhaps the week of mince pies and Xmas puddings was coming back to haunt me! I crossed the line in 32nd (3rd woman) in a time of 21:39. So not the best of times, but given the conditions and my footwear, probably not as bad as it sounds. A good training session and really enjoyed a new route. I will definitely do it again when back down south!

The Wrekin

Well, it may not be a Munro - but today me and my Dad made it up the highest hill in Shropshire - the Wrekin. Standing at 407m above the Shropshire Plain, it's an old volcanic rock. It doesn't look like much from the bottom, but does become quite steep as you continue to climb. Great views at the top, seeing as far as Wales! A great Boxing Day walk and judging by the number of people we met on the way down, it would seem to be a popular pre-lunch walk in the area.

Snowy Edinburgh Parkrun

I woke up on Saturday morning to a snow covered Edinburgh. My parents were up visiting for the weekend and so my Dad kindly drove me to the parkrun, as I don't think I'd have been braving the 8 miles on my bike otherwise. It was beautiful down at Cramond that morning. This would be my first running of the parkrun in snowy conditions. The field was somewhat depleted with only 87 runners turning up. The ground was a bit trickier to run on that usual, but otherwise conditions were good. I headed off at the usual pace and felt much stronger in the latter half of the race than a few weeks previous. I had a girl about 10m ahead of me in my sights. But turns out she started off a bit too quickly and I went past her at about half way. Tried to pick off a couple more people in the last couple of kilometres and felt strong. The time was a bit slower than usual, 20:09, but given the conditions, fairly pleased with that. My next parkrun is to be in the sunny south over the holidays, hoping to try Eastleigh parkrun near Southampton on New Years Eve.

Haddington - Duns - Haddington

Yesterday, me and Susan put the bikes in the car and drove over to Haddington for a day of cycling. We'd been planning this cycle for a while, but today the conditions were perfect. Clear skies, fantastic views, not too windy and pretty mild for November. After finding a spot to leave the car in Haddington we got the bikes ready and headed on our way, south out of the town. The route had been described as hilly - and it wasn't wrong. Within a few miles we were heading up some fairly steep climbs, a bit of a shock to the legs. However, they soon got used to it, and we managed to marvel at the great views as the route took us out into the beautiful countryside of the Lammermuir hills. We were heading for the first village of Garvald, and then onto Longformacus. We almost had a slight navigational error at Whiteadder Resevoir, but noticed just in time and turned back on to the correct route. Longformacus had been described in the route instructions as "the only sign of life on the long road to Duns". I think this was a slight exagerration, as there was "no sign of life". We stopped at the village bus stop and fired up the stove to make a cup of coffee. No buses, nor people went by during this time! I think a couple of cars perhaps went by later on. The peace and tranquility of this cycle was brilliant. Most of the time we had the road to ourselves and could either just listen to the breeze, grouse and turning of the tyres, and in the case of the hills, our heavy breathing. We made it to Duns in time for lunch, and found ourselves the local pub, the Black Bull, where we had a drink and refuelled. This was 29 miles, so we had the same to do now in reverse. The ride back was 'slightly' easier as I think we did more climbing on the way out. We also enjoyed a beautiful sunset in the last stretch. However, the last 20 minutes we were in the dark, but this added its own bit of adventure. We reached the car after 58 miles. My legs were making it known that they'd been working hard today, but I loved ever minute of it. More cycles to come I hope!

Edinburgh Parkrun 12/11/11

It's been far too long since I last wrote an update in my blog. Hopefully that will change, as I have lots of exciting things coming up over the next few months.
But I'll start with my Edinburgh parkrun last Saturday. My running had taken a bit of a dip over the summer due to one thing and another, but I'm finally getting my running mojo back and getting some better training in. I thought I would test my level of fitness with a trip down to Cramond for the 5km time trial. It was a beautiful sunny morning, so I jumped onto the bike and cycled the 8 miles to the start. You can't beat Cramond promenade on a crisp sunny morning.
I started off at a fairly fast pace - went through the first km in 3:40. I wanted to start off fast and just see how long I could keep it going. I had a couple other girls around me which was good to keep me going. I could feel my lack of speed endurance in the last couple of km's. I usually start overtaking people at this point, but not today!
There was a sprint between me and girl from Portobello right to the line, complete with dip finish! Not sure who got it, but my delay in walking through the funnel to get my token meant I was given 3rd lady anyhow. Not that it mattered, as I was pleased to go sub 20, in 19:49. Something to build on in the next few weeks. I'd like to get closer to the low 19's before too long.
Susan and I have entered the Marrekech half marathon on January 29th (Susan the full marathon), so the training has begun.