Sunday 6 May 2012

Warwickshire, Spa Striders and Leamington parkrun

My new place! I'm the middle top window.
So it's been a busy couple of months. Now that the big events are over and I'm settling into a new life chapter I thought I'd take a moment to update my blog. The London marathon was fantastic and my legs are gradually getting back to normal. At last count I was on £1300, so well over my £1000 target. A MASSIVE thank you to everyone who sponsored me, it means a lot to me!

Other than the marathon, lots has been going on. At the end of March I had my last day at CAHRU, where I worked for 5 years, and I left Bonnie Scotland for Warwickshire. What an amazing time I had in Scotland - I had so many great experiences and a chance to visit some of the country's most beautiful locations. And most importantly, I made some lifelong friends. I may not be living in Scotland anymore, but I'll be back regularly for visits, and cherish my memories there. 

On April 9th I started my new job at University of Warwick, working on the Families for Health project. So far I'm really enjoying the new challenges it is bringing and my new colleagues are great. So, now I'm settled into my new job and my new flat (which happens to be right opposite the local running club!) lets move onto what adventures my new location has to offer!!

I have joined local running club Spa Striders. A really friendly club who have training sessions on every day of the week (!!), and even do a bit of cycling and open water swimming. I've also had the chance to try my local Leamington parkrun, and have run this a couple of times, yesterday along with fellow Birmingham Uni friend Hannah Roberton. Her husband Neil and cutie pie daughter Emilia were there to support! The course is really nice off road, but has a sneaky hill at around 1km. So far I have run 20:22 and 20:36, so the aim I think will be to do a sub 20 on this course. I was pleased to only lose 15 seconds on the first post-marathon race yesterday. There are other local parkruns, such as Coventry, which I hope to try soon.

With a new area to be living in, and a friendly new running club telling me about lots of fun events, my hopeful plan for the next few months is as follows...

16th May - Rugby 6 - an evening race, part of the East Midlands Grand Priz series
24th June - Stoneleigh 10K (Race for Life 10k, along with Hannah and others)
30th June - Stratford Summer 6 - an opportunity to run around Shakespeare's home town
15th July - Northbrook 10k - in Coventry, a chance to hopefully capitalise on marathon endurance for a fast 10k
12th August - Great Shakespeare Ride - a 65 mile cycling sportive. Might try my hand at a bit of cycling this summer
18th August - Race the Train, Wales - a 14 mile race (against a train!) in Snowdonia, Wales. Always fancied doing this, so this year is the year. Might even go and explore Snowdonia afterwards too.
30th September - Bristol Half marathon or Robin Hood Nottingham Half marathon (to be decided!)

Think that's enough to get me started....haha! As always, if anyone fancies joining me on any of these, do let me know!