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Tuesday 10 October 2017

Royal Parks Half Marathon

I've been wanting to run the Royal Parks Half marathon since I started running! 6 years and 22 half marathons later, I finally got the wooden leaf medal I have been coveting, after receiving an unexpected ballot place earlier this year.

Back when I entered I'd thought this race would be a good 'end of season' run to try and get a PB. But whilst I have been running over the Summer, I haven't been doing it with any great focus. I've been clocking up the miles sure, including a very slow and very fun marathon, but have been running for fun rather than to nail a PB. I've mostly been enjoying some off time after the marathon which extended all through Summer, knowing that marathon season will be once again looming on the horizon pretty soon.

So with all that in mind, I knew a PB wasn't in order and rather than killing myself to try and get a time I wouldn't achieve, nor deserved, I decided to just have fun and enjoy the race I've been wanting to be run for so long.

It's a pretty big race with around 16000 entrants and as we walked into Hyde Park towards the start, the day was looking great weather wise - sunny with a little chill. Perfect. The start was HEAVING and as always there were not enough portaloos. There was a great atmosphere though with lots of food stalls, charity tent and hundreds of thousands of runners milling about. After queuing for ages for a wee I made it to my start pen with just minutes to go - with a wave off from Jamie, I scaled the fence to get me into my correct pen and within minutes we were off!

     
Buck Palace in the distance
Running down The Mall

The route was brilliant! You start and finish in Hyde Park, with the beginning of the run leading you out to the sites of London. Through Green Park you run past Buckingham Palace, around St James' Park with Big Ben standing proudly in the distance, past Horse Guards Parade and through Admiralty Arch. Basically tick tick ticking off all the London sites - this route is a tourist's dream. From here you run out towards Downing Street (which you totally miss because lets be honest it's just a street which is difficult to see when you're not face up against the gates), then back on yourself and up the Strand. Here again you do a little out and back before running around Trafalgar Square and back through Admiralty Arch up The Mall. It was here I got a little over excited and noticed I was running at 6.50 minute mile pace! Ooops - it was because I was absolutely loving running around London on nice quiet streets and seeing all the sites, and also because I could see the Palace! Running down The Mall in a reverse of the London Marathon finish was giving me all kinds of feels and making me feel quite emotional. It was GREAT. Back past the Palace and waving to the runners on the other side of the road, we ran back through Green Park, round a very aptly named road called 'Achilles Way' and back into Hyde Park. By now we were just under the 6 mile mark and I was a little apprehensive that the sites had all been and gone, and the rest of the route would just be weaving around the park. But I needn't have worried. The support as we came back into the park was unreal with loads of charities out supporting and just unbelievable cheers. I was loving it. I also managed to see Jamie here which was unexpected (I don't know why, he's a total pro supporter so of course he would make sure we saw each other en route!)

At about mile 6 - 'Hi, Hi Hi!'
By halfway I was feeling great and really enjoying the run which is just what I wanted, but also feeling pretty pleased with the time on the clock so far. I had turned the mile buzzer off my watch so was just enjoying running at a pace which suited me. Running past the Serpentine in the glorious Autumn sun was just lovely and the atmosphere just continued to be great. I kept on running and soon we were at 10 miles, then 11 then 12. Before I knew it I could see the finish line in sight and just kept pushing, running over the finish in a very respectable 1.38.18 with a heart full of love for running and London.
Royal Parks Finisher!


Thursday 5 October 2017

What happened when I did yoga every day for a month?

I'm not usually one for 'monthly challenges', mostly because they all seem to be a little too unobtainable and I know I won't stick to doing 5 million sit ups every day, or planking for three hours when there is wine to drink and tasty food to eat. So when my sister tagged me in a post to do yoga every day throughout September, my reaction was my usual - 'no thanks.'

But then the 1st September came around and I saw my sister's post online and thought, 'actually, how lovely to have an excuse to do at least 5 mins of yoga and carve out a little me time every day for 30 days.' I've also been trying to find a yoga class that I love but which also fits into my weekly schedule, especially with marathon training looming on the horizon. I thought this might be the kick up the bum I needed to find a good class if nothing else.

The challenge was to do at least 5 mins of yoga every day in September and post on Instagram about it using hashtags #yogagirlchallenge and #yogaeverydamnday. Posting a pic every single day was definitely the worst thing about this challenge! My sister and I would text each other daily to moan about how stupid we felt putting pics of us on a yoga mat online EVERY SINGLE DAY! If you follow me on Instagram - apologies.  It also turns out that as I am not your usual Instagram-yogi, (ie stick thin and able to get into every single mad looking twist and pose, and who bangs on about 'wellness') the amount of interesting pics you can take on your mat is pretty limited. I did enjoy however putting a video of me online attempting and failing to do headstands - just to counteract these images of yoga perfection which I most definitely do not embody.

I mostly did my yoga at home using online classes - hands down the best thing to come out of this challenge was finally sorting my spare room from 'laundry room' and changing it to 'yoga studio'! (read: spare room with yoga mat, but without the mound of washing)

spare room turned yoga studio

I started the challenge with some Runners World 'Yoga for Runners', but through posting every day was recommended by blogger Sarah to try Cat Meffan's YouTube vids. These were amazing and would highly recommend if you want to do some yoga yourself at home - they are set out by duration and class intention so you can really choose what suits you that day and how much time you have. Some are as little as 10 mins and all are really varied.

I also managed to get to some new classes to see if these would be a good fit for me and my weekly routine. I really enjoyed all of them and it's so nice to practice at a class and be led by a real teacher to mix things up a bit. I also find classes much more challenging as they push you further into your practice. I will definitely be fitting in a weekly yin class once I get deep into marathon training in the winter. I also used the challenge as an excuse to sack off running one night and treated myself to one of my all time favourite yoga teacher's classes - 1.5 hours of Yin and mandala flow. Eirian of Cariad Yoga is a great teacher, but I only manage to get to her classes sporadically due to running club clashes. So that was lovely and as always I left feeling all zen and glowy.

Anyway, apart from clearing out my spare room other benefits I noticed from practicing every day were better and clearer head space, sleeping better and more toned arms! I didn't feel at all stress free throughout the month, but I did find that taking even 15 mins to practice when I was stressed really helped. I loved carving out some time during the day to do this and having a kick up the bum to actually practice myself at home, which I dont usually do but I really hope to continue. I found I was improving and by week 3 I was noticing that I was able to take some deeper stretches and more advanced poses than usual. Although some days I did nearly forget, but a little pre-bed yoga routine was a nice way to round off the day! I'm amazed that I managed to complete the whole month, particularly during a boozy holiday and an even boozier hen do weekend away.

So all in all I really enjoyed it and really liked having a little month long yoga project and starting or finishing the day on the mat. I will definitely try and continue to do yoga more frequently - I do however promise to stop littering your Instagram feeds with annoying pics of me in yoga poses.

30 day yoga challenge complete