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London fun and Gladstone parkrun

Friday night I headed to the Big Smoke (aka London) once again. This time for pleasure not business and to see two good friends of mine from university.

The train and tube journey were easy peasy (i.e. I didn’t get lost – who even am I??). My friend, Laura, lives in the very cool St. John’s Wood location which was home to that famous zebra crossing on Abbey Road near the Abbey Road Studios (where the Beatles, amongst others, recorded a lot of their albums).

To be honest, I would never have known had my friend, Charlotte, not pointed this out to me. I obviously had to get a photo, though sadly I was walking the wrong way to recreate the iconic Beatles crossing! But with cars waiting, I did the best I could!

That evening we went to a fantastic Lebanese restaurant, called Yalla Yalla (self-described as a “hip West End restaurant”). It felt very hip. In fact, the entire time I was in London (and this is always the case) I feel so uncool. Londoners seem to exude this effortless coolness that I can only admire from a distance.

It was a great pick of a restaurant because Charlotte is veggie and they had such a range of vegetarian and meat-based dishes that everyone was happy. The two others went for three small plates each which looked delicious.

Halloumi, falafels, salad and chicken and feta in filo pastries. Whereas I went for pomegranate and honey roasted chicken wings followed by a mixed grill.

It was all divine. And I even got to help out Charlotte and Laura when their normal-sized stomachs became too full. I’m literally the dustbin of my group of friends.

From there we meandered around Soho, China Town and other very cool parts of London.

It was incredible busy (as you can imagine, it being Friday night) and every pub was spilling out people.

We were hunting for a bar where we could have a nice drink and chat. After walking a fair way I got the rumbles for something sweet… and lo! and behold a crêpe cafe appeared. I mean, what a find! It’s called Scoop and honestly I was in heaven.

My only predicament was whether to have just scoops of gelato in a funky cone, a brownie and gelato, a slice of red velvet or a crêpe (pancakes and waffles were also available but not really my cup of tea).

Not normally a crêpe person I quickly changed my mind having seen someone order one. I went for a white chocolate filled crêpe with a scoop of salted caramel gelato. I could have gone with multiple toppings and more than one scoop, but I decided to reign in the beast within and be sensible seen as how it was 10pm and I did have parkrun in the morning.

Dear God, what have I been missing all these years of believing crêpes weren’t my thing? (I’m not a Nutella fan so this is probably why as you can’t move for Nutella crêpes). The gooey, oozy, sweet and moist (yes, moist) deliciousness sent me to heaven and back. And I cleaned up that bad boy easily.

We then headed to a bar across the road for more normal adult endeavours (me now floating along on a sugar high). It was a lovely evening and made me realise a) how very uncool I am by London standards (who am I kidding, by any standards!) and b) how much more ‘happening’ London is than Southampton. OK I knew this already but it just blew my mind how easy it was and just how much stuff there was to see (and eat). But, still, I would never like to live near or in London…as good as that all is, I’m a hermit by nature and think I’d be overwhelmed (and broke) if it was long-term. Plus I love the friendliness and greenness of the more country-based suburbs.

parkrun the next morning was going to be at Hampstead Heath but after (luckily) checking Twitter on Friday I realised they’d cancelled for some reason. The next best location was Gladstone parkrun which was really easy to get to via the tube.

From the tube station (Dollis Hill) it’s literally about 0.5 miles down one road (Anna-proof!) to get to the park. The park is actually quite big though (and hilly) so I did have to hike around for a fair while to find the start (mainly because I hadn’t actually researched further than “it’s in Gladstone Park”).

Having arrived fairly early (8.20am) and the fact that it was cold and overcast meant me walking around a park for a fair while was actually quite good!

The views were lovely and the park was very peaceful. There was a small pond with ducks and lots of interesting carvings of animals in tree logs about the place. It really was a very good location for a parkrun – besides the hills

When I got to the start area I happily chatted away to the few runners there. It amazes me how in this sort of situation I can easily walk up to people I don’t know and just start talking and be at ease. But in any other scenario? That would terrify me and I’d stand to one side awkwardly. I met some lovely people. I also heard from some people who usually do the Hampstead Heath parkrun that Hampstead Heath is very hilly so I was quite glad not to have gone (that’s where Parliament Hill is sooo…bullet dodged!)

The course was a two lapped course (which, by the way, is now my favourite type of course. Not quite as repetitive as a three lap course and seems to go a lot quicker!). There were some nasty short inclines and some long gradual inclines but also some declines. It was actually a very enjoyable course as it was so varied.

How’s that for a negative split?? I got a new lease of life half-way through and felt far more at ease. The temperature was perfect (very chilly to start!) and I really got into it by the end. I really should do more of a warm-up…starting straight from nothing is not a great idea *sighs*. One day.

I asked the event director to take a photo of me and he was more than happy to. He then turned it to selfie mode and said “but of course you also need one with the event director in it!”

He was so friendly and funny – really made me feel welcome and he demanded I come back at some point: “you don’t get a PB unless you come back!”.

I got back to Laura’s flat, showered and we headed off for brunch (Charlotte had gone home last night). It actually worked out really well me going to parkrun as Laura likes a lie-in whereas I’m not great with sleeping in too late! She took me to the Maida Vale area which was also very cool (and where they did all the BBC music stuff!). We went to The Elgin which was the epitome of hipster.

Anywhere that uses a teapot to hold cutlery is far too cool I had Bavette steak and eggs for my brunch and it was DELICIOUS.

And then it was time for home! I had a fantastic time in London (guided carefully around by friends to make sure I didn’t wander off and get lost). And ticked off number 19 on my parkrun tourism list!

How many laps do you prefer for parkrun?

What would you choose: Crêpes, waffles, pancakes, cake or just gelato?

Do you like visiting London much?

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21 miles and late for parkrun

For my last long run I’d planned to do between 18-20 miles on Saturday. This was my third BIG mileage run. I’ve previously done an 18.5 miler and a 19 miler.

I’ve been feeling completely different to a few weeks ago when I felt fed up, anxious and just not feeling the marathon training. Now having got two big runs under my belt and nothing bad happening, I was ready to conquer the final one.

I wanted to tick Eastleigh parkrun off my parkrun list as it’s such a close parkrun to me and yet I’ve never done it. It’s literally ten minutes drive from where I live! As usual I got up at 5.45am on Saturday to be ready to run by 6.30am. I’d had a pretty crappy night sleep as the wind and rain hammered against my window and when I woke up it was still raining. I had memories of winter long runs…

I exchanged a few social media messages with fellow runners who were up and about to do their long runs too and we exchanged some good lucks and “God look at the weather” moans. It was nice as it didn’t make me feel so alone and crazy!

I headed out and it wasn’t actually very cold at all, quite humid but very wet. I was thankful that I was wearing a t-shirt and my running skort (and compression socks!). I felt a bit tired but otherwise I felt quite good. In fact, I felt really good!

The miles ticked by so quickly and before I knew it I was at five miles and heading towards Hedge End. I was soaked through and rain was dripping down my face but it was lovely and refreshing. I got to Hedge End after 10 miles and still felt good.

I hadn’t really planned my route past getting to Eastleigh but I knew vaguely where the parkrun started so that would work, right? [Honestly, how I survive daily life amazes me with this supremely optimistic and naive view of the world I have]. I got through the tough hilly section of my route (there really is no way of avoiding these hills if I want to run from Stubbington to Hedge End).

I started to feel a slight bit of worry in my stomach as the time ticked past 8.30am and I wasn’t in Eastleigh yet… but it wasn’t much further. And that’s true. But where the parkrun was was. At 8.45am I decided to stop and check my phone. I knew the road names I needed to find and I knew it was located in Fleming Park. Basically, I knew where it was in a theoretical sense, but when you’re actually on the roads it’s very different. I found I was a fair bit away still.

Thankfully there were loads of signs for Fleming Park and I quickened my pace – my watch beeped past 17 miles. I finally found a park-like place and saw the wondrous sight of the parkrun flag… at 9:08am. I saw some marshals  and gasped, “Can I please start late?”. And they kindly said that was fine and showed me the start. I reset my watch and got going.

Eastleigh parkrun is three laps, pretty much all on a grassy track around a park. I was running on my own as I was so far behind but soon the front runners were lapping me. I said well done to them as they past me, gazelle-like. I eventually caught up to the tail runner and made slow process overtaking the runners at the back. It was quite nice to be running past people and using them as markers to get through the run, which by now was feeling quite tiring.

There’s a horrible gentle incline that seems to go on for ages that you have to do three times and it was a killer. My friend, Aaron, caught up with me (him on his last lap and me on my second – he’s very speedy!) and we had a nice little chat before I told him to push on as he’s a lot faster and I didn’t want to hold him back (he was even running at a slower than normal pace for him as he was doing 16 miles in total!).

My parkrun time was 31:31 (ooh the number symmetry!) as I had started late though my watch said 25:36. I’m really happy with that as I felt like I was crawling by the end. I was completely soaked through and it was still raining. I felt more sorry for the marshals though who looked very cold and wet!

How cool does this map look of where I ran? It really shows how far 18 miles is!

I bumped into my old work colleague, Ian, which was nice. He was actually the person who told me about Hedge End Running Club back in the day. He’s not part of the club but he’s a regular runner and Eastleigh is his usual parkrun. Then I caught up with my friend, Aaron.

He graciously bought me a Fruit Shoot drink (love those things) and we sat in the warm and dry of the café to have a natter. He’s planning on entering the Boston marathon so wanted some advice. He’s a very talented runner and is planning on doing the double – Boston and London (they’re five days apart). Crazy!

When we got up to leave I realised I’d left a little puddle of water in my chair from where I’d dripped…nice. We walked outside and Aaron ran home and my dad picked me up. I was now really cold so when I got home the first thing I wanted was a hot shower before anything else. My hair, though… God what a nightmare.

So knotted and tangled! My hairband was on so tightly I feared I’d rip out half my hair if I tried to pull it out. So I risked it for a biscuit…and used scissors.

Thankfully I avoided cutting any of my actual hair, whew!

When I drove back to my house after showering and breakfast (well, brunch!) I basically drove similar roads to what I’d run and found it ever so depressing how quickly I was zooming along those same streets. It was like Tom Hanks in Cast Away when he spends hours painfully trying to build fire and then at the end of the film picks up a lighter and flicks it on in a second…

Have you ever missed the start of a race or parkrun?

How do you deal with crazy knotted hair?

Do you mind running in the rain?

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19 miles and no more glasses

And just like that, summer seems to be over.

September is here, the sunshine seems to be diminishing each day, and the nights and mornings are drawing in. But it’s quite nice in some ways to snuggle into the duvet at night and feel cosy rather than hot and stuffy!

I’m also grateful for cool days for running as well. Like the weekend before I did my long run on the Saturday and combined it with a parkrun, Netley parkrun this time. I stayed at my parent’s house on Saturday and had a route planned out that would get me to Netley after running 15 miles.

I set off at 6.30am and it was almost cold. I remembered my compression socks this time and wore shorts and just a singlet. I was at a perfect temperature. The first mile took me up to the seafront at Hill Head and the mist over the water tempted me to take a photo as it was so beautiful but in all honesty I couldn’t be bothered to faff about and get my phone out. I took a mental snapshot instead. It was so quiet and peaceful at this time.

There were a few lone dog walkers and some photographers and fisherman setting up near the water (along Hill Head there are usually lots of photographers taking photos of the wildlife and sea; it’s a very picturesque place and it’s right next to the Haven Nature Reserve so there are usually lots of birds and wildlife about).

In my head I had broken the run up into 6 miles (where I’d be running a familiar route – actually my usual long route but going the opposite direction) and then 6-11 miles would be getting to Hedge End (where I live) and then from there getting to the parkrun. So it was nicely broken up. There were a couple of nasty inclines at points (but also a great decline as you can see!) but otherwise the miles ticked away quite quickly.

In my head I really wanted to do a bit more than last week (18.5miles) and when I arrived at Netley I’d done 15 miles so I went round the long way to add on some extra distance. I’d also arrived at 8.40am and didn’t want to stand around for that long before parkrun.

In the end I only managed another 0.7 as I bumped into my friends (and one of my friends from my non-running group who’s been doing parkrun on and off for a bit and we’ve been meaning to meet up to do a parkrun for a bit – another Anna. It was lovely to see her).

The parkrun itself felt tough and I was mentally ticking off every 0.1 to the finish. It did feel a bit sad to be relatively slow compared to my normal times of late but I’m more than happy to take a slower parkrun (24:17) and get the long run done so early than a fast parkrun and still have the long run to do the next day! I’m chuffed I beat last week’s time at Fareham though by about 30 seconds.

I decided as I was running I’d add on a little extra to bump up my total distance to 19 miles. This meant running through the finishing funnel, taking a token and carrying on running up and around the field until I got to 3.3 miles. Woohoo 19!

I then sat down and contemplated life for a bit I was knackered!

I then helped clear down parkrun with the other guys – which was good as it meant I could shake off my legs a little bit. After a coffee, my friend Mike gave me a lift back to my house. I’d checked with him beforehand if it was OK because otherwise I’d have been a bit stranded (and luckily just before I left my parent’s I remembered my keys so I could get in my flat!). Thank you, Mike!

I felt pretty good after the run! Though I distinctly remember being in the shower washing my hair thinking, I could honestly do with a good nap. I didn’t though sadly as I had to rush around getting stuff done before my dad picked me up and took me to my eye laser surgery appointment. Can I just stop for a moment and celebrate the happy circumstance of my weekend travels? So my car was at my parent’s house, I ran to parkrun, I got a lift back to mine. Coincidentally I had an eye appointment that meant I couldn’t drive afterwards due to the drops they’d use in my eyes – so handily my dad took me and brought my back to their house – reuniting my with my car. Ta da! Obviously big thanks to my dad for being my taxi of course.

So yes, laser eye surgery. I had a consultation and after a lengthy eye examine and, well, consultation I decided to go ahead and book my appointment for 31st October. No more glasses and no more contact lenses! Now me wearing glasses might be a shock to some of you because I never have any photos taken with them on and I rarely wear them in public. I hate them and think I look awful in them. But I am very short-sighted and have been since I was about 10, just progressively getting worse. Now my eyes have finally stopped getting worse and I’m fed up of the faff of lenses. I’m fed up of not being able to tell the difference between the shampoo bottle and the conditioner bottle in the shower. Or seeing the clock in the middle of the night.

I still need a firm go-ahead from the surgery, and I’ll have that appointment in a few weeks but (hopefully) I’ll be able to get it done. It takes four minutes to do the surgery but about a day to recover (though no pain, just blurriness). THIS IS AMAZING. Yes it’s a lot of money (just under £3k) but it’s something that really affects my confidence. And it’s just such a faff wearing lenses and then having to take them out in the evening and effectively being all ugly again (in my head). I’m not saying people who wear glasses are unattractive, absolutely not. I just don’t seem to look as good as other people in them. I wish I could wear those bold, in-your-face glasses but I just don’t seem to suit them. People say I look “studious” in my glasses but I don’t want to look studious!!

The worst part about the appointment was that I wasn’t allowed to wear my contacts for the day of the appointment. This meant running 19 miles in my glasses and my running friends seeing me. I felt so self-conscious (and not to mention how annoying it was to run in glasses – steaming up, getting droplets of water on them and not sitting right with my Aftershokz headphones that go over my ears). But if it meant the possibility of never wearing glasses again (OK until I need reading glasses) then I was happy to do it.

Finger’s crossed my next appointment goes well!

Do you wear glasses, or contact lenses?

Is there anything you feel self-conscious about?

Would you get your eyes lasered if you needed to?

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18.5 miles with Fareham parkrun

When I finished work on Friday, instead of feeling elated and chuffed that it was the start of a long weekend, I felt nervous and anxious. I realise this is ridiculous, but I was dreading the next day and the long run I had planned.

As I’ve said in previous posts, I’d got 18 miles planned. In other marathon training cycles I don’t remember ever being so worried about a long run. Yes there’s always a few nerves and “oh God” feelings before but I think because I haven’t’ been enjoying my previous long runs this time around and have been finding them such a grind that I could only think it would be the same but, well, longer.

Instead of leaving it to hang over me all day Saturday I planned to do 15 miles and then finish with a parkrun (5km). This should break the monotony and get it over and done with before 10am on Saturday, leaving my the rest of the weekend to chill. It would also work nicely as I was going to meet my friend, Adi, at Fareham parkrun and get breakfast afterwards with him. We’d met at the Marathon Talk Run Camp weekend and he was in the area for the weekend.

Fareham parkrun is another very close parkrun to my parent’s house, about three miles away, and one neither Adi nor I had done before. So this would mean ticking another parkrun off my list! I’m now on 17 (though technically 18 as I did the one in the States but it only counts for UK ones to get on this special 20+ parkrun lists).

I broke my run into three parts: 12 miles of regular long running-ness on my own following a route I always do, then three miles to head to parkrun, then actual parkrun which would then equal just over 18 miles. I can’t tell you how positive this made me feel beforehand. I’d psychologically tricked myself into thinking it wasn’t actually that long (the question “how do you eat an elephant?” comes to mind).

So I headed out at the delightfully early time of 6.30am (having woken up at 5.45am, surprisingly awake and ready to go, no breakfast as normal). Obviously it was a lot cooler at this time and wonderfully quiet and peaceful. It felt easy getting going and I had the brand new podcast episode from the BBC 5 Live show on. I was in a happy place.

Everything went swimmingly apart from one tiny annoyance with my calf. It started to feel really tight as I headed to Fareham. Not injury tight or worryingly so, but just a sharp reminder of why I normally wear compression socks for long runs. It was bearable, just annoying. I also realised I actually didn’t know how to get to the parkrun.

OK I knew where it was and Fareham is a very familiar place to me having lived around that area for most of my life, but the start is surrounded by really busy A roads and I wasn’t sure where to get to the safe crossing. I managed to add half a mile onto my run for going the wrong way…well it could have been worse!

And as I arrived I bumped straight into Adi which was perfect! And then my friend, April, appeared as well which was lovely.

April and I know each other through social media and briefly chatting before parkruns but we’d never actually spent a long period of time in real life together so it was really nice to properly chat to her for once!

A few of my running club were there too which was nice so there was quite a crowd of us in the end!

The actually parkrun was, at first, quite hard to get going again having been stood around for about 10 minutes but once I loosened up I was fine.

Photo credit: Peter Stod

Obviously I was tired but it was nice chatting to Adi and April as I ran. The parkrun is an out and back and on a trail path (easy stones not grass) and relatively flat and it seemed to fly by. 18.5 miles done with a negative split parkrun to finish!

April had run seven miles beforehand and is coming back from injury and Adi had recently run 100k (his first ultra!!) so I think we did quite well considering!

April joined us for breakfast afterwards which was lovely. We had planned on having breakfast at the Cams Mill pub just next to the parkrun but they weren’t serving food until 10am (or “when the chef arrived”) so we decided to walk into Fareham proper and find somewhere there as it wasn’t far. In the end we chose a Whetherspoons which was perfect as I their fry-ups are just the right balance of greasiness and tastiness

It was so lovely to catch up with them both and talk all things running and randomness. We then parted ways and my dad, who was handily doing his big Tesco shop just over the road, gave me a lift back. Perfect!

So in the end my run went really well. I loved that it was over and done with so early and it didn’t feel like a slog. Going a lot earlier is obviously a lot better as well (I realise this is a “you think, dumb arse?” moment) but I get up so early in the week that I hate getting up super early at the weekend.

The rest of the day I was so chilled out. I wasn’t actually that tired either which was a big surprise as normally I’m fit for nothing after a long run. I went shopping with my mum, sister and little niece, Ellie.

A Starbucks stop was in order of course and Ellie asked me her advice on what cake to get. Using my wealth of knowledge of all things cake I suggested the caramel mallow top cupcake. Ellie even graciously allowed me to try it, bless her. And we both agreed, it was a fabulous selection. The whole top of the cupcake was covered in marshmallow fluff (and had caramel injected inside it), then covered in caramel and chocolate on top of a chocolate sponge.

Yum. After my mammoth breakfast I actually didn’t fancy a whole cake to myself (who am I!??!) and didn’t end up eating until dinner that evening. To be honest, when you’ve run a long run you do feel a bit ‘off for the rest of the day I find. It isn’t until the day or two after the runger fully hits you

Anyway, I’m so relieved that the long run went well. It’s made me feel so positive about long runs going forward. I’m probably going to do something similar for this weekend but running to Netley instead and making sure I arrive with only five minutes before the start so there’s less standing around. We’ll see!

What’s your ideal way to do a long run? Breaking it up or all in one go?

How many different parkruns have you done?

What’s your ideal breakfast after a long run?

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Training currently

I’m six weeks away from my seventh marathon, Chester. I’m not going to lie, it’s been really tough.

Since my annoying hamstring niggle since the Boston marathon I wasn’t able to begin my training as early as I’d hoped nor was I going into it with any sort of running base having not run over 10 miles a week for eight weeks.

This meant that each long run has jumped quite sharply. I much prefer to gradually build up the mileage, e.g. 9 miles one week, 10 the next, then 12, then 14, then 15 etc. But I didn’t have that luxury this time around. I only had 12 weeks from starting running again to the big day. So each long run has felt really tough because my body’s not had the time to properly adapt.

The hot weather hasn’t helped either. All in all, I’m finding things tough and less enjoyable than I usually would. That’s not to say I’m not excited or not looking forward to the marathon, it’s just harder to get my head in the game on a Sunday morning just before I head out to run for hours on end.

Last week’s long run was my longest yet, 17 miles, and it literally drained me dry. I struggled pretty much from mile six all the way to the end. It was very warm and my legs were fatigued from walking around London all day the day before. My long runs had also jumped 12, 15, to 17 miles quite sharply. Maybe for some people this is no issue but for me I found it tough.

These runs are such a difference to last year’s long runs which seemed to go a lot smoother and I was constantly having to slow myself down. I was also running a good 30 seconds per mile faster. This time around is clearly a lot different! At mile 14 I stopped and had a little word with myself. I was lagging and wanted to give up. I switched my podcast to music which helped immensely and got on with it.

This week I was thankful for the temperature to have dropped. Because I’d found last week’s 17 miler so tough I decided to go out with the intention of running only 12 miles. That didn’t sound too bad at all and gave me a positive outlook to the run rather than dreading it. It was windy but cool so I was happy with that trade off. As I got to around seven miles, at the point where I’d make the turn to head back for 12 miles, I decided to push on straight with the aim of 15 miles. It helped that the wind was behind me which made things feel a bit easier (though I knew it would be against me on the final three miles).

Each mile over 12 miles felt like a bonus and I told myself I could stop at any point. Even when I got to 15 miles I decided to push on for another one. Mentally and physically I felt stronger than last week though it was still a grind at times.

I didn’t feel quite as destroyed by the end either. Finger’s crossed this is my body adapting! Next week the plan is 18 miles…

parkrun on Saturday was a toughie and gave me a horrible reminder of things to come in the winter… I went to Netley and helped set-up and it was horrendously windy.

As we set up all the signs and flags we were getting blown all over the place. Then it started raining. As it turned into a full-on downpour we ran and hid under the trees for a bit to shade from the worst of it.

It was cold and miserable. And I was soaked even before we began running. I decided to keep my jacket on as I was so chilly.

As it was so windy I knew that I wouldn’t be that speedy and settled with the goal of 25 minutes. My friend Chris (who’s a good minute faster than me at the moment) said he was aiming for 23 minutes. Everyone was re-adjusting their goals.

After the first mile though the sun broke out and it started to heat up. We were all pretty much steaming then with the sudden hit of heat. I took my jacket off as I felt so warm. In the end I managed a nice negative split and a time of 23:07.

I was really happy with that. Chris achieved a course PB of 21:24 and my friend Mike, coming back from injury, wiped a minute off his time from last week. Smiles all round Especially when our friend, Kate, who was celebrating her 100th parkrun whipped out her DELICIOUS chocolate tiffin.

I could have easily eaten about five pieces… I settled with one (only because they disappeared so quickly!).

Going back to my training as a whole, I think what will help is mixing things up to stop myself getting into a rut of “oh God, here we go again”. I’m not sure what to do about this weekend. I was considering doing 15 miles to parkrun then do parkrun but I’m not sure. It helps that I have the Reigate half in the horizon as well – and no I’m not just saying that because I have a free entry! At one point I wondered if I should just give up on Chester and stick with training for the half in a down de-motivated moment, but the 16 more positive miles helped squash that thought. I haven’t done a race in ages and I wonder if that’s causing me to lose a bit of focus and motivation? Who knows! I just hope I survive the 18 miler!

How do you invigorate some motivation into yourself?

How do you cope running/working out in the heat?

Are you looking forward to the autumn?