Happy New Year!

Happy New Year folks! 

Been a while since my last post. Found the last couple of months a bit difficult. As some of you know, I've experienced depression in the past, and I've been visited again by it lately. I'm lucky to have supportive family, friends and boyfriend though, and that plus starting some medication has helped me take control of it again. I tend to bottle things up when feeling like that, which I know from experience makes things worse, but when in that dark place, things take a bit of a spiral, and although I know it will help, talking about it seems like a step that is a little too big to conquer. I also know from experience what other things help me, like keeping active, eating well, getting out and about doing things and meeting people, making plans and goals, and I get frustrated when I do all these things but still feel the same, like a shadow has fallen over my heart. Still, I suppose all of these things plus medication can be seen as different tools to help manage it, and by using them all together it must have a better chance of working than just using one. 

And now all together things seem to be working, and feeling a lot more back on track now, and am looking forward to the new year and the adventures I hope it will bring.

So, over the last couple of months, have kept up with the running, even if maybe with a little less mojo than usual. At the end of November Andrew and I took a trip for some winter sun and running in Lanzarote. My favourite run was up the volcano we could see from our house. Absolutely worth getting up early to get to the top for the sunrise over the sea (and back in time for breakfast)!

 

Things were a bit quiet on the race front at the end of the year, until the Sunrise to Sunset Challenge near Telford, on the day after Boxing Day. Brilliant race organised by the excellent How Hard Can It Be Events, had an amazing day, and it definitely helped get my running mojo back! The idea is to start running at sunrise (8.20am) and run as many laps of a 0.85 mile loop that you can before sunset (4.01pm). Here we all are at the start......

Love lap races, you get to meet many more people as you see each other on different laps. Met some lovely people, including Bill Mitchel who at 71 is the oldest person to be doing the Marathon de Sables this year (he is 8 months older than Ranulph Fiennes), and also holds the record for the oldest person to run his first marathon (at 65) and reach 100 marathons. One of my heros! Also met a guy who has done several of How Hard Can It Be's events here over the years, and who has estimated he must have run this 0.85 mile loop about 700 times. 700!!!

Laps are also good from a food point of view (never far from my mind), because you get to pass the aid station on each lap. We completed 47 laps, so that's 47 aid stations, or, aka 47 snack stops! After the first few laps has passed I tried eating a little bit most times time we passed (e.g. a couple of sweets [fried eggs!], a jaffa cake, or some squash), and got on OK with that, no stomach aches this time, hurrah! Also fuelled by some Christmas cake, which really hit the spot, and which I think can be attributed to the generous portion (plus a bit) of whiskey in the recipe, which I had forgotten about until afterwards. Hic. Running never seemed so easy.

It was Andrew's first official ultra marathon, and we completed 39.4 miles in 7 hours 33 mins - good job done! Especially excited that at mile 35 we could really speed up and get in a couple of cheeky extra laps before sunset. Got a cracking medal, and it was a brilliant race - thanks Denzil and How Hard Can It Be - will definitely be back for another!

So, I don't really believe in New Years Resolutions, because I think you should make the most of every day, not just a new years day, but as I've been struggling a bit lately and because I know that setting goals helps me, here goes...

1. Try my first 100 mile event - I have a place on the LDWA Dorset 100 at the end of May -yikes!

2. Get marathon/ultras total up to 50 (19 to go)

Happy New Year one and all - hope 2016 is a good one for us all.

x