Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Second week into Fink training plan (well my extended version that allows me to be ill, take holidays etc) and I’m feeling pretty good. Its still impossible for me to imagine being able to move after 112 miles on a bike let alone run a marathon but I have 7 and a bit months to go yet…

I decided to set up a blog to motivate myself . If I write I’m going to get up early and swim then I have to right?

So a bit about me…. I started running in my early forties. I wasn’t completely unfit but I found running helped my mental health as I was a little down at the time. It took me ages to build up to 5 miles as running simply did not come naturally at all. I was (and still am) slow but I was stubborn and kept going. I joined a lovely friendly running group ‘Styal Runners’ and even though I was always at the back I enjoyed it.

I signed up to races next, 5k’s, 10k’s and even half marathons. I never found it easy but it was fun seeing if you could beat your last time and I enjoyed the other side effects like weight loss and getting a trimmer figure.

Some years into running I decided I wanted to do an ultra. This was perhaps an odd decision in light of the fact I hadn’t done a marathon but I had read that people doing ultras walked parts of the race, carried rucksacks and ate en route. It sounded fun. My lovely friend Kay said she wanted do an ultra too so we both signed up to a 55k race in the Lake District. Several months later and we were off…….I’d like to say it was fun (Kay did), but on the day I didn’t feel as good as I had on our training runs and felt a tad asthmatic at times. Still even when races are hard from start to finish you still look back and think oh that was great! The views were stunning and we did feel amazing when we finished. Kay was much faster than me but she waited for me and we ran into the finish line together and beamed in our end of race photos wearing our medals proudly.

Since that ultra I have wanted to do another one but issues with my back have prevented this from being an option. I even had a dream to run a really long way on a self supported adventure but sadly that was not to be. I haven’t completely ruled that out but a few years on and I’m still having sports massage for my back so I’d say it’s definitely ‘parked’ for now.

So I turned to triathlon. The switching of sports is somehow easier on the body. I have found a true love for swimming and it’s easily the one that comes most naturally. I still run and have become a tiny bit faster over the years although you would still find me in the second half of the people at any race. I love love cycling but it has been my hardest sport. I have struggled with many fears, fear of traffic, fear of downhills (this one borders on a phobia) and any surface where I think I might slip. Still for some reason I still love it and when it goes well and you overcome a fear it feels amazing.

A few years ago I did my first (and only) half Ironman. I was tired on the run but I came away realising I could of done it faster. It’s hard to know how to pace your first race of this length. In terms of the overall ratings there was probably about 25% of people behind me in the swim, maybe 10% behind me in the run and I was officially the slowest cyclist in the whole race! This was surprising to me as I didn’t realise i was this bad but I guess it gives me something to work on!

So there you have my sport history. Well prior to all that I used to dance, jazz and belly dance. I miss it sometimes but there seriously are not enough hours in the week to go back to that on top of tri training.

Apart from that I am newly married, settling into Romiley with my husband (who also does triathlon but is seriously good on a bike), my 20 year old son (when he’s not at Uni) and sometimes my step son joins us too and we all eat our tea in front of an episode of Rick and Morty (really bizarre).

I’m enjoying life (well apart from when I’m fanning myself down from the 30th hot flush of the day). At least this doesn’t happen whilst swimming :-).