Face the sunshine

Today I did the Christmas version of the 10k trail event that was my first 10k distance back in March this year! I feel that I've accomplished a fair bit in a year given that I'd never run before and I don't have a lot of time to commit to it as a hobby. Today's event was in aid of the mental health charity MIND and given that the conditions were very muddy and it rained throughout my entire run, I was pleased with my time and the fact I can run that distance at a steady pace throughout now.  Highlights from my introduction into running so far have been: joining a running club that mostly runs off-road, completing some half marathon events and not falling over yet (I am so clumsy and given that I mostly run off-road I can't believe I haven't fallen badly!) The first time I completed a 10k distance I had to walk-run-walk the event and will admit it was a struggle to finish. Today I can confidently run that distance on road or off-road and am pleased to see ...

I use support wear on a daily basis and am always in it unless I am in the shower or swimming. I wear it around the house, to work, to exercise and to sleep in. I have different items of support wear that provide varying levels of support depending on what I am doing. If I am sleeping or sat watching tv I have a very low level of support and if I am running or doing a class at the gym I wear my highest level of support. I have a few items from the high street that are tummy control type garments so they're either knickers that come high up your abdomen or they're long vests that are made of much tighter material than a vest usually would be. However what I use the most are the two below items that are both made by Suportx. There are a lot of manufacturers of specialist support wear for people with stomas and for hernia preventation, I have found Suportx meets my needs the best. My first stoma resulted in a hernia and so I've been wearing support wear for as long as I ha...

I took on the Erewash half marathon during August. The first thing that sets this apart from other events I've taken part in is that it was on a Saturday. I was actually glad of this on the morning and for the rest of the weekend after the run. It meant an additional day of getting up early as I had done for five days in a row for work and this was easier than having a longer sleep on Saturday and getting up early on the Sunday! It also meant runners had the whole weekend to recover...I was struggling Saturday afternoon so glad not to have work the following day! I try and enter mostly off-road events and this half marathon was along a canal path so I thought it would be a good entry into the half marathon distance and would be semi-rural so not a totally built up environment. The course was completely flat due to being next to a canal and it was nice to see other people enjoying the tow path including lots of dog walkers and cyclists as well as admiring some of the canal...

View from the start line queue On Sunday 24 th  June 2018 I completed my first half marathon, the Round Sheffield Run. The event is billed as ‘a  trail running enduro that is a unique creative "multi-stage" running event following the beautiful Round Sheffield route, a superb running journey linking some of the best trails and parkland.’ There are 11 timed stages which make up 20km and interval stages in-between the timed stages for runners to get to the next stage in another park/location. In total the route was 24.5km/15 miles and runners get a time for each stage as well as an overall run result. I hadn’t run anywhere near this distance but felt that this event would be a good introduction to a half marathon due to the ‘recovery’ interval stages….I was wrong, just as I was about understanding there to be a ‘few hilly sections’. I heard one runner say he had lived in Sheffield all of his life and didn’t know where all the hills were coming from o...

I haven't run a Parkrun on a Saturday for a couple of months now and that's not entirely as bad as it sounds. I've found that Parkrun was a springboard to other running adventures and at the moment I'm not too concerned with getting a new PB on the 5k distance but looking at increasing the distance I can comfortably run.  Without a doubt I would not have discovered a love for running without hearing about and getting involved with Parkrun and it was a great introduction for someone who had never run before. I will return to it and hopefully go to some other locations as a 'tourist'.  I've now done part of both the White Peak trail (10.5k) setting off from Ashbourne and the Dark Peak trail (12k) setting off from Hayfield. Both were organised events by a company that runs events throughout the scenic Peak District. These were the first proper events I had entered and I was really pleased with my times for both, although it was more about completing the...

I recently took part in my first official trail event and was pleased to see that even at more official events there was still cake at the end of the run! There were two events taking place on the day, a short run of 6.6km and a longer run of a whopping 16.8km that I think I would have struggled to walk, sounds a great, long distance! As it was my first event I registered for the shorter run to see how I got on and judging by the entries for the longer distance am glad I did as they looked like professional athletes that could go on to bike and swim after their event. Everyone was emailed a required kit list in advance of the day and here's a photo of mine in an Inov8 'ultra race' pack...I don't think I'll ever be racing anywhere and certainly not in any 'ultra' mode! In my pack I had: windproof jacket, running cap, waterproof trousers, waterproof jacket, compass, spare change, tissues, protein bar, babybel, banana, water, my phone, a map of the route ...

I'm supporting the 'Colostomy UK' 50K challenge which aims to prove that having a stoma is not a barrier to being active by inviting people with stomas to do a variety of activities that count towards an overall 50,000KM over a 6 month period. People can walk, jog, run, climb, swim or cycle any number of metres and can also raise funds for the charity through sponsorship. I'm already trying to be fairly active and the reason I started this blog was to show people that you can live a healthy and active lifestyle when you have a stoma so this challenge was something I was keen to get involved with. After registering I was sent a pack which contained a 50K challenge t shirt that I could wear when exercising to help raise awareness and a pedometer to track my progress. I'll then log any activity on the Colostomy UK website which can be done daily, weekly or monthly. There's a live counter on the website that shows the total of KM travelled so far by every...