#Ultra #Running #NHS1000miles #JurassicCoast

24/3/19

Back in 2016 I thought about doing a marathon. I needed to find one that was fairly low key as I knew I wouldn’t be fast! The Race for Life https://raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/ seemed to offer exactly what I was looking for, a chilled out event whilst raising money for a great cause. Whilst for me it’s not about the times but the experience, I was delighted to finish it in 5:23.

This gave me a taste for doing more marathons and I’m on my way to running a hundred of them (well that’s my goal!), although perhaps run/walking them may be a better description. I’m never going to be fast, but I love the sense of achievement when I’ve completed a run.

The running bug was part of what drove us to establishing #NHS1000miles for #NHS70 with Catherine Wilson and Nicola Jackson and many others, find out more on the ‘We Communities’ blog site http://www.wecommunities.org/blogs/3443

Banking miles for #NHS1000miles has led me to seek out new challenges including dabbling in ultra running, ie anything more than the marathon distance of 26.2miles. In May 2018 Mike and I conquered the Cotswold Way, 107 miles over 3 1/2 days (camping in between) it was a tough but rewarding adventure.

This weekend we’ve been conquering the Jurassic Coast Challenge, 3 marathons in 3 days, goodness the Dorset Coastline has more hills than Wales! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Dean Royles would call hills ‘character building’ and @Chap_the_man says they are ‘mounds of opportunity’. The hills certainly just kept on giving! Or as the Race t-shirt put it so well ‘they’re hills, get over it!’

Day 1 took us around Portland and over to Lulworth Cove.Day 2 took us from Charmouth back to Portland.

Day 3 took us from Lulworth Cove back to sandy Studland Bay.

So I’ve been reflecting on the lessons running has been teaching me for life…

1. If you’re tired, rest, take in the scenery and then keep going …

2. If you want to drink full fat coke, bits of mars bar or snickers, eat marmite sandwiches, ultras give you a great excuse before getting back on the healthy eating programme after the run 😉. The Votwo organisers sourced great food for us this weekend.

3. Marshals are amazing, they are usually fab volunteers who stand in the cold, rain, wind and encourage you on, the words ‘keep going’ ‘looking strong’ (even if you don’t feel it) mean the world. So I’ll be an encourager…

4. Prophylactic compeed is amazing – we all need stuff to help us, a network of great supporters can make the world of difference in supporting us prevent pain happening …. or even helping us when it does.

5. Take things in ‘bite sized chunks’ tackling long distances 10k or 10miles at a time, seem to make things far more achievable, this seems to be same in life too.

6. And as a famous sports brand reminds us .. ‘Just…..

We’ve had an amazing weekend, with huge thanks to the whole team at Votwo events for superb organisation. We’re hoping we’ll be back soon https://votwo.co.uk/collections/trail-marathon-challenges