As the guys at North East Runner said on their Facebook page yesterday – if you are going to travel all the way to Bath to run a half marathon, you might as well make a good job of it! And that I did. 

I made the 12 hour round drive very worthwhile by recording another big PB of 71.20 – a whopping 70 seconds faster than what I have ever ran before, here’s how the day unfolded…

Being a decent runner has a few perks.  One, you get to win a few races here and there and two if you are very lucky you get to grab some free stuff!  Last Thursday my lovely sponsors, Adidas, sent me a pair of the new BOOST trainers which they have just launched.  I am always a bit cautious about gimmicks which claim to help make you faster as I am a firm believer that the only way you get faster is by training hard!  Even if you are daft enough to turn to drugs you still have to train hard to get faster, just injecting some EPO into you won’t make you faster!  

Christmas, bad weather, marathon training and a host of other things has meant that it’s been a while since I last posted a blog and for that I apologise!


So since Leeds I ran a few local races, mainly as tempo runs, some were good, some were bad but as they weren’t really focus races I wasn’t too bothered.


Ribble Valley 10k, however, I was hoping for a good fast run out. Unfortunately when I turned up on the morning to freezing temperatures, hail, and near gale force winds I knew straight away that any chance of a fast time was out of the window!

I am delighted to announce that for my spring marathon next year I will be returning to the scene of my first ever marathon victory and the race where I recorded my current PB – BRIGHTON.


When I last ran Brighton Marathon (2011) the race was only in its second year but already had a great set up and very large field (8000+ finishers). In winning that year I sliced over 30 minutes off the course record to record 2.34.51 a time which saw me qualify for the 2011 World Championships in Daegu.

Whenever anyone asks me what is the best race to run a 10k PB I always jump straight in with Leeds Abbey Dash. I’ve ran this race 3 times to date and so far I have a 100% record of recording a PB there. The race is brilliant, 9000 runners, as flat as you can get (apart from the pesky fly over with just less than half a mile to go!) and it always attracts a top class field at the front end. The only down side is that it starts at 9.30am so you have to get up in the middle of the night to get ready!

So this year was no different. Leading up to the race I wasn’t feeling the best. Training over the last few weeks has been hit and miss. Sessions have been solid but not spectacular and I’ve been feeling quite rough in my tempos to the point that I have abandoned a few.

So a few things have changed for me over the last few months, hopefully all for the better!

First off as the eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed I have changed coach to now being self-coached. I haven’t been coached by Liz since London Marathon. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after the disappointment of London and I didn’t want to waste Liz’s time by her writing me a programme which I wasn’t going to follow so I said that I would just do my own thing over the summer. Since then I have just kept it like that. 

Well once again I’m starting a blog by saying that a race hasn’t gone how I had hoped it to.

At the beginning of August I decided that I would target the Great North Run as my main aim with the hope of running a quick enough time to gain me a place on the GB team for the World Half Marathon Championships in October. Training went well and I ran pretty close to my 10k PB just two weeks earlier but for some reason the GNR just didn’t happen for me!

So Sunday saw the return to racing for me after some time out due to illness and my accident and thankfully I made it a winning return – happy days!

My last race was Newton Aycliffe 10k back in June where I was beaten into 2nd place by Rosie Smith. Since then I have had a bit of a tough time of it. First off I was diagnosed with under active thyroid (see previous blog) and then just as I was getting back into things I stupidly ran into a metal barrier whilst out training and smashed my head open! (again see previous blog) After all of that I have now been back training for 4 weeks. 

So it seems like my blogs are a bit like busses, you wait ages for one to come and then 3 come along all at once!!

This isn’t so much a blog but more a safety warning.

Whilst out training on Monday evening I had a bit of an accident and ran into a metal barrier. Don’t ask me how this happened as I haven’t figured that out yet. I must have ran under this barrier at least 100 times before on previous training runs but for some reason I just didn’t duck low enough this time and ended up head butting the metal at 10mph!! I don’t know, maybe I have grown since last time?!

This morning I spent time at my old school – Thornhill – presenting awards to the year 10’s. It was a bit weird going back to school 17 years after I left. The last time I was there I was being presented with a prize for PE, so to be the one now handing out the prizes was a bit strange. It was good to have a look around the old place and meet some of the teachers again though.