What do you do on a weekend when it seems like all your running friends are racing and you’re not? Find your own route and just enjoy a solo run of course.
Some good friends chose Saturday 21 July as their wedding day and were blessed with sunshine and smiles all round for a fantastic outdoor do. Their choice of date meant I’d decided not to race this weekend, despite a good choice of local events with both the Great North 10k and the Northumberland Coastal Run.
Some good friends chose Saturday 21 July as their wedding day and were blessed with sunshine and smiles all round for a fantastic outdoor do. Their choice of date meant I’d decided not to race this weekend, despite a good choice of local events with both the Great North 10k and the Northumberland Coastal Run.
’m training for the Great North Run at the moment so, like many runners, Sunday has become my ‘long run’ day. And even after a long day celebrating and my first ever night sleeping in a tent, I wasn’t about to make any exceptions and planned to get out for 10 miles.
It would be fair to say that for the past three years, the Great North Run has pretty much dominated my summer; first in a bid just to complete it, then as a focus for charity fundraising in memory of my baby sister Ava, and last year as an all out race to get a PB.
This year, it’s a bit different. After time off with injury in the early part of the year, and turning my focus more to triathlon, it’s not quite as much of a target race as it has been in the past.
I do need to train to build up to running 13.1 miles though, and I’m gradually increasing the length of my long run each week. So on Sunday, I took myself out for a run.
I made up my own route, and in celebration of the Northumberland Coastal Run, I took in the cliff tops and coastal paths through Tynemouth, and Whitley Bay to Seaton Sluice. I even wore last year’s race T-shirt.
I was surrounded by beautiful scenery, blue seas, rockpools and even a sandcastle building competition on the beach. The paths and pavements were busy with walkers and cyclists and there were plenty of cheery smiles as people enjoyed the sense of summer in the air at last. Along some of the narrower coastal paths up towards Seaton Sluice, walkers even stopped and stepped to one side to allow me to keep up my running rhythm.
Along the way, I thought of my friends out racing and as I made my way home, looked forward to hearing about their adventures. For me, I just really appreciated the fact that I am managing to do more miles, albeit slowly, without any sign of my injury problems returning.
It would be fair to say that for the past three years, the Great North Run has pretty much dominated my summer; first in a bid just to complete it, then as a focus for charity fundraising in memory of my baby sister Ava, and last year as an all out race to get a PB.
This year, it’s a bit different. After time off with injury in the early part of the year, and turning my focus more to triathlon, it’s not quite as much of a target race as it has been in the past.
I do need to train to build up to running 13.1 miles though, and I’m gradually increasing the length of my long run each week. So on Sunday, I took myself out for a run.
I made up my own route, and in celebration of the Northumberland Coastal Run, I took in the cliff tops and coastal paths through Tynemouth, and Whitley Bay to Seaton Sluice. I even wore last year’s race T-shirt.
I was surrounded by beautiful scenery, blue seas, rockpools and even a sandcastle building competition on the beach. The paths and pavements were busy with walkers and cyclists and there were plenty of cheery smiles as people enjoyed the sense of summer in the air at last. Along some of the narrower coastal paths up towards Seaton Sluice, walkers even stopped and stepped to one side to allow me to keep up my running rhythm.
Along the way, I thought of my friends out racing and as I made my way home, looked forward to hearing about their adventures. For me, I just really appreciated the fact that I am managing to do more miles, albeit slowly, without any sign of my injury problems returning.