Running, and other stuff!: 2015 Summary

The last post I did on here was pre-Reading half marathon last year. A loooong time ago!

I am not going to dwell on the half marathon too much, as to be honest it was one of the worst runs I have ever done. I had to walk quite a lot towards the end, and honestly if I hadn't had Sui with me I'm fairly sure I wouldn't even have bothered finishing. I don't know how much of it was in my head but running up the hill less than 5k into the race I was already thinking, I can't do this. I felt like I had to drag myself around and about halfway in, I felt done in. I wanted to run past the hospital where the previous year I had been watching from my room after my hip operation, however I couldn't even muster the energy, and instead walked past in tears. And I sobbed uncontrollably when I finished too. Ho hum!

I had a place for the London Marathon, and prior to the Reading half, there was a part of me that had a vague hope that I might be able to give it a go again. After Reading I knew there was no way in hell, so instead Pete and I went along to Fetchpoint to cheer other runners on instead. I actually found it really emotional, more so than the previous year. I wanted to have been running it so badly, and it was a deferred place so no chance of carrying it over to 2016.

After that I took a step back. I had totally fallen out of love with running and found it very difficult to start up again. Then one of my Inspire friends did a 72 hour race (yes, you read that right!!) and did such an amazing job that I knew I would pick my trainers up again. I had already entered a 10k a few months prior, however had decided I wasn't going to bother running it, but I was all inspired and decided to give it a go. And it was great fun! I actually enjoyed running! I then went along to the Symantec World Run Day event at Green Park and realised that I could enjoy running if I didn't push myself so hard. I met a lady who wanted to run at lunch times, and so we did a few times which was great. I even took part in the 26.2 challenge in Maidenhead as part of the Campaign Monitor team, running two 2.62 mile legs. I was slow but it was fun, and we even won a plaque for fastest IT team!
I continued running after work and started to creep the mileage up. Only to around 5 miles or so but more importantly it was fun! I even took my kit with my on a holiday to Brecon, and went for a run around Talybont Reservoir!

Towards the end of the year, life and work began to get in the way a bit. If I'm honest, I was in a pretty bad place, resulting in being signed off work for a short while. I did the occasional run of a couple of miles here and there, but nothing consistent. Then in December, a new gym opened in Newbury and Pete signed us both up as members. It turned out to be just the kick start I needed! We started to go and spend an hour or so on different bits of exercise kit, and also began playing racketball. I started to realise how much I needed the exercise for my wellbeing - I had more energy and was sleeping so much better! My last run of 2015 was on boxing day, when I managed a little run around Hermitage with a grin on my face, and rounded off the year just nicely!