This is my first blog so to begin with hello and thank you for taking the time to read it and to everyone who has welcomed me.  Hopefully you will find it interesting.

As I mentioned in my bio (and it’s possible you may hear me mention this again once or twice over the next few months)  I am ultimately training for the marathon.  I have a long way to go to be any where near decent but I hope that by contributing to this site I can document my journey (and hopefully my progress!) as I try and reach my goals.  I think there are a lot of women out there who are in the same boat.  I suppose there is a little bit of pressure being the first female on the website but I hope I’m not the last!

I have just posted up my first training blog.  As a bit of background this week just gone is my tenth training week since I took a two week break from running.  At the end of May/beginning of June I took a kind of end of season break, but as it was before my track season actually got started I‘m not really sure what you call it.  A sort of take-stock start-a-fresh break!.  I did six weeks of base work and have just started doing some reps sessions in the last three weeks.  So far so good I think although I’m sure my first race next week will tell me exactly how it is going! 

I’m entered in the Sheffield 10K on Sunday so this week I will train normally until about mid week before easing back a little before the race.  I’m getting a bit of a shudder every time I think about it actually as I just don’t know how it will go.  I’m feeling quite positive I suppose, but I haven’t raced much this last year  - and when I have it hasn’t exactly gone great.  So far its gone something like

Belfast XC - average (anaemic)
Alsager 5 - howler
Bourton on Water 10K - awesome (short!)
Road relays at Sutton Park - howler

It looks pretty bad but there has been reasons for each bad race and hopefully we’ve started to put things right.  Still, it’s pretty nerve wracking. 

I suppose I’m the type of runner who doesn’t really have bad races.  I either have decent races, or an absolute and utter stinker.  The wheels just fall off.  Never somewhere in the middle.  That feeling of true hopelessness in the car on the way home….but it’s just a race people say.  Just a race! What are they thinking??!

Of course, I know it’s just a race, but in that raw aftermath it always seems much more. You question if you tried hard enough, whether you gave up, or maybe if you're just a softie.  I know it’s none of those, but there is always that little gremlin in your mind which surfaces in times of disappointment.  Quite often I manage to kill him off with a substantial dose of Haribo (or certainly cover him up until later anyway!).

So as you can tell, I’m worried about the race.  Must try and forget about it…..

Wish me luck…… ;)