H is for….
May 21, 2011Hello and good evening y’all! How’ve you been!? I am having THE most stressful weekend possible…finals on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and I feel like I’ve forgotten everything I’ve spent the last 6months studying – major eek! Soo I’m keeping busy. In the meantime, I’m bringing you another guest post – even better, another Brit too! We’ll take over the world soon….:p
Over to Hats!
Hi everyone! I’m Hats, of the blog See How She Runs.
I’m honoured to be a guest on Freya’s blog – thank you! I am relatively new to blogging having only started at the beginning of April this year. Later this year my mum and I are running the BUPA Great North Run Half Marathon (the world’s most popular half-marathon road running event, held in the north east of England).
I hope that by recording our training on See How She Runs I can hold myself accountable. It also allows friends, family, and anyone who is interested to join us on our running adventures. I also blog about strength training and BodyPump, and in the future I plan to blog about nutrition too.
When Freya sent out a request for guest posts, I thought a great topic would be what motivated me to take up running.
My First Half-Marathon
In 2010 I completed the Great North Run for the first time, raising £300 for the RNLI. When I signed up for it I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself in for. Due to lack of knowledge and commitments – between signing up and the race day I finished my Master’s lectures, wrote a 10,000 word dissertation, and road-tripped around France – my training failed. I tried to kid myself into thinking that a few mediocre jogs would count for something, but they didn’t.
Race day arrived and it was cold, damp, and miserable. I ran the first two miles at a decent pace then decided to use the walk/run method (this is a great strategy by the way!). My overall fitness was pretty rubbish before the race and this showed when I developed a kidney infection after the run due to the stress my body was under.
I also ran the last 1.1 miles so at least I finished on a high. My time was 2:58:and I don’t know how many seconds. I was pleased to finish but angry at myself for thinking that I could get away with no training. What a stupid thing to think! Just for comparison, Haile Gebrselassie finished in 59:33.
Let’s Get Motivated
My first half-marathon experience completely changed my views on my fitness, training, running, and races. It taught me that I might be slim but my fitness was poor. It taught me that big runs are hard work. It taught me that runners are strong – both physically and mentally. I didn’t think I’d want to do a half-marathon again. However I decided to run the Great North Run again this year with my mum (who is also new to running). What motivated me to take this? The answer is simple.
Other runners.
I’ve been reading healthy living blogs for a few years but tended to read the tasty recipes and skip the parts where they talked about running. Recently I’ve found myself drawn towards blogs with a greater focus on running (such as Runners Cookie, Health on the Run, and Beck on the Run… and BritChickRuns of course). I’ve even become engrossed reading blogs about triathlons (such as sweat once a day and Cook Train Eat Race). The words of these and numerous other bloggers inspire and motivate. They and their readers form a brilliant support network and community that I know will help me and other beginners.
I want to feel the sense of pride that I read about in people’s recaps – I want to feel the highs, the lows, and everything inbetween. I want to know that I’ve pushed myself to do something I thought I couldn’t. I want to show off with my own race recaps and encourage and inspire other people.
(That’s me – since the first photo was taken my hair has grown and I henna-ed it red!)
Unfortunately, despite all of the above talk, if you look at my pre-training schedule you’ll see that lately I haven’t been doing too well. First of all I was on holiday for a week then one of my cats became ill and sadly died. However I am determined to get back on track and writing this post has given me the extra little push I need. It’s motivated me to try again!
Please stop by at See How She Runs and say hi. I love meeting new readers, runners, and bloggers.
Question: What motivates and inspires you to reach your goals?
Brought to you by a fellow parsnip lover & fellow Brit – 
