Petite Feet Runaway

Pre-Steenbergen Rambling My arrival at 24-hour running has been a bit of a whirlwind. A year and a half ago I took a train to Wales to piggy-back on my sister’s crewing position for New Zealand runner Matt Bixley who was running the Commonwealth 24 Hour Championships in Llandudno. I had no idea this running existed. The runners go around in circles. All night. You had to wipe your hands with nappy wipes so that you didn’t give Matt unnecessary germs. Ok, maybe that was just a Matt thing… There were these three Scottish lassies running; Debbie Martin-Consani, Sharon Law and Pauline Walker. Who were these people? I cheered for them because they were from Scotland but I didn’t really understand their greatness. There was just one female representative for New Zealand at this race and I figured that maybe New Zealand needed some more lady runners for their team. So essentially I started running 24 hour runs because my country NEEDED me to. What a saviour. Less than a year ago I r...

Let's Plan A Race Organised, as ever, I decided on the train to Perth that I should develop a race plan. Essentially I needed to practice eating, walking breaks and how to ignore my crew for a few laps. With no pencil or paper to hand I unleashed my youth and used an app on Scott's phone to record the best laps for custard consumption. It's like a note pad but on the phone. Wild. You could use it to make a kit list, a to-do list or even a grocery list. I would love to make a grocery list and then carry it about on my phone, ready to plan a meal at any available moment. Plenty of time for that list-making tomorrow though as I've got 42 flat laps to run. I decide that I'll take food at the same time as liquids to prevent having to take something constantly. 'A third of a banana' was written  typed often. Then we end up buying small bananas (after a HUGE argument with the self-scanning checkout at ASDA) and I ended up taking halves. Just in case you were wo...

It's complete. And I conquered. The Marcothon is very exciting. It goes a bit like this; run, run, run again, put the washing on, run slower, try to run fast, feel happy to run slow, put the washing on, run for a curry, run to work, just run. And then put the washing on again. I thought I'd find it much harder than I did. To be honest most of my runs were slow 25 minute plods but they counted. There were less temper-tantrums than I expected. One evening feeling sorry for myself after too many seven day work weeks in a row, Scott told me that I didn't have to go for a run. But I did have to. I could deal with the cold dark run better than I could deal with the guilt of not going. So I returned home to chocolates and wine.   Who let this loose in Yorkshire?  My Christmas list looked a bit like this: Running tights without holes . My current faithful’s are six years old. Socks . These are essential to any Christmas list. While I have pre...

Yes Hillary, this Marcothon business is serious stuff We had no heating for a month. So if running the Marcothon in temperatures of -5 wasn’t enough, I’ve also been living in a flat where none of my running kit will dry. To add to my hardcore-ness my running tights also have holes in them. Now you’ve probably got a picture of me as a heroic runner, pounding the icy pavements whilst wearing a cape and spreading the love of running and Christmas joy to all. And obviously, that’s totally what I looked like (just don’t ask Scott). So if anyone saw a big-haired lycra-clad ninja tearing through shoppers on Princes Street, that was me. The key is quick side-steps, dropping the shoulder for the duck and dive between shoppers, and plenty of ‘oops, sorry’.  I also find that making zooming noises as I run is a good way to lighten people’s moods. It doesn’t make you look nuts at all, especially when you’ve got bottles clanging and bells chiming in your backpack from the Christmas shopping...