Snow, dark evenings, and our first wedding anniversary

It has been an interesting January and start to February.  I've been getting my feet under the table in my new role as Head of Parks and Open Spaces at Camden.  This has included visiting all our green spaces, getting to know the Parks and Open Spaces team and initiating the business planning for 2012-13 and the longer term strategic thinking.  I've also been interviewed for Horticulture Weekly.

In my new role as Head of Parks and Open Spaces

I'm loving engaging in conversations from keeping our parks safe and secure for our residents with the Street Presence team to supporting healthy and happy lifestyles with BTCV and our green gyms to thinking about how we can do things differently and engage our residents more proactively in these times of austerity, for example the Fitzroy Orchard Project run by the Fitzroy Allotsments Association, a project that has been a steep learning curve for them, about how to balance the very diverse and passionate views of different stakeholders, understanding their perspectives and taking them all into account in revising plans and ideas.

All of this hasn't stopped me training.  We're continuing to follow our training plan towards the 44 miles from Lizard to Lands End.  We are now running about 50 miles a week slowing building up to the peak of 70. Our schedule is 5 running days a week.  This means during the week I get home about 6.30 and head straight out for a run in the dark.  Rock on March and the clocks changing, I can't wait to be able to run without a head torch and get off the streets.  I've had two challenging runs this week.  Tuesday night Mr G was working late so I ran with Archie, this meant doing laps of the playing fields, which isn't normally too bad, but we had a good few inches of frozen snow on the ground, which made it very uneven and slow going.  We managed it though!  Then on Thursday night as I got off the train in Stortford it started snowing again, so I ran with snow blowing in my face.  Once wrapped up in the right kit, including two pairs of gloves, three layers, skins and trousers, hat and snood, it isn't too bad, I'm warm and can plod on!

We were treated yesterday though to an 18 miler in bright sunshine and a snow coated landscape.  These are the runs that I live for, where it is a joy to be out in the English countryside, everything looks so fresh and inviting!  This was followed by Mr G and I heading in to Cambridge to treat ourselves to a night in a hotel and spa to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.  Can't quite believe it has actually been one year, it has flown!  After the 18 mile run we spoilt ourselves with a soak in the jacuzzi, and a warming sit in the steam room and sauna followed by a delicious 3 course meal at Jamie's Italian.  A perfect evening!

Weekends like this are just what I need to feel refreshed and ready for another week of work and running!  And ready to prepare myself for next weekends challenge the South Devon Coastal Marathon - it is going to be fun ;-)

Running and work

This week I started a new job as Head of Parks and Open Spaces at the London Borough of Camden.  A fantastic job that gets me to the heart of managing and promoting the use of Camden's outdoor spaces, while ensuring they continue to grow and be a fantastic resource for future generations.

Archie with Evi 

But it has meant I don't have the same amount of time for training as I had while I was at home.  No more mid morning runs or long dog walks in the winter sun mid week.  It's been up at 6am everyday, a 40 minute walk in the dark with Archie and then on the train into work.  The journey is great I can get there and back within an hour, so I'm getting back home about 6.30 and have managed to get straight out of the door for a run.  Our current training plan means our rest days are on Monday and Friday so Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I was straight out the door for a 7, 5 and 7 mile run consecutively.

Interestingly I found myself flying out the door on Tuesday and really enjoying a fast paced run.  I think the adrenalin of starting a new job had got to me and I really needed to burn some of it off.  Wednesday wasn't quite the same I plodded round the 5 miles and went straight off to yoga afterwards with Mr G.  Who I have to say has been a saint, walking Archie in the evenings and cooking dinner when I've been running.  He manages to fit his runs in at lunchtime which gives us a little more time in the evenings.

Today's long run was a little tougher as my hamstring tendinitis feels as though it is flaring slightly, but an ice pack and some deep heat should do the trick.  At least I hope so as next weekend is our first marathon of the year Anglesey Coastal Marathon, with a finish up Holyhead mountain it should be good!

The romance of running

While Mr G and I were out plodding out our 21 mile long run the other Sunday we saw a great old school friend of mine Ally.  She was running towards us with her friend.  I love seeing friends out running, Ally and I played hockey together at school, but I don't ever remember either of us going for a run, that said she was very good at hockey so she may well have been off sprint training with out me knowing.

Anyway not only were Ally and I surprised to see each other, not that it is that much of a surprise considering she lives in the next village, but she had just been telling her running buddy about how Mr G proposed to me.  Here we were the subjects of her story.

Now Gary's proposal probably isn't up there in the top ten romantic proposals that most people would think of, it certainly wasn't a candle lit dinner.  It was running our first marathon together, the Portland Coastal Trail Marathon run by Endurance Life.  This was my third marathon but first trail marathon, while it was the first marathon Mr G had ever run.  Sadly Endurance Life didn't run the Portland CTS event this year, but for those of you who don't know it it is a grueling two lap course, with a decent stretch along the Chesil Beach shingle.  There was a great turn out to the event considering this was the week of last years snow storms, and I'll be honest Mr G and I didn't know if we'd actually make it to the start.  We did though and we set off in a really friendly crowd.

Our wedding day!

The first lap was great, the famous Portland Lighthouse looked beautiful, while the sea looked rough and raging.  It started to rain as we hit the first section of Chesil Beach, but still I was feeling good.  About a third of the way into the second lap I started to struggle.  My hamstrings went completed rigid and I felt as though every step was a pained effort.  Mr G was kindly bouncing along beside me trying to keep me going, but I just wanted to put my head down, swear gently under my breath and bare it.  I kept telling him to run on without me, but he wouldn't.  Eventually we hit the Chesil Beach Shingle for a second time and I couldn't take it any longer and started to walk.  Mr G kindly walked with me.  He was acting kind of strange and I in an irritated tone asked him what was wrong.  His reply 'well I was going to ask you to marry me.'  'Oh!' I replied completely shocked and taken a back.   Thinking my poor marathon run had actually put him off I asked 'well are you going to?'  And he said 'Well will you?'  Honestly the two of us are normally far better communicators!

The rest is history we continued walking along Chesil beach with grins on our faces.  My legs suddenly felt a whole lot better and I even managed to run the last mile.  We married in February at Exeter registry office with a small number of friends and family and celebrated afterwards at the Salty Monk Restaurant.  It was a perfect day!

A new year, new runs and a new job

Happy New Year everyone.  It's new years day and Mr G and I were meant to being doing a 22 miler today.  Thankfully at about 11pm last night after lots of red wine and guinness (not in the same glass) we decided perhaps it wasn't such a good idea, so now we're looking forward to a relaxing day and a walk down by the beach with our nephew and his new skateboard.

We currently staying down in Dorset at a little holiday cottage called Bridge Cottage in a small village called Buckland Ripers.  A great spot to get down to the Jurassic Coast and do some running.  Over the last couple of days we've done some lovely runs around Portland starting off at Portland Bill.   I've so far managed to persuade Mr G to avoid running along Chesil Beach, can't face the thought of running along all that shingle even if it would be great training.  But after watching the video of the Sahara run (a stocking present) and seeing all the sand I'm not so keen on the idea.

After recovery and recuperation today we'll be starting our year of running with a 22 miler in the Dorset countryside tomorrow and then it's back home for a final weekend of running before I start my new job as Head of Parks and Open Spaces at the London Borough of Camden, and I get used to working and training again.  Hopefully I'll be able to find lots of nice urban runs across Camden and throughout the parks - perhaps doing my job on the run!  Watch this space to see how I get on with doing what 99% of us runners do, work and run!