Hey, it’s been a while.

First, I’d like to thank you all for your support after I had to drop out halfway at Edinburgh marathon in May. You have all been so wonderful.

A lot of the comments made mentioned how strong I was being and I was calm having to drop out. Yeah, I had accepted that it was a likely scenario which is why I wasn’t in floods of tears.

Since then, it’s been a struggle.

Any runner who has been injured (most of us!) will tell you how frustrating and mind numbing it is.

But then there’s the comeback. The return to running. Just a few weeks easing back in and we’ll be back at it and carry on…

Oh I wish.

I had about 2 months off running (apart from my shuffle along for the marathon attempt) and it felt like I was starting from scratch.

Of course, it hasn’t been. New runners can’t just knock out a 5k and then a 10k just the week after. We are just very dramatic.

I am making good progress really. I managed an 10 mile run today. It’s just not the pace I’m wanting.

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a blog post of me whining and being an ungrateful toad – I just want to share the rollercoaster of feelings I’ve gone through since the marathon attempt.

Now I’m rebuilding the endurance, I feel confident that I can start working on the pace. It’s just going to hurt. Getting comfortable with uncomfortable again is something I’m currently trying to work on. It’s the good sort of uncomfortable, pushing through fatigue so that next week the pace could jump further.

It’s easy to stay at comfortable, but I’m going to be stuck 3 or 4 minutes slower than my 5k time before I got injured. However I’m finally back under 30 minutes, so things are looking up…

Strength training is helping. Lifting weights and swinging kettlebells at reps of 16. Those reps have to be completed, there’s no hiding – even if I think I don’t want to do it!

It’s the same as getting to that finish line. It’s going to hurt anyway (5ks usually do!) so might as well push through and hold on.

10 weeks until Royal Parks Half Marathon, my new goal race. I ran this last year, with an injury…!

So the goal is to actually run it without an injury and to beat last year’s time, which shouldn’t be too difficult!

For training, I plan to run 3 or 4 days a week. This will consist of a speed/tempo run, an easy run and a long run. The variety should give me everything I need to run strong.

But what about the marathon? Is that it for me?

Not at all. I shockingly didn’t get into London so it will be Loch Ness Marathon 2024. A few friends suggested I try it this year, but I’ve just started running again and marathon training is a killer!

The plan is to have some fun, with Liverpool half marathon in the spring to keep my legs going!

I chose Loch Ness because it is a special place for my family. It also has some beautiful views which is a great motivator for me! A perfect location for a 2nd attempt at a marathon and I will succeed.