Hi everyone,
I decided to go to lidl, have a nosey at the deals they was having, well I got some new insoles for £3 and a knee brace for £6 since my knee has been playing up since last tuesday during my run with the SRC, I was glad that I had a rest day on wednesday after the run on tuesday, was still bothering me my knee so thought I'd see how it feels when I go out for a run thursday, well it was fine, I managed to do interval training and my knee was great no pain or anything, then when I started walking afterwards it seemed to hurt a bit, I rested my knee did the RICE method and seemed ok, so took it easy on the friday bought a knee brace and some insoles but then my legs started hurting so just ended up walking to my thai kickboxing class, my knee was fine during the class it only seems to bother me when I'm walking around and seems fine when I do some running, so thought I'd take it easy at parkrun and not bother about my time whilst running,
So I got home friday and got most of my things together, change of clothes, water bottles, inhaler, barcode (checked about 4 times to make sure it hadn't snuck out and went on a holiday lol) got my clothes together that I was going to run in on the saturday during the parkrun, made sure I had no stones in my shoes so took out any that was stuck in, made sure my running watch was charged at least enough for the run on the saturday which is was then I turned it off to save the charge in it until I turned it back on before the start of the parkrun, I also put in my mp3 player after it got fully charged,
I then went bed at about 10ish, couldn't seem to fall asleep so wasn't sure if I'd get up in the morning in time for to get to parkrun in time to help with pre event setup, I must have been awake for around 2 hours or that's how long it felt anyway, I managed to wake up at 5 even though I'd set my alarm wrong, I'd set it for 6 not realising I'd set it for that time a few days beforehand and not changed it,
So I get up at 5 even without the alarm 
I hop in to the shower, change, grab some breakfast, double and triple check I have everything I need for parkrun, I am ready by 6:30 so check my e-mails do one last check I have everything and set off at 7, I get to the bus stop for 7:30 after I take a slow leisurely walk to the bus stop whilst listening to some songs instead of listening to les brown for a change,
I get to the start of parkrun for 8am, there is other volunteers so we all have a chat whilst waiting for the run director to turn up and unlock the gates for everyone to start with the setup of the course, I grab some cones and started putting them around the track and the starting cones,
I was stood chatting to volunteers when who should tap me on my shoulder but my friend bill, we stand chatting and having a laugh an then julie turns up, so me and julie go toilet and bill gets ready for the run, we then go and carry on chatting to bill, and bill tells me that his ankle isn't doing to good so he said that he will be taking it easy well I have heard him say this in the past and comes in with a time of 27minutes so thought it was going to be another quick parkrun for bill to watch me past the finish line like usually,
We stand listening to the run director for the briefing, and then we go to the start, I go a bit further forward than my usual place but still had what felt like everyone in bolton pass me after the run director told us to go, it didn't bother me I just kept going, I felt like I was going a bit quicker than I usually do, this time round it wasn't bothering my legs or my lungs too much, so I just kept going, went down the hill and who should I passed just around the 1st km but my friend Bill, he really was taking it steady, so I slowed down and ran the rest of the parkrun around with,
We chat whilst going around the course, not to much but a bit, making sure the other one is ok, bill listening to me moan about forgetting my water bottle, my feet hurting and my lungs feeling like they was burning and so tight they wasn't going to get any air in to them, I was trying to ignore my lungs struggling to get some air, took my inhaler whilst going up the last hill, that was useless, only took it once so I could take it again once I'd finished the course,
It's coming to the last km and we are still going steady, and I'm barely able to breath let alone talk as well, so we get on to the track after the out and back, and we start to increase the speed just a tad bit until it comes to the last quarter of the track and then we start to sprint, bill being the gentleman he is, lets me cross the finish line first, I stopped my watch just after the finish line or near enough, we carry on down the finish funnel and we get our finish tokens thanking the volunteers and then I take my inhaler and my breathing gets better,
I look at my watch and I'm really pleased with my time but thought I'd best wait for the text/email to come through to let me know the time I officially crossed the finish line and it was another PB my 4th in 4 PB's the inhaler's are really helping and I'm so glad I can run without feeling like my lungs are stuck in a vice all the time whilst out running, my new PB is 32:40, I think it's because bill kept me going around the course as I would have stopped a few times since my lungs seemed to be not doing great during parkrun,
I'm over the moon that everything is starting to go ok for me, I've got the help from the council to hopefully get me a place of my own, my health seems to be slowly, really slowly improving, no bouts of paralysis since just over a week back, my legs aren't great, having slight problems with my knees but I did manage to run 12.25km last night, I had the wind against me, it started pouring down with rain for the last 6km, It rained that much that I was soaked to the bone, the bathroom floor had a puddle of water on the floor from me dripping water everywhere, I ran up and down hills and it felt great, from around 3 years back I wasn't able to run for even a few minutes to running last night continuously apart from stopping once for a car, I managed to run for over 1 hour including cool down I ran for 1 hour 45 minutes and a few seconds, it was really tough in parts but so happy I managed the run, the bury10k is looking like it's going to be great,
Back on to the parkrun, I ran a PB but it wasn't just that, I ran my first 2 km's not just the one but 2 km's in under 6minutes, I never thought I'd be able to do that, so it's proof you can do it, everyone can do it, without this forum I don't think I'd be this happy or this comfortable at running during the week, I run with my head up high, I actually smile whilst running, and have had so many compliments over the last couple of parkruns, been told I've lost weight and I run so much smoother than in the past when I first started going parkrun, and that I'm doing really well with the running and my times, I never dreamt when I first started at parkrun did I ever think I would be able to run a parkrun in under 40minutes let alone under 35minutes and get this close to a sub-30 minute parkrun, just goes to show that anything is possible, believe and you will achieve
Onto the surprise now, well as you all may now I do volunteering, I love volunteering each week and will say yes to more than 1 event on any given day if I know I can realistically get to the other events like when I volunteered at 3 events in 1 day because I knew I could get there with the bus times and get to each event with plenty of time to spare, so I found out on tuesday that a friend/parkrun family member only went and sent me a message and made me cry on the metrolink in manchester coming back from the run with the SRC which was the best run I've had with the SRC to add to the night, that my friend had only gone and nominated me for volunteer in sport of the year and I've only gone and got shortlisted and get to go to the macron stadium for an evening in september to see if I have won or not, plus what makes it even better is my friend also got nominated and shortlisted for the same award so here's to the parkrun family can't believe it, it made me cry but beam from ear to ear, couldn't believe it, still can't believe it to be honest,
I'm sorry for the really long post, can you tell I'm excited about everything that is happening right now?
The picture is of me and my friend bill during the parkrun just gone, I love this picture that got took,
Take care,
Siobhan xx
Glorious parkrun morning! How many of us are park runners too?
5K AFTER A WEE COUGH (sorry, meant to say week off)
I actually ran a parkrun!
