New year!! New goals & New running group

Well it's been a while since my last blog and once again lots of things have happened, I have know sold my house ( fingers crossed it all goes through quickly) and lots of races have been entered for 2016 already,

One of the main focus for this year is to get some speed back into these ultra legs and so far so good , by using the Brilliant Kingsbury water park run as a speed session since Christmas it's worked really well & my 5k times are falling whoop whoop 22 mins is not too shabby for an ultra runner ( hoping to get around 21 by The end of the year, don't worry still got quite a few ultra's planned too lol)  the park runs are now on hold for 8 weeks as me and David have set up a little company called chaselifeuk with the main aim to get more people doing what we love "Running "

On And around the gorgeous Cannock Chase.

We want to help and support new people get into our sport in a fun & enjoyable way , we also will be offering workshops and some night running courses with our first course starting today (8 week walk to run) and we are so pleased to be full with 15 new people joining .

Thank you to everyone who has supported us with our new venture.

Please check out our website www.chaselife.uk & please follow us on 

Twitter & like our new Facebook page .

I have a feeling 2016 is going to be a good year and I look forward to seeing how it all goes.

But for now I'm going to be wishing you lots of smiles and lots of miles, see you all soon.

Snowdon Marathon 2015

Well it's the morning after the Snowdon Marathon and I'm wide awake , so I thought I would do a little blog as it's been a while since my last one.

So sit back and enjoy the ramblings from me.

This marathon is and I think will always be my favourite , yes it may not of been perfect weather conditions but in some ways it made the race more special.

If you have never done it I highly recommend that you try it , I'm not going to lie it's a tough one but it will be so worth it and after all as the Buff saying goes "Flat is Boring".

The race started at 10.30 am and it was wet as you can see from my photo not everyone was as happy as David about it.

For some reason I'm never nervous about this race I feel at home running in such beautiful surroundings and me and David always enjoy this one.

We started at a good pace , well I think it was good as I lent my Garmin fenix to my dad before the start as his battery had died and it felt good not to have a watch to keep looking at.

The first 4 and a bit miles slowly climb and there were quite a few runners who were paying for it early on , 

Me and David ran together and we were both feeling good it's amazing how the miles just go by and we were at the first bit of down hill in no time at all.

David was excited about the views or he had just heard someone say they were handing out food lol !!

Now it was about now that I was bursting for the toilet and for some daft reason we both thought we remembered a toilet around the 5 mile mark , phew or so I thought , we eventually found a proper brick toilet at about 10.5miles and we both made a dash to use it lol .

We both couldn't believe how good our legs were feeling and the miles were coming around quickly , the ultras these past few months have really helped us loads and the hills in training on Cannock chase have too.

We got to the half way point at bang on 2 hours and we were both fine ,by now the weather forecast had been correct and the rain had stopped.

We kept plugging away and we were passing quite a few runners , we had a plan for when we hit 22 miles and that was to keep on running and to keep smiling.

If you haven't done this race before 22 miles is where u hit a rather big climb and it just keeps on going until about 24 miles and lots of runners walk this bit us on the other hand kept going.

As I posted on Facebook earlier when the going gets tough team buff get going and to my surprise David decided to play this out of his phone as we were running up the climb, brilliant it was and it made a few other runners smile to.

The trouble with going up is you have to come down and it was very slippy and greasy from the earlier rain so you had to tread carefully.

As we hit the 25 mile point I thought we were in to beat last years time but it was just too slippy to go to mad and lots of people were falling over.

As soon as we were on the flat we went for it and we had a great finish our official chip time was 4.hours 19 mins and we were pleased with that.

So now it was time for a quick cuppa and change of kit as we were going to run back along the course to find Buff Daddy aka Les my dad who was also running,

It was really cool to run back and shout on everyone and it also gave us some time to grab some photos of the views on the course which you don't always have time to do.

My dad ran awesome and we got a few snaps of him between 24 & 26 miles 

 

So I think you can tell from this blog that me and David love this race & love running.

There were some awesome performances this weekend from our running friends at this race and it was lovely to see you all , the running community is a brilliant community to be a part off and thank you to you all for been a part of our extended family.

I also have to say a massive thank you to Buff uk www.buffwear.co.uk for all your continued support and kit and we are loving the new hat range.

Thanks also to Al pepper and Liz pepper from www.theoriginalpowercookie.co.uk for my race fuel cookies.

Next races for us will be in the USA in November whoop whoop Las Vegas baby here we come .

Running update .

Firstly let me apologise for not writing my blog earlier , but lots have changed in my life and now the house is up for sale I've been a bit busy , hopefully I will keep more up to date with my blog .

So what's new ? Well I'm really lucky to have found out that I will have continued support from Buff in 2015 and I have been signed up for my 4th year on the Team Buff UK team ( well chuffed ) so a massive thank you to the guys for having continued support in me .

www.buffwear.co.uk 

So if any one needs any advice or help on the best buff's to wear for ultra running or to just look cool please pm me and I will help.

Last weekend I competed in the London marathon this was my 20th London and at the last count my 70th I think Marathon , I loved it and was really impressed with how I felt, ok I went a bit quick in the first 10k but I felt good and sometimes you just have to run to how you feel ,the brilliant support I got was out of this world too.

The main thing about London this year was to enjoy it after my dnf last year ,(the first time ever I have not finished a marathon ) 

So I was chuffed to bits to run a time of 3.46 ok this isn't a pb for me but after only doing ultra training and not much speed I was pleased .

Massive thanks to my chap David & my mom and dad for all the support on the day and for all my friends who kept us entertained the whole weekend .

So what's next ??

One week later and we are off to Catton park to run solo in the 12 hour conti Lightning run .

I love this race and I can't wait to start ,

And this year I seem to have convinced a lot of my friends to get into ultra running & a lot of my running family will be there , remember folks the main thing about this  race is to enjoy the atmosphere & run with your heart .

So that's it from me till after the race see you all later along with my chap & buff daddy also running solo , look out for the Buff flag in the solo field & good luck to all my friends racing this weekend .

The Beyond Marathon millennium ultra pre race blog

I've not done a blog for a while so I've decided to do two on this race a pre race one and a post race one , just because it's a special race for me as it's the last race before my 40th birthday and this race is 38 miles and as an ultra runner what more would I want to do to celebrate ( oh yeah me and a few of my fellow nutters are making it up to 40miles) 

So firstly I must thank all my family & friends who have entered this and I hope you all speak to me after its finished as I know for a few of you it will be your first ultra .

This is the course starting in Newport & running across my home county of Staffordshire. 

It's going to be such fun & even though it's a FLAT course it's pretty interesting with lots of mud , stiles & gorgeous views along the way.

I must thank my sponsors Buff www.buffwear.co.uk for sending me some cool reflective Buff's for my closest friends to wear on race day & they are a little thank you from me for running and celebrating my birthday with me on this race ( even though my official day isn't till the 9th March ).

So that's it for now & to all my crazy fellow running friends enjoy yourselves tomorrow & keep going and remember this quote .

Part 2 will be published after the race that's it from me for now #ultrabuffgirl #teambuffuk 

My top 5 Buff's for runners ideal Christmas presents .

Well it's coming to that time of year again & I love Chrismas so I thought I would share my top 5 or 6 favourite Buff's perfect for the runner in your life.

#1 The Reflective Buff @ £18.50

This Buff is based on the original Buff but with the addition of vertical stripes of retro reflective scotch lite on each side , 

I think this is a must for any runner as it ensures you are seen on early morning runs or at night or in poor light conditions.

#2 Polar Buff @ £25.00

This is one of my favourite Buff's for the winter months as it has a section of polartec Classic 100 fleece on the bottom section which keeps you toasty warm while running, it was worn by me on Sunday while I was competiting in a fell race and it was a bitterly cold morning and it did a brilliant job of keeping me warm .In the picture im wearing the polar buff as a hat .

#3 The Buff knitted Headband @ £23.00

I love my Joop knitted headband & recently I have had loads of comments about it , as ive been wearing it before & after races & it keeps your head & ears really warm & the added benefit of looking pretty cool in it too.

There are Ladies & Mens ones available in these.

#4 Neckwarmer wool Buff @ £25.00

This is made from Merino wool and is reversible and it keeps you warm very warm , great for running in but also great to wear with normal clothes , 

#5 uv Buff headband @ £12.00

Out of all my Buff's you will probably notice me most in the above uv logo headband , it's lightweight , comfortable and brilliant for us girls with long hair to stop our hair going in our eyes when running , I love mine and ive noticed its beginning rather popular among us ultra runners .

All of these Buff® items and lots more  can be found online at www.buffwear.co.uk or at the Buff pop up shop at the Bluewater shopping centre kent .

I hope you have found this useful and you now have some stocking filler ideas for Christmas.