I am finally starting back on my running journey and it feels like a long time. I’ve been a wannabe Ultra runner for over 4 years now and 2020 was meant to be the year. One thing after another (pandemic plus baby!) meant it wasn’t meant to be.

2021? Well does anyone remember 2021? For me it passed by so fast it was a blur. And once again pregnant I had to put my fitness goals on hold. Once summer hit and the rules were relaxed a bit I was able to train some fabulous ladies at my boxercise classes and fitcamp.

That got me thinking – 2022 could be my year! So I transferred my pandemic postponed place from the Tour of Edinburgh to The Wall, naively thinking – oh the baby is due in January – 6 months is PLENTY of time to train for a mere 70 mile ultra!

Hahahaha

Do you know how much time you need to devote to training to prepare for such a distance in only 6 months? Yeah apparently neither did I!

AND do you know how much time a newborn plus an almost 2 year old, plus 2 lovely – but extremely loud and enthusiast – boys take up? Add onto that exclusive breastfeeding and no sleep and suddenly we’re in March and I now only have 3 months!

After 2 attempts at running 10 miles (I ran with my eldest son on his bike to junior parkrun, did parkrun, then we ran/cycled back) and me nearly dying, staggering about complaining about my hips and begging to just be back in labour again. I gave in to defeat and pulled out.

A month after The Wall and I don’t regret pulling out. It would’ve been silly to attempt it, but the tug of that first ultra still beckons.

Now I am thinking about doing Jedburgh. It’s a fantastic ultra, it’s run by amazing people and it’s ONLY 37 miles (only??!!). It’s in October so training is doable – afterall my youngest is now 7 months old and not 100% dependant on my breasts for food.

This coincided with my awesome Crieff Boxercise group expressing interest in doing couch to 5k. I love love love running this course and in Derbyshire where I did it before I met some amazing runners who I keenly follow and support to this day. They made me so proud and some started at couch and went up to marathon, others started at 5k with fears of progressing and are doing halfs and many others regularly do 10ks. So, I know what I am doing training people from couch to 5k. And I love it! AND it’s fun!!

I had never thought about doing c25k in Crieff before because when I moved there in 2018 there was already a well established c25k class and I didn’t want to mess with it. The ladies assured me that class is no longer happening, couple that with trying and getting no takers near mine in Perth I thought f£&k it let’s do it!

We just completed week 4 and they absolutely smashed it. There’s some resistance to looping back (😂) but you get that with every group. The main thing is they laugh at my silly jokes. No, for real the main thing is they work so bloody hard. And it’s paying off.

It really feels like a message from the universe – I’m going through the couch to 5k programme with my lovely ladies, we are all getting stronger every week so once again that ultra is calling…and as I reminded them this evening; small steps, baby steps will get us to our goal.