110 seconds...

Yesterday I completed South Shields Parkrun again. When my alarm went off at 7am I was beginning to wonder why I'd agreed to give up another Saturday morning lie in to brave the cold weather outside. Not one for going back on my word I dragged myself out of bed and got ready to pick Rachael up and meet Joanne and everyone in South Shields.

We met up with our friends for a photo before the run began (and jogged on the spot to keep ourselves warm!). My sister Joanne said she would run with me again and we made our way to the back of the group ready to start.

Before the run

The first kilometre was pretty difficult as we were running into the wind and rain and we started off a little bit faster than I normally run. When we turned the first corner the wind was no longer in our face which made it slightly easier. I enjoyed running with Joanne again. I was aiming to complete the 5k with no walking again so just kept putting one foot in front of the other. There were lots of puddles and mud so we kept weaving our way around them, and even (long!) jumped over one of them!

The run was challenging but being with my sister kept me going! Joanne said she would walk with me whenever I needed to but I was determined to keep running. And we did! All the way to the end. There is some sand at the end of the route which is difficult to run through so we sprinted before we got to this part to try and keep to our good time. Micky came back to run to the end with us, which was nice. As I approached the sand I could see the finish and knew there wasn't much further to go. I just kept running and everyone started cheering me on, which felt amazing. I felt so proud when I crossed the finish line! I did it without walking and achieved a new personal best (37.50 - an amazing 110 seconds faster than last week!). Joanne found it difficult to run through the sand so I ended up finishing 3 seconds ahead of her even though she'd ran slowly with me all the way - oops, not such a good little sister! I really appreciate the support she gave me throughout the run and feel a little guilty I finished ahead of her!

After the run we went to Mac n Alli for a nice cup of tea! Dawn and Alex got changed first as they'd been for a dip in the sea after the run (mad in this weather?!). I really enjoyed our trip to the cafe and catching up with good friends (and making some new ones too!) we all did really well yesterday, lots of pb's! Rachael is now super close to reaching her 30minute goal and I know it won't be long before she gets there!

After the run :-) thank you to Alex for the photo!

Another fab Saturday morning, totally worth getting out of bed for! Roll on next time! I am really happy with the progress I'm making and I'm really starting to enjoy running a lot more :-)