"FLAMINGOS!" I force an awkward laugh in an attempt to disguise the ridiculous tears rolling down my face, as I watch 'inflatable flamingo man' waving crazily at the couple of strangers holding up mini versions of his wearable race companion. Only four miles in and I've already cried more times than I can count on my toes. The important thing to note is that these were tears of pride, of joy, of being part of this surreal procession. Not the tears of misery I cried in my first road marathon. If I could keep this up, I'd be on for a PB. That is, have the personal best time of my life whilst run ..read more

Three years ago, after watching friends fight their way through London Marathon training, I decided to never do one myself. Four marathons and two ultras in, I'll admit I may have to eat my words but the reasons behind my declaration still stand. I run for fun, I need to enjoy the process. It turns out that both the training and race can be an amazing, positive experience. When I've got it right, I've had the best time. When I've got it wrong (and at Isle of Wight marathon, my first time going long on road, I got it epically wrong)...well, let's just say if I wasn't parked at the finis ..read more

In a moment of courage, I spun on my heels, grabbed a pen and decidedly added up my score on tired, raw fingers. The goal was to take part in a proper climbing competition, yet I'd avoided one thing. Competing. I'd got my first taste of competition a few months earlier at a casual wall event. I hated it. After struggling with injury, then a giant plateau in progress, I had already been psyching myself out for weeks in preparation, comparing my climbing with everyone else and noting just how much better than me they were. A competition was not the right environment for such delicate confidence ..read more

It takes 2 minutes, 17 seconds for my kettle to boil. When I'm working from home, I have three or four teas throughout the day. That's a potential 9 minutes, 8 seconds that I'm waiting around to fill my mug each day. There's not a lot you can do in two minute bursts but you can still spend it well. Rather than checking my phone, I've been taking this valuable snippet of time to get a breath of fresh air and practice my handstands. I have no agenda, no training plan, it's simply time in my working day where I can be playful and let my mind rest for a minute or two (and 17 seconds) to come ba ..read more

I've written this opening paragraph so many times over the past month, without ever finishing it. This 'next post', the one that comes after such a long break felt hard because I just didn't know what to say anymore.  Having stopped flying trapeze classes due to work, forcing myself through runs I didn't enjoy and twice being unable to climb for a while because of injury, I'd run out of positive things to say. "If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." And so I stayed quiet. Now, with a new perspective, I'm ready to talk. It's clear now that I'd fallen into t ..read more

WHAT: 10k road race WHERE: Piccadilly, London WHEN: 10th July 2016 From nowhere, my eyes filled with tears. Well, not nowhere, someone had said “you can do it, Sonia!” as their friend ran past and waved like crazy. That was enough to set me off. Embarrassed, I quickly wiped my face… again (a few kilometres back, a steel band had danced around as they kept rhythm for the runners bouncing past which, of course, made me weep) and wondered if it was obvious that this was a case of “hayfever" rather than the slight mental instability I almost knew it was. All along the British 10k course, I w ..read more

Psychology is a funny thing. You could have done all the training in the world, be performing at your absolute best and already have wins under your belt but if you don’t feel fast, you’re not likely to be your fastest. That’s why Speedo have spent the last four years working with 330 top athletes across 26 countries to create a race suit that actually makes the wearer feel faster. The olympic swimmers who line up in Rio wearing the Speedo Fastskin LZR X, will look and feel fast and hopefully the times on the board will reflect that. credit: Speedo Tiny details have been added to o ..read more

It’s taken four years of running, two different towns and a lot of Facebook stalking but I’ve finally found a local run club that suits me! They only run on trails, they like a social pace and they always have snacks. Oh…and they’re a canicross group…and I don’t own a dog. The first thing I did when we decided Welwyn Garden City was the town for us, was to find local running groups. There’s a club right on my doorstep and they even embrace the trails!  I did the appropriate amount of internet stalking – about a year of looking at pictures of their sessions, going to the same races to ..read more

WHAT: 5-mile run WHERE: Hatfield House, Hertfordshire WHEN: 7th July 2015 Eventually, three miles into the five-mile race, I found a reason for that feeling of familiarity. I’d been here before! The back gates of Hatfield House hadn’t been open when I went on my previous little adventure in this area, so I settled for getting lost in the surrounding fields, hunting for the entrance. I never found it but I did find some nice trails. And this is where I found myself now. As the sun was starting to lower, the small crowd gathered for the first leg of the Midsummer Series was turned around from ..read more

WHAT: 10k road race WHERE: Stanborough Park, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire WHEN: 14th February 2016 It disappeared. Nothing happened in particular, no traumatising events, but the love I had for running just didn't seem to be there any more. I was in between trail marathons, with only a month to go to the next and every step felt forced and difficult, stops every 15 minutes seemed necessary and any sign of speed was inexistent. I booked the Love Welwyn Garden City 10k race just to check I could still even run that far without stopping. Race day competitiveness and discipline would hop ..read more