LauRunning

Manchester marks my 3rd best time and 2nd best for the year. Also, a lot of eating. Sweaty but feeling accomplished.  Why Manchester A few reasons: Manchester is a major UK city I haven't been to, and I only need to take one train to get to it. Weirdly, I was interested in the Great Manchester Run because it was so expensive compared to the others. It was £38. Even though I'm trying to be frugal on these trips, I wanted to see what could be so glorious about this run for it to cost so much. I also wanted to discover what my alternative Mancunian life would have been like. By that I mean that the University of Manchester was the only other UK university besides Edinburgh I had received an offer from. I had never visited it, though, so I've always wondered if I even would have liked the place if I ended up going there. The journey Finally, no drama to report. The train left 3 minutes late and arrived on time. The only thing worth mentioning was that t...

Lincoln was a low for me, but I think there's good in that.  Someone noticed my selfie struggles and offered to take a picture of me. Why Lincoln Lincoln was on my list of places to visit. When I went to a conference 2 years ago, a speaker from the University of Lincoln showed videos current students had made to give prospective students an idea of what life in the city and University was like. These videos were an excellent recruitment tool because they convinced me to visit Lincoln. It wasn't a place I had heard of before, but when I saw footage of a jaw-dropping cathedral and a waterfront with boats, I was sold. Mainly because of the boats. I like boats. The journey there I was thinking as I got on my first train that surely I wouldn't need to write about the journey because it would all go smoothly and I'd have nothing interesting to say. Then came the 36 minute delay at Newcastle - a 36 minute delay when I only had 12 minutes to make my connecti...

My first trip to Wales was rain-filled, but it didn't stop me from achieving a new personal best. A rainy victor. Why Anglesey  When searching for runs on the Find A Race website, I read the description for the Anglesey 10k and was immediately sold. You get to run over the Menai Bridge into the Isle of Anglesey where the route takes you along the water with views Snowdonia National Park in the background. Anglesey from Menai Bridge. Of all the parts of that description, the thing that stuck with me most was the idea of running over a bridge. That sounded cool. And that's the reason that led to me making my first trip to Wales. Menai Bridge ready for runners. A request-only town Although the run was in Anglesey, I stayed on the mainland in a town called Llanfairfechan which is edged between the Menai Strait and Snowdonia. The train trip consisted of 3 different trains over 5-and-half hours. While switching trains is something that can make me stressed,...

Liverpool was freezing, but I still got my third-best 10k result. Look at that pretty medal. Why Liverpool  When I thought of this ru nning idea, I made a list of cities I wanted to visit and tried to find races in them. Liverpool was on that list, and I was happy to see there was a 10k at Aintree Racecourse because February, much like January, had slim pickings in terms of the types of races I'd consider doing. The journey I mentioned in my last post that I was worried that rail strikes would prevent me from getting to Liverpool, but luckily, it ended up affecting services that were scheduled after I was set to arrive in the city. That being said, the service I originally booked on to and that was listed on my physical train ticket ended up not existing in the end, and I may have had a mild panic that I was going to have to pay extra on the train because I didn't have the right ticket. Thankfully, that didn't happen. What did happen, though, was on my ...

I ran my first 2019 10k, achieved a personal second-best time and learned the charms of the city of Carlisle. Why Carlisle Why was I so eager to start my year off just south of the Scottish border? I wasn't. It's just that January 10k options are pretty slim. It's not exactly an ideal running month, and every other race I read about sounded hilly, muddy or too far away in a month where I was taking a chance on the weather being okay to travel. Plus, I rather spend the least amount of money in the least nice month (yeah, January, I'm talking smack about you). That being said, I'm happy I kicked off this year in Carlisle. I got some weird looks from people when I said this was my first race, dumbfounded as to why would I travel there. But as far as an easy-to-get-to, cheap place to go on a run and see an interesting thing or two, Carlisle ain't so bad. Visiting the castle I'm aiming to be budget-conscious on these trips since travel, accommodation...