LauRunning

My first half marathon race took me down to Cornwall. It was the hilliest and toughest course I've ever run, but I'm proud to report I ran it all. First half marathon race in the bag. Why Falmouth After a year spent 10k running around the UK, I wanted my first half marathon race to be epic in some way. I thought going down to Cornwall would check that box. Because that would involve one incredibly long train ride. Even longer than Tenby.  There were a few other options in the UK on the table, but my friend Jamie (who did the Anglesey run with me last year) wanted to join me on the run, and we agreed on Falmouth. And just to convey how far Falmouth is away from Edinburgh, here's a screenshot of Google Maps I took while I was there. The blue dot is Falmouth. Basically, Falmouth is very, very far away. Racing in a pandemic Before getting into the details of this trip, I have to acknowledge the elephant in the room: racing during a global pandemic. I...

My first race in 2020 was a 5k around Arthur's Seat with some of my favorite people. No medal this race, but a beanie. Why Edinburgh Winter Run I had already planned my inaugural race of the year when a surprising email came into my work inbox shortly before Christmas. The University of Edinburgh was sponsoring this winter run, and emailed all staff to say they would subsidize half the entry fee for the first 500 employees who signed up. So for £6.50, never have I been so quick to sign up to a race. I then immediately emailed all my running coworkers to say, "we're all doing this, yes?!".  Sure enough, we were all doing this. The least likable t-shirt One of the big selling points of the run was that the University was going to give its staff entrants a 'branded running top to wear on the day'.  I was quite excited by this. I've never run representing a team before. Getting to represent my alma mater and employer, along with my ...

Long story short, spending 2019 running 10k races around the UK was the best idea I ever had. It's so hard to jump with so much bling around your neck. Photo credit: TartanZone Meda. A year later, I'm a different person I started off 2019 with an intro post to the year ahead that I had planned out.  My 2019: wait, Lauren runs now?   I said in my intro post I was going to run a 10k each month because it was the best idea ever. And it was. But not for the reasons I thought it was going to be. A year ago, I thought this was the best idea because I thought traveling around the country and seeing and experiencing new things sounded pretty cool. In reality, it was the best idea ever because these experiences have changed me as a person (and for the better). The me going into 2020 feels more confident. More accomplished. More capable. So while the traveling and seeing new stuff was cool, I wanted to write an outro post to dig into the ways my 2019 has ...