2019 part 2

https://notafastrunner.home.blog/2019/11/24/2019-review-part-1/

After 306 miles completed over the first half of the year, after discussions with Russ I originally wasn’t going to do Leeds 10k for first time since 2014, having taken part every year since 2014 i signed up late the wednesday before. My friend Andy also signed himself up a day later and we made arrangements to chat early sunday morning.

July- September

Saturday (7th July) before i took myself to Roundhay parkrun as I had a free saturday, steady and around in 35:45.Morning of Leeds 10k came around, i had my pre race breakfast, toast and a banana with a cup of yorkshire tea, Andy offered to give me a lift so i got my gear together. They had changed the starting line this year to the Headrow so when we got parked up early and saw road of previous start line quiet was strange, collected our numbers and met up with Andy’s colleagues all raising money for same charity, our local branches of Mind charity. We had a chat and made our way to the start area on the headrow.

Start was uphill and slow to get through as it was a little tight, runners swerving around to get going and onto vicar lane before heading onto call lane and past the train station, crowds in good support as I made it onto wellington street, I found a decent pace onto kirkstall road passing a few club runners and as i made my way back on the loop spotted the opportunity to fly past Ronnie the Rhino and get a quick selfie. Got over the finish line with my quickest Leeds 10k time in 1:08:34.

I then had a catch up and a pint in wetherspoons with the others before heading home.

A week later I headed out to Heslington parkrun with some fellow club members for the 3rd venue for the parkrun league, this was in fact what turned out to be a sub 30 min 5k for 3 years. As I was only another 2 month away from my first half marathon in York, my training was continuing although missing a week of my plan after injuring my ankle at the golden acre relay race. July Miles: 54

August started well with a free place into York 10k(https://notafastrunner.home.blog/2019/08/06/the-cobbled-streets-of-york/ ) returning for first time since 2016 I managed to keep myself between the 1:05 and 1:10 pacers from STAC getting a time of 1:10:02. August Miles: 85

September was the best month, I finally achieved half marathon distance (https://notafastrunner.home.blog/2019/09/16/thats-the-half-completed/), it was an experience to say the least and managed to get myself over the line in 2:37:59. Big Thanks to Russ for all his support during the training and also giving me the lift there and back :). September Miles: 66

In october I returned to york for the Yorkshire 10 Mile race (https://notafastrunner.home.blog/2019/10/21/the-magic-10-mile/) before this one i originally thought I would have to withdraw due to illness but managed to get myself a PB on last years time crossing the line in 1:55:56. Unfortunately due to being bad with my asthma I had to pull out of Abbey Dash the week later but due to my asthma playing up with a bad chest infection, had to withdraw.  October Miles: 39. November Miles: 52. At the time of writing this post my current miles for the year stands at 621 Miles.

I am going to aim for 700 Miles in 2020 starting with RED January for Mind with me already signed up for 3 races including my first home half marathon in Leeds on 10th May 2020.