Well that’s June over and six months of my challenge to run 1000km in 2016 completed. When I first set out in January, I thought I’d really struggle to complete the 1000km in the year but fast forward 6 months and here I am, still standing, having finished the month with a whopping total so far for the year of 901km’s 😱 I’m beginning to think if I keep going I may even make 1000 miles in 2016!
However, it’s not always easy. I started off June feeling a bit flat after the Edinburgh half marathon at the end of May. I have a place in a 10km race in August but with nothing planned for June or July I was struggling to find motivation to get out there. I have also been battling with a pain in my calf which alternates from a sharp stabbing pain to a strange numbness. I had been putting off going to the Dr’s in case they told me I couldn’t run and I missed out doing the half at the end of May so with that out the way and a very painful run at the start of June I made an appointment. The Dr said I’ve trapped a nerve which he would expect to get better in about 12 weeks but could last for 12-18 months! Luckily for me he said I could continue to run.
Through all of this, the support, encouragement and advice I got from the fantastic online running group I am part of was invaluable. They are such a great group of people and being able to share everyone else’s runs, achievements, set backs and progress as well as my own I soon got my head back in it and found my running mojo again 😄
With no race in the immediate future to work towards, I wasn’t sure what to focus on in June whether to be working on distance or speed. An unplanned 5km village fun run that a friend’s company (Harburn Finance Ltd) was sponsoring on the 11th June resulted in me not only getting my fastest 5km but also finishing second female overall. This got me thinking about my speed!
When I run, I run with headphones in, listening to music with the Map My Run app on. I have it set so that every mile it gives me the total time it has taken me so far, I then work out what my average per mile is. At the fun run, I was approximately 100-400 metres behind the winning female at all times, the first mile I ran in 7:49 mins and as I had previously been running between 8:30-9 min miles I was thinking while running that I wouldn’t be able to sustain the pace. I kept going but afterwards when thinking about it, I think subconsciously this made me slow slightly. With this in mind, I thought I’d put it to the test. Two days later I went out, ran a 5km but turned off the voice feedback on Map My Run. My plan worked, I ran my fastest 5km in 24:33, which was my first ever sub 25 minutes 5km and my average pace was 7:54 per mile.
June also saw me running my furthest distance to date. On the 17th, I set out for a run in the Pentlands and ran 16.31 miles around 7 of the reservoirs up there! The Pentlands is definitely my favourite place to run so far, I love running off the path, up and down hills, over burns, there is so much to focus on that it feels like you’re only running about half the distance. I only wish I could find more time to disappear up there for 2-3 hours at a time but with a young family and school holidays now, it’s not that easy!
This month I was also extremely grateful to ICP Support for giving me a place that came up to run for them in The Great North Run in September. I will also be running the Birmingham Half in October for them, so I now have two half marathons to look forward to and something to train towards.
I have also been extremely lucky this month. I use the website running heroes to help motivate me as they run weekly challenges and this month I won entry into the Scottish 10km in September. I also won a pair of compression calf guards from a local running shop by entering a photo of myself finishing the Edinburgh Half. I’ve not got round to collecting them yet but am hoping when I do they may help with the calf pain I have been experiencing!
So in the end June has been a pretty good month. I have run a total of 112.10 miles (180.41km’s) and my average pace per mile this month has dropped 22 seconds to 8:40min/mile. I have completed 20 runs in total with the average being 5.61 miles.
Most importantly however, please remember I am doing all of this running to raise vital funds and awareness for the amazing charity ICP Support http://www.icpsupport.org/ . You may have seen this month on Netmums the founder of ICP Support, Jenny Chambers shared her own story. This was a very brave thing for Jenny to do and the last I heard the article had been read over 14,000 times! Myself, I found Jenny’s story incredibly moving and it really brought home why I am doing this challenge and trying to help this charity so close to my heart. As most of you know I suffered from ICP in both my pregnancies and was induced early in both. If you are interested in reading more about my experience of ICP and the condition itself you can find more details on the front page of this blog.
That’s it for June but please if you haven’t already sponsored me and can spare a donation please do. I am just over half way to my target amount but still have a long way to go and every donation, no matter how small makes a massive difference. You can donate by visiting my page https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/kimkenny1
Thanks
Kim x x
1000km challenge 2016 