Reasons to be Cheerful the end of year round-up! #R2BC

As its the last Reasons to be Cheerful for 2016 I thought I would do a round-up of some of the biggest things that have made me cheerful this year. I will be handing the baton back to Michelle for January so I hope you will all carry on in 2017.

1) Completing my first (and last?) half marathon

One of the toughest things I have ever done was back in May when I ran in the inaugural Brathay Half Marathon. My finish line photo sums up what it meant to all of us:

Who knows if I will ever run one again...

2) Single with Kids holidays

We had our most ever trips with Single with Kids this year. With them we camped in the Peak District, Stourport and Kettering. There was also a trip to Robin Hood's Bay for a self-catering break. All of these put smiles on our faces:

3) Fun with family and friends

We are so lucky to be able to have great adventures almost on our doorstep. Adventures we have enjoyed have included:

• Wray Castle and Claife
• Cruising on Windermere
• Camping in Dent
• A weekend in Bowness
• Waterhead and Galava
• The Lakeland Maize Maze
• The Hobbit in Williamson Park
• Kirkby Lonsdale
• A walk on Hadrian's Wall
• A visit to Lanercost Priory

4) Family & Friends

Of course my family and friends have put plenty of smiles on my face this year too! Here is hoping for plenty of fun times in 2017 together too.

Reasons to be Cheerful: 13 reasons #R2BC

This is Michelle's last week hosting before she hands the baton back to me for June. Please feel free to poke me on a Wednesday night to remind me to set it all up! Its been great having her back and seeing some new bloggers and old hands all on board. As for my reasons this week I said in the title 13 and its not 13 individual reasons but the number of miles I ran/walked on Sunday. Here the reasons that made me smile:
1) Finishing
Wow I actually did it!
2) Making my kids proud
Both my children told me they were proud of me - that is something that I have never heard them both say to me!
3) Crossing the line with my kids
The best bit of the 13.1 miles was my children meeting me and making me sprint finish:

I am sure other things have made me happy this week but this will live with me forever!

Brathay Half Marathon 2016

So yesterday it was the day of the Brathay Half Marathon and my first ever attempt at the distance. My training had not gone to plan but it was too late to do any more! I dragged my children out the door at 8:15 when my dad came to collect us and we headed up to Brathay for the event:

I saw lots of people I know from either running or just from being local and the atmosphere was lovely. After the marathoners had set off we were led by drummers to the starting point on the road:

A gun went off and we all set off on the 13.1 mile route... After the crowds thinned down I started using the interval feature on my watch to control my pace and preserve my stamina. I still managed to find time to chat to other runners whilst going! Its a stunning if hilly route through the Lake District countryside and the honeypot village of Hawkshead. There was plenty of support all the way. It was a relief to reach the half way turn point though after 1 hour and 15 minutes in the sun:

#FitnessFriday Virtual Racing

After my long run last Friday I wanted to see how much stamina my legs had by heading to park run at Fell Foot:

It was a perfect day for running and even though my legs were tired I was slightly faster than the previous week (still 4 minutes off my PB though!).

One of our regulars was celebrating her 50th parkrun and her friend made this fabulous video of his run (can you spot me…):

#FitnessFriday Don't panic its less than a month until the Brathay Half Marathon!

Before I write about this week I realised that I had blogged that I was going to run the Langdale 10k but I never said how I did! I somehow managed probably my quickest 5 k of the year on the outward leg and then hadn't left enough in the tank for the return (though somehow it was my 3rd fastest time back up Chapel Stile). The lack of training showed and the warm weather didn't help but I finished with a smile and not in last place:

The following day we did the Kendal Colour Dash as a family and had a whale of time. My run wasn't anything special as I was taking pictures and still recovering from the day before:

So now we are back on this week proper and I feel like I have finally got some decent running in! On Tuesday I repeated my short route from the week before and it was 3 minutes quicker than the previous one:

Brathay Half Marathon

So today thanks to my son not believing I can run 13.1 miles I signed up to the inaugural Brathay Half Marathon! Only after I had paid did I discover what the elevation is:

Eek! So I have downloaded a half marathon training programme and now to steadily build up from being able to run 6 miles (I have 2 x 10k races in December) to reach 13.1 miles by May 22nd..

Any tips or advice is welcome!