Injury Strikes!

I'm injured! I can't run and I feel as though I'm losing my mind! Ok so that's probably a bit dramatic but running keeps me sane and I can't do it so feel as though I'm going insane.

Maybe I should start at the beginning. The Wednesday before Christmas I went for my usual club run with Pegasus and from the start I had a bit of pain along the side of my right foot. I told myself to man up and get on with it, that it was nothing and I could just run it off. We did 6 miles and I was in pain the whole time but I just kept going. I'm an idiot but an idiot that has learnt a hard lesson.

Yep, that's pretty much how I feel!

I spent from Christmas Eve to a couple of days ago not being able to walk, I just had to limp along. It felt better when I was on tiptoes but still hurt like hell. To say I was terrified about what damage I had done is an understatement, I obviously imagined the worst and let my mind go wild.

Today I went to physio at DTR in Cathays, Cardiff. They were highly recommended by a running buddy who suffered from the dreaded plantar fasciitis earlier this year and was fixed in time for the London Marathon. I was sat in the waiting room on the verge of tears. I have been training so hard for my marathon and the thought of not being fit enough to run it was all I could think about. Add on the days of frustration from not running and there I was, a near blubbering mess! This is my first running injury and I have no idea what to expect.

Ok so I wasn't this bad... jeez get a grip love!

Carolin took me into one of the bays and asked me what the problem was. I don't know how I didn't cry my eyes out but I kept my crazy together and explained what had happened. She poked and prodded my foot while I grimaced with the pain then said she suspected tendinitis and that we can get me all fixed up ready for my marathon! Yay! I could've kissed her! The relief was incredible.

She started the treatment by hooking me up to a machine that I will refer to as zappy as I can't remember it's actual name.

Here's zappy!!

Zappy made my foot feel warm and tingly, I was given some magazines and told to relax. After about 10-15 minutes (no idea really, I'm totally guessing!) Carolin came back and detached me then brought out this bad boy...

Will my foot get a tan?

I had 9 minutes of ultrasound on the tendons then Carolin poked and prodded some more. I'd taken my runners with me just in case and I'm glad I did. She examined them and noticed that part of the shoe along the side of my foot was ridged and had no give.

As soon as I put it back on, a really sharp pain shot through my foot. My runners and how they fit my feet have caused the damage so I can't wear them again, it's time to go runner shopping again!!

Ooooooooooooo runners!

Carolin taped me up and wants to see me again on Monday, I'm not allowed to exercise until she gives me the ok. I have to rest, ice and elevate it as much as possible.

Best colour tape ever!

So I am hugely relieved that this is fixable but still hugely frustrated that I can't run yet. I didn't realise just how much I rely on going for a run to clear my head and keep me grounded. Running is how I control my weight, I run so that I can eat what I want without the worry of piling on the pounds. It's Christmas and I have hardly indulged, in fact I've been told by a few different people that I've lost weight. The stress of not knowing what was wrong and my paranoia at my weight ballooning because I can't burn the calories off has left me with no appetite.

Running and training for my marathon is a massive part of me and my life. I plan everything around my running. I'm a runner and I can't run. I know I will heal and I'll be back out there with my running buddies soon so just need to keep myself busy and stay patient. Yeah, let's see how well that goes shall we?!

Run 26.2 Miles and Help The Puppies!

I have finally set up my fundraising page for Friends of the Dogs!

I know, right!

For those of you who haven't read my Marathon Madness and Puppy Dogs blog, I am running my first marathon in April 2016 and have decided to keep myself focussed by raising money for Friends of the Dogs.

Awwwwwwww!

I need all the help I can get, my training isn't going very well right now. Today's run started at 6am and it was raining that drizzly, soak-you-in-a-second kind of rain. I was miserable, cold, wet and wanted to quit before I reached the end of my road. I spent the whole run chanting "think of the puppy dogs... think of the puppy dogs" and it helped, I completed the run.

If you would like to help me raise as much money as possible then please go to https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/saramorgan4. Every penny helps and will be greatly appreciated.

A Girls Night in with Tinder... What Could Go Wrong?!

I have been known to do a crazy thing now and again but I think last night was the craziest of them all so far!

Saturday night was Tinder night at my friend L's house. A bunch of ladies got together for a night in with some very food, a good old giggle and a Tinder account or 3.

It's where all the cool kids hang out!

Our instructions from our host were this:

• Bring food and drink
• Set up a brand new Tinder account - if you currently have one then delete it so you can start fresh
• Do not touch new Tinder account... don't even take a sneaky peek at it!

We all arrived at L's house with our instructions completed. The next instruction was to give your phone/iPad with new Tinder account on it to another lady to use on your behalf. Yes, you read that right, I had to give my iPad to someone else to be me!

The aim of the night was to swipe right (for like) or swipe left (for no way!) for your friend and get as many matches as possible while making sure you only swipe right for people who you would actually want her to date. The first person to set up 3 meets* for her friend was the winner and hopefully the Tinder account owner gets to meet some nice guys.

*A 'meet' is not a first date, it's just a coffee for an hour or so to see if you get on. After this you either arrange a first date or change your identity. Back in the olden days you would see someone in a pub, have a chat and then arrange a first date, you wouldn't class your first encounter as a first date. Same in the online world and it takes the pressure off.

Calm down Oprah!

L and T grabbed my iPad and I grabbed T's iPhone! Now this is where you probably think we're crazy and usually I would agree but, to be perfectly honest, how much worse could their choices be for me? I've not exactly picked the best men to date so why not put my love life in someone else's hands. Perfectly logical!

My thoughts exactly!

The evening started with us sitting around the table in the conservatory, L had prepared meats, prawns and veggies for us to cook on a table top grill - it was great and meant L could relax and not have to keep an eye on the cooker (although the sweet potato fries in the actifry gadget ended up cremated!) 

I see T and L a lot so they know me pretty well, they know my 2 non-negotiables are 6ft and above and a non-smoker. I wasn't quite sure that they were remembering these 2 vital facts especially when evil laughs and hysterical laughter could be heard for miles around.

He's probably not that short!

Clearly a romantic!

Pretty sure this is Dave, 43 from Porthcawl

Soon the matches started to flood in and it was time to message with our admirers. We kept it simple and we kept to the facts (ish) so that the Tinder account owner could pick up the conversation if she was interested in the man we had chosen for her. 

This rule was kept to with all messages except one. That one exception was a guy we will call Creepy. He was clearly not a gentleman and was matched with myself and T so we decided to have a little fun with Creepy and see how long it took for us to get busted. 

We started off asking and answering questions in a similar way. It turned out that Creepy wasn't talking to anybody else on Tinder except for me... apparently. Now we're all grown ups and we all know that you talk to numerous people at once until you start actually dating someone so why the lie? Without going into details, Creepy was well and truly earning his nickname by the end of the messaging and we had to be very blatant before he realised what was going on and we were busted. 

So long sucker!

Online dating can be a hard and soul destroying thing to do. I've tried it a few times and met some lovely guys but the percentage of creeps/weirdos usually outweighs the good ones. Swiping left and right and is much more fun when done with a group of friends then sitting on your sofa at home alone. We had such a giggle. The night was a great success, we might not have scored the 3 meets each but we had so much fun trying. I highly recommend having your own Tinder night in!

Marathon Madness and Puppy Dogs!

Way back in April I entered the ballot for the London marathon after an amazing run with my club Pegasus. I hadn't even run a half marathon yet, or even more that 10K for that matter, but decided to do it anyway.

Yes I probably am!

I was 99% sure I wouldn't get a place as it's virtually impossible these day and I was right, I didn't get in. A lot of people found out by receiving one of 2 magazines, either the bumble bee for accepted or Spiderman for rejection. I received neither. Nope, I''m not worthy of a magazine apparently! Booooooooooooooooo!

I decided to say sod it to the London marathon and hello to the Manchester marathon on 10th April 2016! As it turns out, quite a lot of my Pegs didn't get into London either and are doing Manchester instead so it's going to be a club weekend away.

ROAD TRIP!!

I have already drafted a marathon training plan that has me running 4 times a week plus cross training once a week, I'll do either yoga or spin or both depending on how busy my week is.

I've also decided to raise money for charity and have chosen Friends of the Dogs (www.friendsofthedogs.org.uk). They work closely with Cardiff Dogs Home, local rescues and other animal welfare charities to help stray and abandoned dogs in Wales find their forever homes. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm crazy about dogs and wish I could rescue many more but I can't so want to raise money for them instead.

Awwwwwwww!

So this is where you come in kind people who read my blog! I shall be setting up a charity giving page in the next couple of weeks and will start to promote my fundraising. I will be eternally grateful if you can spare some pennies to help me raise money for this amazing charity. Your reward will be hearing me moan about my marathon training, how much it hurts and how hungry I am from now until 10th April 2016!

I shall keep you updated on my marathon training progress and how my fundraising is going. Any donation, no matter how small, will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Dating in the 'Diff Part 3

I haven't written a blog about my dating experiences in a while because I met a man and fell in love. Now before you say "awwwwwww" it all went to shit and I'm single again. There's still no need to say "awwwwww" though because I'm doing ok.

It all started when I was a bit bored over Easter and decided to sign up to POF (AKA Plenty of Fish) as some of my colleagues had told me it's where all the single people in Cardiff hang out. And they weren't wrong, I saw quite a few of the people I had dated or even just messaged with on match.com or Tinder so I quickly blocked them all and started my new online dating experience.

It reminded me that I hate online dating. It sucks. It can make you feel as high as a kite one minute and a self-conscious wreck the next. You have to be pretty damn self-assured to stick it out. 

I lasted 10 days but in those 10 days I chatted to a man and we agreed to meet up. I always try not to get my hopes up before the first 'meet' as people can be so different to their online profiles.

To cut a long story short, we met, we dated, we fell in love, we talked about sharing the future together, we made promises that we probably shouldn't have made yet then eventually our differences started to show and the issues caused weren't fixable. I won't go into details as that's not fair on either of us but recently I made the decision to end it. It was horrible and heartbreaking but I know deep down that it was for the best. He is a lovely man but I'm not the one for him and we both deserve to find our 'one'.

Although I'm sad and feeling hurt by the whole experience, I'm actually proud of myself too. As soon as I realised that things weren't going to improve and the issues would always be part of the relationship, I decided to end it instead of fearing that any relationship would be better than no relationship. Old Sara would have clung on for dear life rather than be single. This Sara is not afraid to be single and sometimes feel a bit lonely, she knows her own worth and that being in no relationship is better than being in one that isn't working. Sometimes I can't believe how much I've changed over the last 18 months.

So it's just me and my gorgeous boy again for a while. 

I'm sure running shoes count!

I'm going to focus on me. I've just signed up for the Manchester marathon in April 2016 so need to sort out a training plan and stick to it. This will involve a lot of running, eating, aching, sleeping and feeling a whole range of emotions. It's going to be awesome!

Yeah I am!

I'm going to spend more time seeing friends and having fun. My first year in Cardiff was pretty lonely but this year I've made more friends and become part of a running club family. I feel so grateful as I have a fantastic circle of amazing people in my life who are all extremely supportive of me and believe in me. 

I was shopping a couple of months ago and came across a pink notebook with gold writing on the front that simply said "Believe in yourself" and I knew I had to buy it. I got it home but quickly realised I had no idea what to write in it. It suddenly felt like I didn't know how to believe in myself any more so I put it to one side and left it there. 

Recently I was watching a documentary and I heard a Doctor say she used to write "I accept myself unconditionally right now" on the bottom of every prescription she gave out as she was aware that so many people just didn't accept themselves. I know I've let my self-esteem slip recently and know that I'd never actually got to a point where I felt like I accepted myself but I really, really want to. That quote was the first thing I wrote in my new notebook and now it's time to focus on me, to prioritise me, to believe in myself again. 

Cardiff Half Marathon... I Nailed It!

On Sunday I ran the Cardiff Half Marathon! I did it! I nailed it and it was awesome!

My excitement started on Saturday morning while having a cuppa with some of Pegasus after parkrun. Most people were nervous but I was already feeling like it was Christmas Eve. I kept myself busy all day and had an early night, I surprisingly slept really well so woke up at 5.30am feeling refreshed and ready to rock the run.

I posted a quick message on the Pegasus Facebook club to make sure they all knew how excited and giddy I was then got up.

I thought I should warn them!

My morning of getting ready went a bit like this... pee, sort my dog out, pee, eat breakfast, pee, take a shower, pee, drive to work to park my car, pee and then I walked over to the museum.

13.1 miles were waiting for me

I met my awesome running family, Pegasus, for pre-run chitchat and giddiness.

One very excited Peg!

After a while it was time to pee again then we all lined up ready for the Pegasus pre-run photo. As usual, a few Les Croupier runners jumped in on our fun.

Say Pegs Rule!

After the photo and then 7th toilet stop, we walked over to the baggage tents to dump our bags and made our way over to the starting pens. We passed a couple of important signs on the way.

*gulps*

I want to go there now!

Myself, Katie, Natalie and Clare were all starting in the yellow pen as we'd estimated our completion times as 2 and a 1/2 hours upwards when we signed up to the race.

The race officially started at 9am but we knew it would take a little while for us to get to the actual start as 23,000 runners had entered.

I'm in there somewhere

The first selfie of the day

Just a few people in front of us

A short wait later and we were moving closer and closer to the start. Everyone was very excited and nervous, there was music playing and so we had a little dance to keep warm and buzzing.

If you squint you can see the start!

We were at the start before we knew it and on our way. Natalie and Clare run quicker than Katie and I so we all shouted good luck to each other and they disappeared into the crowd.

Can you spot me??!!

The first mile of any run for me is usually torture as my body tries to remember how to function and questions WTF I am doing to myself. The first mile of the Cardiff half was amazing, the route was lined with people cheering us on and it flew by. We ran pass my friend Michelle's house and she was in her front garden waiting to wish me luck.

At some point during the next mile, a complete and utter psycho on a push bike decided to cross the road and weaved in between all the runners. He had a pink suitcase balancing on his handlebars and nearly rode straight into Katie. I have no idea how he didn't hurt someone. What a total idiot! 

My thoughts exactly Jackie

The following few miles went so quickly. Katie kept a close eye on our pace to make sure we didn't get carried away and ruin our game plan. We'd trained all year for this day and didn't want to take any chances.

The crowd were out in force and it felt so surreal. We were actually running the Cardiff Half marathon. We were doing it! The miles ticked by and very soon we were coming up to the barrage at Cardiff Bay.

As we ran over the barrage we passed the Royal Welsh soldiers and a couple of firemen, it was time for a hottie hunting selfie.

Spot the hotties!

The halfway mark came and my knees were starting to ache a bit, I've never had knee pain while running before so this was new! I decided to ignore my body and just keep focusing on the amazing crowd and atmosphere of the day, I was on a runners high.

One of the best things is to see someone you know in the crowd. It's awesome and as we ran up to Cardiff Prison we saw my man so I ran over for a quick kiss then we ran up Fitzalan Place and spotted Andrew and Helen, our fellow Pegs.

Hallelujah!

The next few miles ticked on by and we were soon running towards Roath Park. I did a lot of my training around this area so I was very happy that this was part of the route and towards the end of it as well. 

Mile 11 and the final water station

The last mile of any long run is very hard and it seems like it will just go on forever. This wasn't the case at the Cardiff Half, we were soon running passed the 13 mile marker and the finish was in sight. As we got closer we passed my man again and then I saw my best friend Lynn. I was so happy that she was there to watch me cross the finish line, she has been my biggest cheerleader over the last 18 months and I felt very emotional that she was watching me achieve this.

The finish got closer and closer and we picked up our pace. We didn't have enough in us to do a sprint finish but we finished our 13.1 mile run in style! It took us 2 hours, 43 minutes and 13 seconds - a new PB as it was our first half marathon.

WE DID IT!!

We picked up our t-shirt and medal then went to get our bags and make our way back over to the museum to meet the rest of the Pegs, they're quicker than us so had already finish. There was lots of hugging and then we were ready for our after photo. 

Happy and tired Pegs

Can't. Stop. Smiling!

A lot of the Pegs started walking over to the Urban Tap House where we were meeting for food. I stayed behind to chat to my Besty, Lynn, and her husband for a bit then Steve, my man and I decided to wander through the runners village on the way over to meet the others. We stopped at the Brooks stand as we'd heard that they were giving away blue shades. I asked what I had to do in order to get free stuff and the Brooks lady handed me an iPad where I filled out my name and email address, I was then able to help myself to the goodies on the table. She also said I could have a go in the lucky dip. I dug into the bin and pulled out a ping pong ball with a picture of a little trainer on it. I had won a pair of trainers. I WON A PAIR OF BROOKS TRAINERS!! Brooks are an excellent running brand and come with a larger price tag than I usually look at, I'd probably never be able to afford to buy myself a pair and now I was getting some for free! 

My goodies and winning ticket!

Damn right!

We stopped off at a couple of other stands and picked up free chocolate then went to join the others. My amazing Besty Lynn and her lovely hubby had given me a gift bag full of pressies before they left, a couple of them weren't wrapped so I dug them out and put on my new tiara and held up my trophy.

Running Princess

We all stuffed our faces and then piled in for another group photo. We never tire of taking photos!

Fed and happy!

Race stories were shared and arrangements for celebratory drinks later that evening were made. It was time to go home and relax for a while, maybe even have a little nap.

My medal and t-shirt!

When I got home I had a hot bath then made a cuppa and opened my pressies

Ooooooooo I wonder what they are!

Lynn knows me so well. Sweets, chocolate, bath bomb and a smelly candle. Result!

Best post-run pressies ever!

Winston had stayed home and his dog walker had popped over to walk him for me so I didn't have to rush back. He always likes a photo with my new medal... a bit too much in this case!

My boy!

I think this is the nicest medal I have received so far and I am so chuffed that the Roath Park clock tower is the feature of it.

My beautiful medal

The Cardiff Half marathon was more amazing that I could've ever thought possible. I was completely overwhelmed by the whole event. A year of training paid off and I was able to enjoy the phenomenal experience. Katie and I laughed and chatted the whole way round the route which just added to it. The organisation of the race was out of this world and the crowds cheering us on were incredible. 

I am so proud of myself. A year ago I crashed and burned. I have never been as low as I was then and I never imagined how different my life would be now. People say that life is full of highs and lows and I've experienced my lowest low and my highest high within a year of each other. I love my life. I actually love myself and that is one thing I never thought I would do. 

I still can't believe I did it, I completed the Cardiff Half marathon and I totally nailed it!!