Here at The DM Lab, we like to work hard and play hard. Outside of work we are a pretty active bunch. Football, gym, swimming, running, cycling and surfing – if it makes you sweat we’re pretty much going to be doing it after work or at the weekend!
One of our passions is running, and since today is Running Day, we’re going to bore you to death with our year so far in the world of running!
We decided that in 2015 we were going to push ourselves and step up our training to the next level. This meant entering events regularly so that casual runs wouldn’t drop off, but rather kept us motivated and training for the next.
January signalled the first month of training, although we didn’t enter any events, we used the month to make sure our distance running was to a level that we could enter and compete in events with decent times and standings. We kicked things of properly in February…
February
First event we entered was the Mud Runner Ice Breaker 10 at Eastnor Castle. Yes, we jumped in at the deep end with this one! 6 odd miles of arduous hilly, muddy terrain with lots of cold, muddy water. Despite the tough course and nippy weather, we completed the race with pretty decent times. By no means was it easy!
March
We got stuck straight into March – on Sunday 1st we ran the Almeley 10k – a nice 6 miles between 2 beautiful villages of Almeley and Eardisley. Couple of weeks later we entered the Pendock Spring Chicken Run – a nice run around the countryside of Pendock in Worcester in a multi terrain race.
April
April was pretty full on. Kicking off with the Tupsley 10k. Where we can we do our best to support local events and this was perfect. Starting with a run the Central Tupsley Community Group had organised a fun day to follow which we went to and had a great time. Next up this month was the Swimathon. This really tested us. We can swim – but we just don’t make a habit of it, which really made this a challenge for us. We raised over £150 for Marie Curie Cancer Care and for those who sponsored us – we did you proud. It was hard! A week later we were back on the road again for the Abergavenny 10k. Busy month!
May
May was a month we had been building up to. It was the month of St Michael’s Hospices’ Hereford Half Marathon. All of our training runs and all the previously entered events had been building up to this. This would be our first major challenge of the year so far. Absolutely no disrespect to any of the 10k or 5k races we had entered – the competitive element helped us to push ourselves rather than tootle along on our practise runs. Plus we love the buzz you get on race day! To this point, none of our training runs had topped 9 – 10 miles so this would be a challenge. It’s not the first time we have done it, but this time we had prepared for it. Despite cramp and some niggly injuries (stress fractures & PT) we finished but not as quickly as we would have hoped. Still a great day and as usual a hell of a challenge! A week later we were back in action taking part in the Northleach 10k – a trail run around the lovely Gloucestershire village of Northleach. Still suffering from the half marathon the previous week, plus the injuries we had picked up made this 10k a real, REAL challenge! We completed it though and as usual enjoyed our day out!
June
There or there abouts we are half way through the year, and after having a well earned 3 weeks from competition running, we’re running in the Worcester 10k on Sunday and the Sunday after that we’re running in the Sanlam Go Dad Run race also in Worcester to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer.
With the other half of the year comes new challenges. We’ll write another blog about our exploits at Christmas. Almost like a ‘running blog part 2’. We’ve got plenty more events in mind so will have plenty more to write about. Diversifying a little, whether it’s duathlons, triathlons, cycling or running, we’re looking forward to it!
