One challenge at a time

 Guest blog by Sam to start..... My thoughts on ‘Our Lap 2022’ A huge thanks to Lydia for letting me join her on ‘The Lap’ and contribute to her blog. The ‘Lap’ was a 47.79mile (76.91km) jog, run, hike, crawl, climb ultra-Marathon in the stunning lake district. I will leave Lydia to tell you the whole story (as she does this so well), I will simply share some of my post event thoughts with you. I loved ‘The Lap’, I hated ‘The Lap’, I would thoroughly recommend ‘The Lap’, but I will not be doing ‘The Lap’ again! I’ve never felt so stiff, sore or determined to finish anything in my life  I promise to never roll my eyes again when I hear that a footballer has a groin strain I found out that I prefer to climb up hills than down (how strange is that?) At an age greater than 45 but less than 50, I discovered that I like running It was amazing to see people of all ages, shapes, sizes and abilities take on this challenge The support shown to every single entrant by the event organiser...

  We sweated... we struggled... the legs turned to jelly.... And that was just lifting our kit into the car! For those that don't know... myself and Sam F have entered a little race.... A 47 mile ultramarathon around Lake Windemere.... to be completed within 24 hours. At the time of signing up last year it seemed like a great idea... and I didn't even twist Sam's arm to join me. As I remember it (she may remember it differently)... she volunteered to join me! I had decided to do some kind of running endurance thing as a gateway to other Adventure Races which usually involve running. This meant a huge mindset chamge for me... from 'I don't run' to I can run a little. For most people it might have been a sensible idea to first enter a 5K or 10K race first... nope not us! Neither of us have run a marathon... or a half marathon... or even a 5k race before and it is a big source of amusement to me that we went straight for the ultra. There is some logic in the CraZy....