New Home

We're in!!! What a whirlwind that was! Bye bye Windermere Way, Hello Bolas Avenue!

Chris and I had been talking about moving on and off for years but it was never the right time. We've always kept an eye out in Hartlebury which is the village where Chris grew up and where he works and where his Mum and Dad live. But the property has always been so expensive and there hasn't been that much choice. When I was away for a weekend in Chester in July for Deva Divas Chris text me to say he'd looked round a show home at a new building site (Taylor Wimpey) in Hartlebury and that he thought we should reserve one. When he watts app'd me the pictures I agreed it looked amazing and started to envisage us already living there!

As soon as I got home we contacted Purple Bricks and got ours on the market. One viewing (I might add....led by me!) and we had secured ourselves some cash buyers and the full asking price. The rest as they say is history! I can't believe how quickly the time flew by and the weekend we got back from France, we were hurried into our new home!

4 bedrooms with one en-suite, a main bathroom, a downstairs loo, a family kitchen/diner with separate lounge an office and a nice little garden was everything we'd dreamed of! It will take some time to make it our own, but for now we're all very happy here!

Adventures in Wales

I had never heard of Mumbles before Hannah invited us to go and stay. My geography is pretty terrible anyway and my guess of it being 45 minutes away was a little inaccurate (more like a 3hour drive) but oh my goodness was it worth it! It's absolutely stunning! We managed to time the drive pretty well as Bobs and I instructed at Buggyfit on the Friday 10-11am and then drove straight from there which meant that Bobs had a nap from about 11-1230pm. Then we stopped for lunch at Starbucks which he absolutely loved...and then just another 90 minute drive to arrive at our destination.

Will and Hannah's house was lovely with such incredible views. We were so well looked after and made to feel so welcome and Bobs enjoyed exploring somewhere new! The Friday we just went for a little walk to get our bearings but this somehow ended up with Bobs crawling across the sand and beach into the distance making a right mess! He was absolutely loving it! When we got back we'd brought half the beach with us! It was no wonder Bobs slept well that night (he's not the best of sleepers in his travel cot). Then we were up early doors on the Saturday for the Swansea Bay Park Run. Unfortunately on this occasion Bobs couldn't join in as it was no buggies allowed so thankfully Will took on

childcare duty whilst Hannah and I ran as fast as we could to burn off last night's fajitas and wine! I was really chuffed with how I ran clocking 21:34.

After the run we had the chance to go for a little walk round Mumbles town itself which was beautiful. There are so many nice cafes and little shops. We also had an explore round the castle which was fun but a little tricky with the buggy! The Saturday night it was nice to chill after our days adventures and then with the big drive ahead on the Sunday we decided to just leave for home in the morning so we could get back to see Daddy.

It's safe to say the seaside....and in particular Mumbles....was a huge hit with Bobs. We can't wait to go again.

The Duo Normand

It's times like this that make me realise the only important thing in life is family. Spending time with my family away from the day job and the house work and the rat race is just simply awesome!

Chris and Phil had a big task ahead of them to try to retain their title at the Duo Normand in Normandy France having won it back in 2012. Although they've done nowhere near the training that they used to do, they now have lots of little eyes looking up to them!

The set up in France for a family holiday is ace. We went with Phil, Zoe and their kids Natalie & Elliot and also Andy, Caryl and their son Dyfan and then Andy O who was a Lone Ranger who had to put up with all of us and the kids!!!

The house was the same one we've stayed in a number of times before and it's just so big and spacious but better than that is all the safety and outdoor space it offers to the kids with a lovely big garden for them to explore, a swing, a play barn type thing and best of all a wheelbarrow....."Introducing Wheelbarrow Fit!"

Bobs was as good as gold the whole trip and really enjoyed having the time around the other children too. In future years when he's at school we might not be able to take him to France during these dates so it was great to make the most of it this year!

Oh and I probably should say, that Chris and Phil did win the event again! By something crazy like 6 seconds! I can't say the kids enjoyed the waiting around for the podium that much at the
end but nonetheless we're super proud of them!

Heartache and promises

I made a promise to Bobby to love him always, no matter what. For me, so far, it's been incredibly easy to fulfil that promise. I have never faultered, never waivered, never questionned, never doubted. I just have this heart that is so full of love that it might explode!

But I also made a promise to protect him. Protect him from harm, from hurt, from anything unpleasant. It breaks my heart a little bit that I can not fulfill that promise. Last week Bobby had his 12 month jabs; 4 needles (yes 4!!!) in his legs. What's worse was that I didn't go with him as I was working so my Mum took him. I felt terrible! I was consumed by guilt that day, frantically texting Mum to see how he was. Thankfully my Mum is amazing and took photos of Bobby on the swings and enjoying his day with her after the jabs so all seemed to be OK, but it can make him feel pretty rough for 2 weeks afterwards so he's been extra cuddly lately.

He's also teething really badly. I actually think there's a molar on it's way through as he couldn't get his thumb any further back to munch on!!! It must be so painful for him!

Then to top it off we fell up the stairs. I lost my footing whilst holding Bobby and we fell forwards. Of course I couldn't put my hands out to break the fall as I was holding Bobby so his head slammed into the edge of a step and it was the worst possible timing as we'd just had the carpet pulled up. Oh my God did he scream, and how I cried! What a horribly hideous day! We went straight to A&E and I still cried as I rocked him, how useless I was at keeping my second promise!

But it wasn't all heartache over the week. We had some pretty fabulous times too especially going to 2 birthday parties on Sunday (one was 1-3pm and the other 3-5pm - couldn't have timed it better if we'd planned them ourselves!) Bobby is pretty oblivious to other children at this stage - but does love dogs!! And he did find a random wooden garden toy that he played with on repeat over and over again.

We also enjoyed a lovely day in Bewdley with Bobby's Nanny Neen. Mum and I sat and had a cuppa whilst he climbed a hill, and then rolled down it. To us, it would literally be 2 steps, but to him it must have seemed so steep. We had a chuckle as he tried to crawl down it - his little legs had to move so fast so that he didn't face plant! For me, these are the best times with my son. The times that we just find joy in simplicty. Right there with a cuppa, and a hill. And although I can't promise to protect him, I can promise him that he will always be my world and I'll do my very best for him.

Bobby's First Birthday

Happy Birthday Bobby xxx

What is a one-year-old?

A one-year-old 
is so many things,
a tiny discoverer of butterfly wings,
a hugger of teddies,
a sweet sleepyhead,
and someone to dream for
in bright years ahead…

A special new person
who, right from the start,
has a place in the family
and, of course, in your heart.

And, just when you think
that you’ve learned all the things
that your dear one is
and the joy that they bring,
a hug or a grin
comes with such sweet surprise
that love finds you smiling 
with tears in your eyes!

How to spend a holiday in the New Forest

Our family Summer holiday was finally here! Just under 10 days in the New Forest in our very welcoming Barnwell L Swift (aka the caravan!). If I thought packing for a holiday was hard work, packing a holiday with a nearly one year old in the caravan with all our sporting equipment was a complete other story! 

Wheels! Apart from the wheels on the car and caravan we had 15 other wheels accompanying us (4 on the normal buggy, 3 on the running buggy, 2 on Chris's road bike. 2 on Chris's mluntain bike and 3 on the trailer!!).  Upon arrival in our campsite (Setthorns) we built the awning straight away simply so that we could store all of the things on wheels that literally fell out the car as soon as you opened the doors!

A standard British holiday meant it rained. Every. Single. Day! And our caravan pitch quickly became a mudswamp! Undeterred we simply moved pitches half way through the holiday (cue disassembling all the things and their wheels to move them too!). But despite that, just time with my boys, just the 3 of us as a family, was fabulous. See below to see how we filled our days:

Friday

Load the car. Travel. Get lost. Get annoyed with the satnav for trying to take you down ridiculously windy unnamed roads with the caravan on the back. Arrive. Unload the car. Put the awning up. Go for a 6 mile run to destress.

Saturday

Explore Lyndhurst. Realise that I've been here before (what are the chances!). Enjoy a cuppa and cake in a rather posh tea room. Run with Bobby in the buggy for 90 mins to burn off said cake!

Sunday

Take Bobby to the swings in Millford.  He loved it! Talk to Chris about having more children! Explore Lymington. Lovely place! Have a mooch round the shops. Go in a posh pub for lunch but realise it's far too expensive so have a drink and feed Bobby instead. Walk down to the marine and buy a £3 pasty. Get blown away! Swim 3km in the Lymington open water sea pool. Have the whole place to myself as it's raining! Sort of enjoy the swim, but feel like I'm missing out with Chris and Bobby and so would rather be with them.

 

Monday

Explore Portsmouth and climb up to the top of the Spinakker for the beautiful views. Enjoy a lunch in Tiger Tiger....yes that's right - I use the word enjoy as Bobby timed his nap perfectly to allow Chris and I time to enjoy our lunch and each other's company (admittedly we did spend the whole time talking about Bobby!). We also found a cool place where Bobby could have his hair cut! Ran 5 x 1 mile reps once we were back at the campsite to get a good sweat on!

Tuesday

Lots of walking! And exploring! Some sunshine appeared today! A little buggy run with Bobby too!

Wednesday

New Forest Fun! We won a prize! Thanks to tweeting a picture of ourselves enjoying the New Forest, we won a day of hiring mountain bikes (accompanied with a trailer for Bobs) and a canoe trip along the Bewley River! How exciting! So we were up and out early doors to be greeted by drizzle (you know the type that gets you really wet!). The mountain bikes were great but unfortunately Bobs hated the trailer. I'm not sure why, he normally loves it! We pedalled a bit quicker to get ot a remote little cafe which he enjoyed a lot whilst we dried out! We then made our way to our canoe trip just in time for Bobby's nap! Needless to say he got really upset, all he wanted to do was sleep whilst we stuffed him in a life jacket! I couldn't even cuddle/rock him to sleeo thanks to our big padded michelin style jackets! He eventually fell asleep on the canoe and I had one of those moments where I wished I could have just closed my eyes and had a nap too! The canoe trip was lovely though, we even saw a deer swimming!

Thursday

We met some friends on the Thursday morning at a cute little cafe and  had a good catch up. Then we went on to Bournemouth to explore where all of Bobby's dreams came true when he met Iggle Piggle! We also took him on a carousel which he enjoyed and then later to the laundrette!! He was in his element!

Friday

Our last day! Chris was desperate to visit the Bewley Transport Museum. It really wasn't my cup of tea....until we got there! I thought it was fab! I massively had underestimated what was in store and we spent a good 5 and a half hours looking round at all the different things, enjoying the skyride and open top bus too!

We ended up travelling home on the Friday night as we thought it would be easier for Bobby to have a sleep and miss the traffic etc.  So we rocked up home at near 11pm, curled up into bed and started to think about what on earth we were going to do on Sunday for Bobby's birthday!

 

Tuff Nutz 11

My journey of racing myself fit continued with last fortnight’s challenge of The Tuff Nutz Endurance Race. It wasn’t until the night before the race that I actually bothered to look at what it entailed! Described as a tough, dirty, wet endurance race of 11 miles in teams of 3 I thought it sounded tons of fun. I just keep forgetting I am not as fit as I used to be, and this was certainly harder than anything I’ve done before (apart from labour!).
At the start of the race we eyed up our competition (oh yes – despite not having a clue what we were doing, we were in this to win it!!) There was a brick that you had to carry from start to finish so we spent some time discussing our team tactics for that. Then we had a look at the first couple of obstacles: carrying a log each to a turnaround point, then a barrell, then a run through fire, then a scramble over and under a picnic table before climbing over the fence and running off into the distance. How hard could it be? I gave the girls a motivational talk “come on, we can do this – it’s all in the mind!”

Well in reality, I could barely lift the log at the start, almost got stuck under the picnic bench and once we hurled ourselves over the fence we charged hell for leather…..in the wrong direction!!! We soon got sent back by another team and continued to sprint randomly hoping for a divine intervention. In hindsight this makes me laugh so much – little did we realise that we’d actually be racing for over 2 and a half hours (YES – TWO AND A HALF HOURS FOR 11 MILES!) and that we would most definitely not be able to sustain anywhere near the pace we were running at! We quickly realigned our goals from ‘winning’ to ‘please dear God let me finish this’. Also, our plan to take it in turns to carry the brick soon went out the window when we realised that Jess was actually half super-hero so she carried it for 10.9 miles of the run!


The obstacles we faced ranged from carrying a boulder across the beach (not forgetting the brick), running over marshland and swamps (literally disappearing up to our waists), finding various numbers and adding and subtracting them (it is so hard to use your brain when you’re tired!), crawling under cargo nets (a high messy bun on the top of your head slows you down for this!), climbing over seawalls, shuffling along railings, getting from A to B by moving along crates, abseiling with ropes, filling up buckets and dragging it up hills (about 5 times), and so on!
Writing this now it actually sounds like fun. But it was hideously hard!!! I think Sophie and I were even close to tears at one point when we’d been running for over 2 hours, had no idea where we were (or more importantly what challenge was coming next)…..and literally exhausted from trying to keep up with bionic Jess and her brick!


There were also times when we’d get to junctions and see other teams consult their maps and course descriptions. What a great idea – only Jess had decided we didn’t need to bring that!!
Of course as soon as we saw the finish line, memories of exhaustion and hunger faded and the sense of achievement and adrenaline took its place. We shuffled over the line feeling rather smug and proud of ourselves…..all for one, and one for all! After a nice warm shower we enjoyed a picnic with some homemade ham butties, orange juice in wine glasses and a sweet potato birthday cake for Sophie. We then applauded the prize winners and found out we came third ladies team, (and 15th out of all teams) which was a super suprise.

A long drive home and I was then reunited with The Bobster. A thoroughly enjoyable day with lots of lessons learnt – namely don’t trust Jess with a map; read about the race before you enter; and good friends never let you do crazy things alone. Thanks Sophie and Jess….bring on next year!

Bobby's Christening

To Bobby

On your special day,

We have some promises for you

We promise to love you

In all that you do.

This love has no criteria

Is has no 'ifs' or 'buts',

We'll love you till the end of time

Even when you drive us nuts.

We promise to teach you to be kind

To help those who are in need,

To be generous and thoughtful

And see the good in every deed.

We promise to show you're own self worth

To teach you to be brave and strong

We promise to listen to all of your thoughts

And teach you right from wrong.

We promise to help you to win with dignity

And to accept defeat with grace

We hope that whatever life brings

You greet it with a smile on your face.

We promise to show you respect,

To teach you life skills to success

Whatever stage of life you're in,

We'll always be here - whatever you need.

We promise to tell you we love you

To let you know that we're proud

We'll whisper it in your ear

We'll shout it nice and loud.

When times get tough we promise to guide you

We'll be there whether you want to cry or laugh

We promise to support your decisions

And help you find your own path.

So we all hope you enjoy a journey of wonder

Love and friendship and joy

Of travels and books and challenges

A lifetime of happiness for our baby boy.

Love Momma & Daddy xxx

Running Revelation

I found having time off running (and sport in general) when I was pregnant such a frustrating feeling. I watched every runner that ran past my house like a hawk until they ran out of sight; every cyclist I drove past got an evil stare and I just couldn’t wait to get back to it.  Little did I realise that this time off was doing far more good for the soul than I could ever realise, particularly for my running!

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with running. From my triathlon days of holding on during the final run for dear life hating every second; to people telling me “well you know you’re not a good runner Sam”.  I had been using running as a punishment, “you need to be faster, you need to be stronger, you always lose it on the run”. I was using it as a way to prove to others (and to myself!) that I could run well.  But months after having Bobby, when I first put those trainers on and ran for 20 seconds without stopping something clicked.  I knew that I wasn’t truly done with running, because with a new healthy attitude towards it, I realised it was a tool that helped me feel fulfilled and empowered. Without being too cliche it made me feel alive and I wanted to keep it as an option that would always be available to me; to always have that opportunity to pull on a pair of trainers and just run.

My 20 second runs soon turned to 2 minute runs, and over time 20 minute runs. I’m now comfortably running for 2 hours. My 42 minute 5ks are now close to 22 minute 5ks.  Whats more is I am no longer afraid to run slow!  I don’t beat myself up if I don’t want to run one day, it’s not the end of the world if I get injured. I don’t care who sees me, I don’t care if I walk, I don’t care if I come last.  I love running again, in a far healthier way than I could ever imagine.  Essentially, and most importantly, I’ve learned to separate my self-worth from my performance. Because let’s be honest – the speed you run at doesn’t make you any more or less of a person than the person ahead or behind you.

So now what? Well, I’ve still got some adventures to enjoy that involve me, a lot of miles, and a great support network.  The Breca SwimRun totalling a marathon of running in my wetsuit springs to mind as one of the big ones!  But luckily I have a whole host of other responsibilites going on, the Bobster, Chris, a job, Kids Club, a mortgage and all the other things that come with adulthood. I see these responsibilities as great assets as they allow me to see running as an incredible outlet for balance in my life–instead of the the only thing in my life. Having a full life besides running makes me feel incredibly grateful for the times I can run; I enjoy pounding the trails and pavements far more than I ever did before. Running is something, that before, I used to take for granted.

I am excited to see where these legs (no matter how fast or slow) might take me next, and to do that with no attachment to the outcome. To do it simply because I love it.

Madeira

WOW! Madeira is far more stunning than I'd ever imagined! It's also far hillier!!! I was using this trip also as a chance to get back into my running but the uphills were too hard and the downhills were, well, too hard! So instead we enjoyed some R&R and explored the island. I particularly liked Funchal, a vibrant city with lots to offer. And the local 5* hotel which we had access to was just amazing, I've never stayed anywhere so posh!

Unfortunately our little villa had a pool that wasn't heated, so it was too cold to make the most out of that, but the actual set up was fantastic. We were tucked away and the views were amazing, even at night when the stars were out it was stunning.

Bobby wasn't quite himself in the week, he had gastro-enteritis which had left him poorly and meant we endured a few poo explosions whilst we were out and about which proved tricky. It also meant sometimes because he wasn't as content as usual we had to eat our lunch or dinner in shifts which was a shame.

But it was so nice to have some time away as a family and for Bobby to make use for the first time of his new passport! Bring on many more adventures together!