Feature /// Staff challenges
SHAVE 10 MINUTES OFF MY HALF-MARATHON TIME AMY ROBERTS, ADVERTISING SALES “Well, after what was a very long week with my husband having a knee operation, poorly children and lack of sleep, I knew this half-marathon was going to be a case of ‘mind over matter’. On the Wednesday before the event I hurt my back, but thankfully Nina from Redlands Chiropractic Clinic squeezed me into her busy schedule to relieve the pain. I also used doTERRA deep blue rub to help soothe all the muscles. I was prepped with my nutrition and warm-up routine thanks to my personal trainer Dani K, so I was determined nothing was going to stop me from getting to the start line. The Rutland Water Half Marathon was a very well organised event with easy parking, and great communication before and on the day. We registered and got our chips and numbers with ease, stretched and warmed up in the rain but everyone was in great spirits despite the weather and were raring to go. Counting down to 10am we were off.
Starting at the bottom of a hill was tough, but we got to the top and carried on the course from Whitwell around the peninsula and back. The course was hard with lots of hills, but it was a fantastic sense of achievement to sprint downhill to that finish line with my running mate Paul Phillips, despite every part of me hurting. A medal, t-shirt and lots of food and drink at the end was a good sight indeed. After leaving the finish tent we went to get the print-outs of our times and I couldn’t believe it – I did it in two hours 21 minutes, which is nine minutes quicker than my last halfmarathon time. I didn’t think I’d make it to the start, let alone finish and beat my time. I would like to thank everyone who supported me and listened to my moans and groans. Is there a second challenge of the year? I’m not so sure, but maybe by the time of our June issue I might have come around to the idea of a new one!”
Climbing back to the top of the eventing ladder JULIA DUNGWORTH, EQUESTRIAN CORRESPONDENT “With the cancellation of our next run, Gala and I managed to sneak a cross-country lesson with Caroline Moore at Vale View. This was a first for me and only the second cross-country lesson of my life. Gala took it all in his stride and really impressed Caroline with his boldness and his willingness to jump between the red and white flags. However, his exuberance can still make distances very short, so after a conflab we agreed that we should teach him to take life a bit slower and that I should continue to run him slowly so that we can achieve our ultimate goal of Blenheim 8 & 9 CIC*** next year. Then it was on to Belton for his first big run. Finally the weather was on our side and despite all our blizzard training through the winter, he still behaves much better when there is no wind. Belton was amazingly still and he produced his best test to date for a score of a 34, with still so much more to give as I felt that I rode him too politely. The showjumping was a little disappointing, having
an early rail made him shoot off and caused him to be a little flat collecting another two rails. On to the cross-country, where Caroline’s lesson earlier in the week made him a lot calmer and rideable for a lovely clear over a very tough track. Gala jumps very powerfully over fences so we also decided after seeing the above photo from Belton that maybe it was time for a new hat as I spend half my round one handed pushing out it of my eye line – well it was my birthday after all!”
WANT TO TAKE UP A CHALLENGE? Just email steve@ theactivemag.com with the subject line ‘TeamActive Challenge 18’ with what you are planning to do and when, and then we’ll give you some dates when we’ll need short monthly updates, and we will feature you in the magazine, and hopefully give you some much needed inspiration to keep going! It can be a fitness, wellness, sporting or self-improvement goal – we’d love to hear about your challenge.
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