I have been back in the UK for over a month now. My Great British training regime started well: I ran from my parent’s village in the Conwy Valley to picturesque Rowen and back again. I did the five mile round-route in 45 minutes. I felt good. I felt like I could carry on. I’m improving! A couple of days later, my co-founder Rob and I took on Snowdon. I’ve climbed Snowdon many times but this is the fastest I have ever climbed it. We summited in 1 hour 50 minutes – not too shabby a time. We took up the Rangers Path – it’s up-hill all the way with little respite. The weather was not on our side either – sheets of rain and strong winds buffeted us, making it even more of a struggle to get up. But if you are in the Welsh hills, wind and rain is a given. I barely noticed it. All I thought about was I wanted to get up in less than two hours and I did.

Rob and I have moved to Rob’s home town of Southport for the summer – a stop-gap while we decided where to go next. Southport is a seaside town on the south banks of the Ribble Estuary, opposite Blackpool. It’s a very flat part of the world; not ideal for training for an uphill endurance race. However, there are sand dunes, which has been a blessing and a curse.

The Burkdale and Ainsdale sand dunes are beautiful – covered in wild flowers, little ponds, and full of fauna, which I feel that I must terrify when I run through the dunes. The rabbits, birds and insects scatter as I run past. I feel like some disturber of the peace. However, it is the only place with any kind of elevation and I haven’t been able to get to Wales as often as I like. The only issue with sand dunes that they have rabbits are rabbit holes. I’ve gone down a few of them, and not in a cool Alice in Wonderland way. No, there were not any Mad Hatter’s tea parties here… just sprained ankles and shin splits.

Not knowing I had shin splits, and worrying a little about that pain in my shin, I went and competed in Run Fest Wales 10K race in Rhyl. My aim was to do 10k in under an hour. Six kilometres in and my left shin is really hurting, and then my right hip begins to ache painfully. I decide for better or worse I will carry on, and no matter what I will get to that finish line in under and hour. I made it to the finish line, the pain in my hips horrible, eclipsing the pain of the shin splints. I didn’t, however, make my target – I did it in 1 hour 3 minutes. Annoyed, I go back to the car with Rob to find out we have a parking ticket…

Training since then has been difficult. My shin splints meant I’ve had to take over a week off from running and instead I’ve tried out hot yoga and swimming. It seems to have improved and its time to hit the trail again. Hello sand dunes!