Vintage Girl Running

After 10 years, why am I putting myself through the grow out pain? I've had my hair short for almost 10 years... It's seems crazy to think that it's been that long, but even in the couple of years before I went super short, my hair got progressively shorter. And now I plan to do that in reverse. If you watch as many grow out videos as I have (and trust me I've watched them all) you get pretty familiar with other people's horror stories... "Grow out your pixie cut is a horrible process" is the general consensus. But these people cut their hair and for the most part hated it. I, on the other hand, have loved my short hair - I've grown up with it and grown into it. For so long it’s been a symbol of who I am. I’ve said before that I don’t get much choice on whether I stand out and for a while I wasn’t entirely okay with that. Put simply, I am now. I have accepted that and embraced it. So why do it now? Why grow out my hair? I have two....

Welcome back to Vintage Girl Running and another year on Planet Earth! To say it's been a while is a bit of an under statement...  About six months, but who's counting. I've been back at work for about two weeks and I'm find my way back into it after not even two weeks off at Christmas. Christmas, what's that again? We'll have to wait another 11 months to find out. A lot can change in those 11 months and in 2019 I'm going to try and make them changes for the better.  I feel like I floundered a bit in 2018 ; somethings got good, like really good and others less so. Is happiness or enjoyment of life one of those spider web diagrams where you can only have an average value of happiness, but the parameters that make you happy can range wildly in values? Some are top notch and others are less than mediocre. But in the end they average out to a middling, happy-ish value. I moved for work last year and have kind of been using it as an excu...

Life is either a daring adventure of nothing at all.  - Helen Keller, The Open Door. For my 25 th  year on this earth I have challenged myself to do 25 things that I had never done before.  This week I’d like to tell you about: why I wanted to do this; the 25 challenges and where I am now with my 26 th  birthday looming next month. Variety is the Spice of Life I’m a very goal orientated person. I like to have a list to work through and check things off. This is when I am at my most productive. I also live for the thrill of an impending deadline – which explains why I chose to make this week’s post the least formed of the three ideas I had at the beginning of the week… Go figure! At one of my grad scheme events this year we did this personality profiling exercise; we answered a bunch of probing questions, learnt about the psychology behind the profiling and were finally given our personality colour profile. It turns out I am a fiery red-sunshi...

30 miles of the Lancashire and Cumbria’s wildest tracks, 4500 feet of elevation and 8 hours of spectacular views that make up for the effect the grueling terrain has on your body. Man vs. Lakes was way tougher than I anticipated, but  I rose to the challenge... Blood, sweat and tears. Sunset in Morecambe Last week heralded the second event in the Man vs. series and my third ultra distance race; the furthest I’ve ever run (and I use the term loosely) in one go. Man vs. Lakes is my local Rat Race event. Starting just up the coast from Morecambe and finishing in my home county of Cumbria. It’s a truly spectacular landscape and I should have known not to underestimate it. Miles of sand, sea and more sand… Route map missing the first few miles... We did in fact start on land The Morecambe Bay is something I get to appreciate on a daily basis; on my commute into work, from the top of the reactor building and in my regular running routes as it’s a stone’s th...

Truth Out Vintage clothing was a way of expressing who I wanted to be a few years a go, but it has really helped shape the woman I am today.  I've never really been one for convention... Although possibly not always through choice. Being 5' 11, I stand out a bit. When you are an insecure teenager and you're taller than all the boys ¬ it's a big deal. Especially in a world where we are led to believe small equals cute. Tiny dog, cute. Tiny girl and tall guy, cute couple. Tall girl and marginally shorter guy, double takes in the street. [Short tangent - Don't get me started on the clothes. High street shops jut don't cater for tall women. Short women, yes. Larger women, yes. Anyone over 5' 8, forget it. But here's where vintage has the advantage. Long hemlines were fashionable 50 years ago, much to my jubilation!] It's taken me a long time to feel cute in my own skin and I guess that is something that comes with age and experience, but this is def...

I never thought I'd ever be any good at running or even enjoy it. When I was younger, my sister was always the good runner, she had the legs for it... It wasn't until I was at uni and it was exam time, I thought what better way to procrastinate than running? Exam time running slowly turned into park running with my dad, when I was home to every Saturday morning of my own volition. I remember the first time I went on a long run with my dad, and my sister joined us, not to be out done. I'm lucky enough to call the Lake District home and so we were running round one of the smaller, but no less beautiful lake and I was out pacing her. Me, major geek Jennifer, beating my sister the cross country queen. Safe to say I haven't let her forget it!! Father daughter post park run selfie Things got really serious though when I met my partner. I'd wanted to do a mud run, obstacle course for ages. I'd tried to rope in my dad, my friends, my course mates at uni, but to n...