Road to Pontevedra – Chapter: A PB in the Pouring Rain

Today was one of those days where the entire identity of being a mum-athlete collided with the reality of racing. Castle Combe Christmas 10k, Sunday morning — and the weather was absolutely biblical. Torrential rain, mud, puddles deep enough to lose a shoe in… the full festive experience.

And yet… PB. 46:49 - 4th in age group. and 13th female overall. In early December. On tired legs. In a storm.

What most people won’t see behind that PB is the absolute chaos leading up to it.

I didn’t look after myself well at all on Sunday. I had my daughter doing her mile, my coaching client completing her benchmarking, Francis in the buggy, the dogs in tow — and in the middle of keeping everyone organised, I didn’t even get a chance to warm up. So the first mile felt, honestly, ouchy.

There’s such a conflict racing with kids:You want them to be inspired… to find it fun… to feel part of it.But what I actually needed was to be a bit selfish and take myself off for a jog and some strides.

Imagine if I’d warmed up.

And then, in the way only family life can orchestrate, I finished absolutely drenched, opened the car to my carefully packed protein… and completely forgot to drink it. Because Andy’s parents had come to watch — Castle Combe is halfway to theirs — and naturally we ended up sitting around in soaking wet clothes for an hour, having a cuppa, shivering and laughing at the madness of it all.

But despite everything, the run itself felt calm. Controlled. Intentional.

7:35/mi average in those conditions, with a 7:06 mile tucked in there — that’s not a fluke. That’s a reflection of months of showing up, even when life feels like spinning plates.

My coach said to me afterwards, “Maybe not getting in our own heads too much is the key?”And there’s something in that. When you strip back the drama, the weather, the missed warm-up, the kids, the buggy, the protein, the wet clothes… what’s left is just the running. You lean into the rhythm, keep your effort honest, and let the fitness do what it’s been quietly building towards all year.

People think PBs happen when everything goes perfectly.But sometimes they happen precisely because it didn’t.

As I stood there afterwards, soaked, freezing, buzzing, with my Saucony Endorphin Pro 4s like paddling pools, I realised something:This is part of becoming the athlete who will line up at Worlds in 2026.

Not because of the time — but because of the resilience underneath it.

Progress doesn’t always look glamorous. Sometimes it looks like a soggy mum of three, wrangling kids, dogs, a buggy and a coaching client in the rain… and running her fastest 10k yet.

Today was exactly that. And it mattered.