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Hello everybody. Well this is a first for me. I was surprised to be asked to write this for the EA website. Hopefully someone out there will read it but certainly my family, friends and perhaps one or two of my pupils at school, if I bribe them!

Sorry it’s long- it describes how I got to where I am now and sets the scene. My story started after New Year’s Eve with a League XC, full of food and drink and feeling sluggish, I struggled to win. Dear me, I needed to work on my base, to salvage a XC season. I cut down on mileage, made it a bit faster and well into February I started to feel like a runner. I went into the Nationals more confident and came fourth and then at the World Trials I hung on to Freya and Steph like mad and managed to hold on to third – just! Each week I noticed an improvement and runs were getting effortless. By the World Cross, I was probably three quarters of the way to what I could have been. I should have got going a bit earlier. So the season was cut a bit short for me. You may not be interested in the winter when the summer is well upon us but it is so important. It gave me a base for what is to come.

However, we all know that nothing ever goes to plan. I had a week off after the World Cross and three days into running, curses, I developed a spontaneous Achilles problem. I was able to keep running but could not do any hills or sessions for about four weeks – just what an aspiring track runner needs in April. Tons of ice and stretching later, I decided to test the Achilles with 10k in racing flats at the England Champs in Bristol. I went off very gingerly for 2k and the girls got away from me a bit but I gradually picked up and by the last half of the race I virtually equalled my 5k P.B. of 16:20, so I was pleased with a negative 5k split and my PB of 33:03. Next morning – agony. I don’t suppose the blokes cry with pain much but if you’ve ever experienced that pain when you get out of bed – it’s not nice.

Loughborough followed, after just over three weeks of sessions and those were mediocre, as I was afraid to get up on my toes. During the race I hung on, in the blistering heat. It wasn’t a plan, it was a necessity. When I sprinted in the straight, my mum said I looked like a windmill, arms and legs in all directions and pain etched on the face but a win is a win.

It was a third at Manchester in the BMC GP. That felt fast when we started but I closed the gap smoothly and had no trouble staying with the leaders, I just didn’t have the legs for an even faster sprint in. The gap was a second, so I was pleased with my 4:15. Now the work begins. The Achilles has been looked at and I have had my first physiological test in a couple of years. I have a lot of rehab to do but thanks to George Gandy and UKA for arranging appointments with the experts, I may salvage a summer season. Watch this space!

Listen to our podcast with Faye following her England 10k Champs victory

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