Get Active Truro – warm up!

On Wednesday the 1st of  June during the half term week we headed into Truro.  Get Active Truro held a short two day event – a burst of activity in Truro for you to discover something active and fun.

Get Active Truro is part of the wider initiative – Get Active Cornwall, organised through Cornwall Sports Partnership and supported by Totally Truro, the Truro Business Improvement District.  The event linked into the national campaign ‘This Girl Can‘ developed by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations. A celebration of active women up and down the country who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets.  Its aimed at us all and encourages us to do fitness and the benefits we feel from it.  Get Active Truro is for everyone.

Whirlwind Sports did a great campaign offering 20% off during the two day event.  It was great to see them on board getting behind the #thisgirlcancampaign.  Whirlwind Sport have the latest clothing, shoes and equipment to choose from.

There were a host of different organisations and businesses giving out advice, demos and having fun, including : West Coast Clear, Belly Bolly Dance, Golf England, 4funxsake Youth Dance, Children’s Hospice, Cornwall Outdoors, Why Dance, Footsteps of Discovery, Truro Canoe Club, Cornwall BMX, Cornwall Womens and Girls Rugby, National Trust, Anytime Fitness, Koncept Gym, Stringers Gym, Intelligent Fitness, Bodeeworx, Heart FM, Tempus, Race for Life and Cornwall Yoga Centre.

Rowan Maidment-Windsor with Caitlin Fava, doing Judo at the 2016 Get Active Truro event on Lemon Quay.

Dancers from 4FS performing at the 2016 Get Active Truro event on Lemon Quay.

My children particularly enjoyed the Footsteps of Discovery team who taught them how to make a fire.  These survival skills give us a sense of confidence, respect of nature, discipline and enjoyment.  We hope to visit them  in Grampound Road woods soon.

Karl Hammond lighting a fire by frction with a bow drill at the 2016 Get Active Truro event on Lemon Quay.

My eldest loved the music and dance fitness routines with pom poms!  It was great to see the quay buzzing, alongside the Truro Farmers Market.  People were shooting some hoops and trying out the inflatable kayaks.  Koncept Gym was there from Newquay and did you know that during the week day they offer free childcare for an hour while you do your workout at the gym or do a class.

After our visit on Lemon Quay and play with some of the hula hoops and weights, we had the essential merry go round ride, followed by lunch at Sonder Cafe Bar.  Mocktails all round, bunny chow with an assortment of ‘lite bites’ for the girls.

Sonder Cafe Bar

Raymonds Merry go Round

The next Get Active Truro is from the 15-19th August.  This will be the 6th year on Lemon Quay with plenty of FREE activities on offer!   ‘Get Active Truro’ promises something for everyone and you don’t need to be super sporty to join in; it is about getting active but also having fun… and all the events are free! Make sure to use the hashtag #getactivetruro

Santa Night Run in Truro

This year I decided to take part in the Cornwall Hospice Care, Santa Night Run in Truro during the first late night of shopping in Truro on the 25th of November – for fun!  Cornwall Hospice is a Cornish charity who offers hospice care to patients and their families.  These patients are very sick and often terminally ill.

The weather was perfect, no howling wind or lashing rain – only a moon and a few clouds.  I had only decided to sign up for the event the day before it started.  Registration was simple and easy and was open from 5.30pm in Boscawen Street, at the back of the Hall for Cornwall.  I received my Santa outfit, with rather large red trousers.  I arrived early and put my outfit on over my shorts.  Shorts seemed to make sense, as the website did indicate that the outfit did make you get very hot!  I decided to enjoy Truro and went to the Scentstore in Cathedral Lane to find a gift.  I kept on wondering, why people were looking at me and children pointing saying ‘There is Santa’. (I forgot I was wearing the Santa outfit!)

All one hundred and twenty of us started warming up outside the Market Inn Bar on Lemon Quay, next to the inflatable and extremely large Santa, as well as Ruan the Reindeer.

By 8pm we were off at quite a speed and the crowds stepped back, as bells rung out through the streets of Truro.  It was not easy running with my handbag – note to self (must leave behind next time). A short one mile circuit round Green Street, Princes Street, Boscawen Street, St Nicholas Street, River Street, Little Castle Street, Kenwyn Street and passed the gentle grazing reindeer (Sponsored by Malletts Home Hardware) on Victoria Square before returning on Lower Lemon Street.

On approaching the finishing line, I tripped in my Santa trousers and had to think…… was that due to the mulled wine drunk before the event or my large trousers!

After the run Cornwall Hospice generously gave us a medal, banana, water and a mince pie!  The evening rose £2’700 for Cornwall Hospice.  It is a great family event and I witnessed several families all jogging together for an amazing organisation that cares.

Stinky Trainers – Truro Half Marathon

At the start of the year, I decided to put my name down for the Truro half marathon. I wanted to do the half marathon as a challenge and to get fit. I then told my boss, and couldn’t back out!

I started to train in June with short distances of a few miles, and then progressed to longer and longer training runs. I enjoyed the fresh air, the smell of summer flowers and how well I slept at night. One surprising thing I discovered was that jogging is a great way to clear your head, and get straight your minds ‘to do’ list. As part of my training, I did the ROC 5km Truro race and really enjoyed that.

Before I knew it, race day arrived! The Truro Half Marathon is number 13 in the Cornish Grand Prix series. The race started on Lemon Quay at 9.30am, in Truro City centre, where 518 runners took part.   A hard and hilly half marathon that did two short loops around the historic and beautiful City centre of Truro before heading out towards Playing Place via the Newham Trail and the hamlet of Calenick.

On from Playing Place the course headed towards Feock, passing the Punch Bowl and Ladle (which I did think of popping into whilst jogging). Then a scenic and steep off-road descent back took us towards Porth Kea, then to Playing Place before returning to the finish in the city centre via the Newham Trail. It was a beautiful autumnal run and the weather was perfect. The race took us through a few muddy paths, past mossy trees, streams and forests. It was beautiful to be running amongst the farms and through the fields, just on the verge of our great little City of Truro. The event was well organised and ran so smoothly. There were stewards and water stations with volunteers and a well-marked and thought out route.

The main sponsors included Truro businesses Goundrys Estate Agents, Charles French and Co. Solicitors and Cornwall Glass and Glazing Limited

The winner Colin Snook, won in one hour and fifteen seconds! The first female was, Zelah Morral who completed in one hour and twenty four minutes. I managed to complete the race in a magnificent two hours, forty nine minutes and seven seconds. I was ninth from the back, but I finished!

Despite having never really ran before, I really enjoyed the Truro Half Marathon and I would encourage anyone to have a go next year!