Isn’t it funny how good ideas come to you when you run?

I got an email this week to say that Duffrunning has been nominated for the 2018 Running Awards, following being shortlisted into the final 12 (out of about 80 blogs) this year. This is lovely and once again I’m dead chuffed! Apart from it being a nice thing I got to meet some great fellow members of the running blogosphere and they’re a brilliantly supportive little gang on Twitter.

As I’m not going to be near my laptop for the next few days to be able to write anything new, it occurred to me on tonight’s dreich and dreary midweek 10k that this might be a good opportunity to revisit a few post which you may not have seen and which between them show what this blog is all about. Some of these would be new to recent followers, and some are from the days when noone was reading this drivel but me.

On the whole I try to avoid technical ‘I ran this many miles at such and such pace, here are my negative splits to prove it’ posts (partly because I don’t often run negative splits). I might chuck a post-run picture of my Garmin in if I’ve had a really good one, but not as a general rule.

Instead I like to write about the fun things that we all enjoy about running, which fall broadly into a few categories.

There are race reports such as the race which started this blog in the first place, the Rome Marathon, my ode to London from earlier this year or last September’s love letter to my gorgeous local race, the Ealing Half Marathon.

Sometimes I’ll do kit reviews; Oofos Recovery Flip Flops and skorts in general have had the Duff treatment. Standby for more on this as I’ve since discovered the actual best running skirt ever and it’s almost dark enough to try out those Million Mile battery-less lights I got at last year’s running awards!

Now and then I’ll write a longer read on a more serious subject, such as body image, what running can do for our mental health or how it can empower women.

Occasionally I even try to be funny or poetic – see this piece about just appreciating the run, or alternatively on when you really don’t feel like running, or this surely Nat Geo worthy epistle on that exotic creature, the Spring marathon runner at the start of the season.

And finally I do actually give running tips now and then for those of us who love to run and want to improve but aren’t breaking any land speed records, including marathon tips for normal people part 1 and part 2, the benefits of joining a club or having a go at track, and the most important tip of all – why you should try running to Disney songs!

So if you’re new, missed some of these, or fancy a re-read I hope you enjoy them. If you do, please consider popping along to the Running Awards website and clicking that Vote button.

Ta muchly, and thanks for continuing to read my ramblings!