The response I had last week both in sponsorship and support was amazing. Friends, family, even randomers have all been so nice - my favourite moment of the week was when I returned to my desk at work one day and one of the facilities management people were standing right next to the pillar that I have my posters up on. He looked at me, realised it was my silly face on the posters and said 'It's you! I love this!" pointing at the posters.
The sponsorship is edging close to the big five oh oh and there is still four weeks to go - thank you everyone who has sponsored so far.
In other news, I now know my number for the day, it's a catchy one...! NINE FOUR EIGHT SEVEN! Pretty determinedly making up some chants for this as we speak, obviously.
I'm relatively surprised at the level of recovery my legs are churning out at the moment. With doing the long run on Saturday, I didn't have to run until Tuesday, but a combination of a nice spring evening and feeling relatively fresh meant I decided to go out on Monday.
I had a genuinely nice run cruising at well over nine minute miles and enjoying the sun setting. The first run of the week is getting gradually slower as the big weekend effort gets longer, and it was refreshing to get out.
The one slight issue that reared its head once again is the return of those shitty little flies that come out when it is a bit warmer. In my eyes, in my mouth, on my face.
SOD OFF.
Run #35 - Thursday 23rd March
Another week, another single member Run Club. Admittedly, I am becoming quite the diva in terms of when Run Club actually is. Soz. I've taken a liking to getting the monster run out the way on Saturday morning so that I'm not living in fear all weekend, which means Thursday is the day.
(Never mind the fact that there are a few gins to be consumed tonight making the prospects of Friday Run Club pretttttty bleak).
Anyway, as I drove in the weather was horrendous. Very cold and very wet. Thankfully, the rain stopped and it turned in to quite a nice morning - especially the section through the University campus.
I made a bold decision during the fifth mile of the run. Bad Romance is a top five pop song of all time. It is absolutely huge. It's true. I listened to it twice to be sure.
BANGER.
I also worked out that I only have 100 miles to go until D-Day, 40 of which are in two runs. Sooo... it's starting to feel like the last big push.
Which is EXCITING.
Run #36 - Saturday 25th March
Nine months ago I ran 17 miles as I prepared for the Berlin Marathon. Unfortunately due to my naive and haphazard training plan, my body couldn't take it and it caused the injury that put me on the sofa for four months. Until today, it remained the longest distance I have ever run.
Until today.
Today I ran NINETEEN MILES.
Whilst the plan said to run 18, I was spooked that next week I have to run 22. So running 19 this week makes that a little less daunting. I also learnt lessons from the misery 17 miles of nine months ago. That time I took no water and ran a pretty brutal, hilly route. I was in a BAD way by the end.
This time I took 2x energy packs for 6 and 13 miles, and dropped bottles of water off at similar distances beforehand.
I also welcomed running hero Julie to Run Club to keep me company for the first hour.
The weather was stunning for once and the first hour flew by. The second hour was ok, boosted significantly by having the energy packs and water. I asked my sisters to meet me around 16 miles so that was the next thing to aim for.
Last week we managed to raise £300 in 48 hours following the silly video that we did, so it made sense to do another one!
The frustrating thing is I spent most of the second hour thinking of funny things to say... but after 16 miles your mind doesn't work as well and you certainly don't remember much. But thank you to both my sisters for coming out for this, it gave me a huge boost.
Going beyond the 17 mile mark was a big moment in this whole thing. That number has been a bit of a mental block for a long time so to get beyond it (and by two miles!) is huge. Dare I say it, I could have gone on beyond 19 as well - once you hurt that much you might as well just carry on which is good to know before the real thing. That said, I've still not hit the wall...
Somehow the pace remained around the 8.30 mark. The last five miles felt like I was barely moving but it seemed to do the job. It bodes well for the last seven miles in London (I hope!).
Four weeks to go, one big run to go and we are nearly there. Thank you to all the continued support, it means a lot!
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