No Virgin London Marathon for me this year but does anyone want to run for Relate?

Yesterday I hurried home knowing that the results of the ballot for a place in the Virgin London Marathon for 2011 were out.  Half nervous, half scared and if there had been another half I would have been half excited too.

As soon as I walked through the post and saw a bulky package in my mailbox I knew that the VLM had cruelly rejected me.  Sadly this winter I will not be getting up at 7am on Sunday mornings to run through giant puddles, avoiding the remains of London's Saturday nightlife.  Yes, I'm a bit down but looking forward to the lie ins a head.

Last year I ran for Relate, a brilliant charity which supports people to have healthy relationships with workshops, counselling and online advice and guidance.  150,000 people use Relate every year and let's face it everyone has a relationship and sometimes the help of someone who is not in your family or a close friend can make all the difference and prevent a lot of heartache.  At its worst relationship breakdown can lead to homelessness, debt, depression and children in pain because their families have been torn apart.

Relate doesn't have a charity place for the Virgin London Marathon this year but they would love to have some people who have won ballot places to run for them.

If you are one of those lucky runners who have a ballot place for 2011 and would like to run for Relate please email fundraising@relate.org.uk

They would love to hear from you!

26.2 miles done!

And so on the 25th of April, in the year of 2010 I ran the Virgin London Marathon!  I didn't just run the marathon, I raced the marathon coming in at 4 hours, 50 mins and 53 seconds and beating a British Legion Fridge.

My legs are sore still but I'm wearing my medal with pride at work and enjoying a little bit more glory.  I wanted to share with you all some of the great moments of my marathon in thanks for all of your support.

The majority of the charity runners started off at Greenwich Park at the red start where we were subject to a bit of a downpour. This was reassuring after the week's weather stations had been forecasting temperatures of bright sunshine and 22 degrees.  The weather behaved itself beautifully in the end, throwing in the odd shower to cool us all off a bit.

I'd planned to run at about 12 minutes a mile but despite all my efforts to take it easy on the first few miles ran the first half in a quicker speed than I'd done the Milton Keynes half marathon in February.  My right leg gave me pain for about 7 miles and I needed the loo for 3 but then it all disappeared and i throughly enjoyed the amazing support and carnival like atmosphere provided by all the supporters lining the streets. There were families, children, charities, bands, pubs blaring out inspirational tunes. 

I did my best to look out for one of my work colleagues and her first at mile 9/10 but missed our Relate balloons and wasn't until mile 19 that I spotted my sister-in-law to be who managed to get the next couple of snaps.  It was an enormous boost which got me round the next few miles at a decent speed.

Lots of water and sports drinks and some carbo gels helped kept me fuelled and helped me keep up with the Camel (we don't talk about the fact that the camel finished 1 minute faster than me cos I beat the fridge).

When I got to mile 22 I realised I still had an hour left to finish and that it really didn't matter if I went a bit slower and I came out onto the embankment at mile 23 determined to see another of our supporters but alas there were just too many people out there.  It was enough to know that someone was cheering me one and lots of people were shouting out my name from my tee-shirt and "Relate" - was great to get some call outs for the charity.

At mile 24 I spotted, like an oasis in the desert, a big bunch of Relate balloons all shiny and white with our logo on.  Holding the balloons were a couple of my very good friends who had come out espescially.  I grabbed a ballon and took it with me but sadly it fell off it's stick after a few metres.

After this I knew I was flagging but close to the end and I tried to keep my pace up for a good finish.            I was snapped again at mile 25!

And then there was the finish!  I summoned up some extra energy and tried not to cry as I passed over the finish line!  In all the excitement we forgot to take a photo at the end so my final snap was taken in the office today.

In all it's been an amazing experience which truely was about the taking part.  Thanks to the wealth of support I've raised over £2,000 for Relate.  So the biggest thanks in the world to you all out there.  A couple of people have asked if it's too late to donate - the answer is a big NO!  The lines as they say will stay open for a couple of months so please feel free to click in the Virgin Money Giving link on this page.

THANK YOU MY RELATE LONDON MARATHON FAMILY!  YOU ARE ALL AMAZING!

(my final shout out!)

Here comes the sun and 26.2 miles!

Today, as I write we have yet another glorious day of sunshine in London and I'm about to take my book and find a quiet corner on a church bench in the sun and soak up some rays.

This week has been a roller coaster of emotions.  Not just your bog standard thrill machine but one of those that drops you from great heights and has you elated one minute, nervous the next and can make the contents of your stomach come up.  For two whole days nerves gripped me to such an extent that a mere word could have me in tears.  I was just coming out of this when I discovered that the met office were forecasting blazing sunshine and temperatures in their twenties for Sunday - more tears and an overdose of fear.

Fortunately this didn't last forever.  By yesterday I was relaxing, enjoying the slow trickle of "good luck" messages coming in and gearing up for the big run.  After a lovely carb based lunch in St James' Park we headed over to Expo in London's docklands to do the final registration. It was quite exciting to pick up my race number and timing chip for the day and walk away with my red virgin plastic bag!  I am number  50820 and am starting from Greenwich Park in pen 9 - I'm right at the back but I don't really care!

So I'm now just chilling out - my sister-in-law to be in calling round later for some Relate balloons which my curb supporters will be holding on sticks on Sunday and I've just added some more names to my running top.  Still time for some more names and if you want to donate use the links to virgin money giving on this page!  With with the help of friends, family and colleagues I've managed to raise with gift aid nearly £1,900.  Wouldn't it be great to reach the £2,000 mark?!

If you're at home watching on the day Adidas has an app on Facebook where you can track my progress - just put in my race number tomorrow and it will up date with every 5 kms I run.

So with a wealth of luck behind me I'll be off to run the Virgin London Marathon for Relate tomorrow with an enormous grin on my face.

Days to the finish line!

As I write there is 6 days to go to the Virgin London Marathon which should make what I'm about to do i.e. run 26.2 miles in one go a bit more real; but it doesn't.  So I'm spending the week in a little bubble of denial.

This week I get to eat lots of carbs in a kind of anti Atkins diet which I'm really looking forward to.  I have become the type of person so fanatically scours the dietary information on the back of their food packets to work out whether or not it's worthy of consumption, cruelly rejecting items of low carbohydrate value.  All this is aimed to give me the maximum energy on Sunday.

The fantastic news which does seem real is just how much support I've received.  To date you've all helped to generate over £1,700 for Relate and my t-shirt is quickly filling up with names of the people in my Relate London Marathon Family.  One of the main tasks this week is to get the Relate balloons to our brilliant supporters who are coming out to cheer on the day.  I'm also harbouring a secret hope that I get to talk to one of the BBC film crews out covering the run on the day in part for the coverage it would get for Relate and also as I love to be on tv!

So 6 days of carbs, balloons, rest and running to the finish line to go and by the 7th day (Monday) I will be happily, if with achy legs, be at home recovering for running the marathon - I will be a marathon runner!

Sometimes we all need help

After having a few days off to rest a sore muscle in my right leg I went for a really nice run around Regents Park after work yesterday.  It wasn't sunny but all the signs of spring were there from the colourful daffodils to the blossom which had appeared as if by magic on the trees.

Maybe because I'd come from work I was thinking about the targets we set ourselves.  My life seems full of targets; how much I can run? how fast can I do it? how much money can I bring in?  Those are just some of the ones surrounding the marathon but it struck me that runners have high expectations of themselves and sometimes it's hard to achieve everything you want.  Other times we might struggle to do it alone.  Runners have different solutions and ways of achieving their goals. We might join a club and run with company, we might get sports massages and specialist help if we get tragically injured (all injuries being tragic to a runner!).  When I was feeling down about it all at the week a helpful text from my running mentor made me feel heaps better.

Then I realised that the great expectations that runners have are much the same as those we all have when we embark upon relationships. Generally people enter into relationships hoping to be like the swans in the park and couple up for life.  We sometimes forget that relationships are hard and that we might need help when our relationships are tragically injured.  Sometimes people get help from their families and friends but like runners they may need to seek specialist help when things wrong to make things work better or to start again.

Relate do just this in lots of different ways. There is online advice and guidance through their websites, live chat through Relate for Parents and Families.  People can get counselling for adult relationships, families and young people and Sex Therapy.  We also have a range of courses for the public including those which help with parenting, moving on to new relationships when things have ended in separation or divorce and making commitments such as moving in together, getting married or having a child.  There are also books to help like "Baby Shock" which looks at what might happen when a baby comes along.and the recently published "Relate Guide to Finding Love".

So when I reach the finish line in 17 days time I'll have run every step with the support of all those who have helped me - my Relate London Marathon Family.

Coming soon to a blog near you - The Relate London Marathon Family Big T-Shirt!

It's all down hill from here!

There's been a slight delay in blogging due to a combination of work, technological breakdown, fire & flood (at the BT exchange) and some lovely Easter socialising.  Despite all this fun, frivolity and biblical sounding external factors the training has continued.  The Sunday before Easter I successfully completed my longest run - a mere little jog of 20 miles as my brother would have it.  It wasn't fast, it wasn't mega slow and I would probably be safe to say my most sensible run to date. 

Here are some of the things I noticed whilst I ran and ran and ran doing my best impression of Forrest Gump possible without a beard:

• The streets of London really are lined with gold.  Okay - I exaggerate but they do appear to be pretty much littered with pennies.  They are meant to be lucky and I've struggled with the inner me to restrain myself from stopping, bending down and pocketing the shiny discs. Oh that sounds like marathon training is like a computer game with real life players!
• The number of people who drank too much on Saturday night is really quite high.  This is also like a computer game where runners have to dodge the piles of puke on dry Sunday mornings.  It leaves me feeling better that I didn't drink the night before and truly dedicated to my marathon cause.

Having completed 20 miles my mileage now starts to decrease which meant I could ease up a bit this weekend and I have a sensitve muscle in my leg which has required me to take it slowly.

The weekend brought Easter and a whole host of Easter jokes which were kindly supplied by Relate for Parents and Families which added to a very funny time I had with my own family on Saturday where we painted hard boiled eggs and rolled them down a surfboard in lieu of a hill.

So with mileage maxed, it feels like it's all downhill to the marathon which for a runner is not such a bad thing!

I'm nearly there!!

Where I feel amazing and then ache a lot.

Yesterday I felt on top of the world.  I was amazing.  I was running through the streets of London wanting to tell random strangers how amazing I was.  I was a totally, totally, totally amazing woman who could run and run and run just like Forrest Gump but faster.

I had forgotten about the pain of my sore throat and how my legs felt like lead for the first 4 miles cos by the time I'd dodged the Sports Relief 1 mile runners who were scattered around Central London in a variety of sports clothing and funny looking costume and made it to mile 14 I felt bionic. 

This belief that I had near superpowers made me decide to up the pace for the last 4 miles and I reached Archway at a really reasonable time of 3 hours 36 mins.  I should have realised I'd overdone it a bit when I lost the ability to add 17 and 19 and struggled to walked the remaining half an hour to my flat but I was still immune!

Today I woke up and realised I really didn't feel well and that my legs were really stiff and achey.  I've walked to work and am taking it easy but still feel absolutely shattered and plan to book the day after the marathon off work.

On a sunny, happy point I was really pleased to have been sponsored by someone just after I did my 18 miles and that alone makes today's aches and pains worth it!

16 miles and a few loo stops

I feel that I have little more to say than:

I ran 16 miles on Sunday!!!!!!!!

I'd leave it at that but it was in fact 15.9 miles and I had to make some strategic loo stops.  Strangely the planners of London have not seen fit to realise that runners need to go to the loo!  Key loo opportunities need to be planned AND budgeted for.  On my 16 miler I went to the loo twice on route and once at the end forking out 30p x 2 to use the facilities at Charing Cross station and have a freebie with toilet roll at Battersea park.  I stopped at one  toilet and then backtracked in shock that Westminster Council wanted to charge me 50p!

My pace is something I should also mention.  I was very, very slow.  So slow I refuse to disclose the time taken on the internet.  To be fair it was supposed to be slow as to reduce the risk of injury and pain and instead to build up muscles for spending more time on my feet so I'm mostly happy about getting it done.  And due to carefully planned stretching, rehydrating and  eating - Boots meal deal for starters and some yummy home made lasagne on my return I appear to be fine today and have even planned my route for next Sunday.

Bring on the miles!

Where I stood in a queue for a really long time

I'd really been looking forward to the Milton Keynes half marathon last Sunday but woke up with a sore tummy and a feeling of dread like someone was about to send me to the gallows.  I put it down to nerves and told myself not to be so silly, that it had been a funny week and a nice, long run with lots of other people would be just what I needed.  I also knew that my mum, her boyfriend and my brother were going to come and cheer me on and pick me up off the ground at the end so had a great incentive to make it all the way round.

 Arriving at Milton Keynes Central I headed for the station toilets as queues for portaloos are notoriously long at these events and I  thought I be clever.  Not so clever when I emerged to find the millions of runners that had traveled on my train from London were nowhere to be seen.  Neither were any of the promised signs to the race start anywhere in view.  Fortunately I found some other lost souls and me managed to navigate the avenues of Milton Keynes. For the very first time in my marathon endeavours I had made some new friends - running buddies and I felt like a runner!

The race itself was supposed to be flat.  Now I come from Peterborough which sits nicely on the edge of the fens so I have a pretty good idea of what flat is and this was a little hilly or "undulating" as race terminology would have it.  With every down comes an up and so by mile 6 and the sight of a slope I found myself nearly driven to tears.  I kept going - the trick is to keep on going and to be fair I had no clue what you do if you stopped.  I wasn't injured so an ambulance wouldn't appear and whisk me off so stopping probably meant I would have to walk back; so I kept on going.

By mile 10 I was beginning to enjoy myself.  I'd semi abandoned a personal best and decided just to run.  As I cross the final bridge I spotted my family waving, proud with their cameras and hand I remembered why I was doing it and why I running the marathon in April - it was for families everywhere and my Relate Virgin Marathon family.

Sunday was certainly not the high point of my training and ended with me and my mum and her boyfriend standing in a winding queue in the Xscape Centre for 1 hour 15 minutes waiting for to get my bags back but it was really worth it to make me remember just how important families are.

Whatever the weather

I've realised over the past week that I feel as if I've been running from one season to another. Last week's 2 runs where completed in the most horrible rain. One day I even came back from doing 6 miles to discover rain coming in through my ceiling! I still managed to stay mostly positive about it spurred on by the donations I'd received to my Virgin Money Giving page and support from my Relate London Marathon Family. Pledges for Relate have now reached over £800 so another £500 to reach my target.

By Sunday I was becoming a little despondent about the seemingly neverending rain. I was visiting my real family in Peterborough and got up early as usual for my run and found myself finishing up with a circuit of Ferry Meadows Country Park through flooded paths and big gloopy puddles of mud with only ducks, swans and geese for company.

I was reminded of the 14 year old me who lost her shoe whilst running in an inter school cross country competition, got stitch and gave up after an overheard conversation by some girls from another school revealed they were county champions. Oddly enough this memory spurred me on and I refused to be beaten and as a bonus my mum washed and dried my running kit when I got in - that's not bad at the age of 38!

The flipside of all of this was that when I ran on Tuesday this week the weather was absolutely glorious. I'd left work early enough to run in daylight and without the rain and umbrellas and puddles to dodge I loved it.
I wonder if I am now "weatherproof"?

I am now looking forward to tonight's run and am nervously excited about Sunday's half marathon in Milton Keynes - if you're watching give an extra cheer for me and for Relate!

Why does it always rain on me?

Okay, so although there's a fair chance that I'm getting a bit paranoid I also think there are pretty good odds that the rain knows my running schedule. Water from the sky seems to begin falling either just before or when I'm about to start pounding the pavement in my running shoes.

Take Sunday for example. I woke up early and was relieved to find that there was no sign of the wet stuff for my planned long run. For the first time ever I was going to run 14 miles - a challenge but also a little bit terrifying. The absence of bad weather was a welcoming indicator of a good morning's running to come. Sadly 10 minutes into my mileage it began. At first it was the type of welcome, refreshing drizzle which is a good thing when running a long way but this was not to last.

About an hour in and the heavens openned, pouring all of the rain in the whole of London down on top of me and the odd gaggle of tourists who'd escaped off their bus tour for a few minutes. I was quite jealous of those who had big plastic rain macs on as I bounced from puddle to puddle.

I thought about stopping. I thought about going home when I reached the nearest tube. I thought about running far enough just to cross Lambeth Bridge and before I knew it the rain was tailing off and I'd actually run 14 miles!

In part I realise it was a good thing; it might rain on the 25th April when I'm running the Virgin London Marathon for Relate and now I know I will be fine. The other part of me knows I know have to go home and run some miles and again it's started to rain. So please weather controller in the sky stop the rain!

Where I finally got out of bed early on a weekday

From 17th February

Following yesterday's failure to run in the rain I valiantly set my alarm clock for 5.45am so as to do my run a day late but without looking or feeling like I'd been thrown out of the ark. At 10.30 last night I put the alarm back to 6.15am still with the intention of getting out of bed and running.

I should explain that I have a past history of trying to run in the morning and totally and utterly failing to leave the safety of my duvet. The night before it always seems like such a sensible idea to run in the cold and dark of the early morn, to see the sun come up and then have my evening free to do all kinds of other things in it. I have never, ever managed to actually do this...until today!

This morning I awoke before my alarm went off, had my cup of tea (essential mental need before doing anything), put on my running gear and left not just my duvet but my flat and my street and throughly enjoyed my 6 mile run. Well to be honest I enjoyed most of it. Whether I'm now converted to early morning running remains to be seen but I'm giving myself a pat on the back for all my efforts and indulging in a round of applause!

Where I accidentally ran further than I thought

From 14th February

I was all geared up for my long slow run on Sunday have done my regular runs and a couple of short gym burst during the week. The week had finished nicely with a spa day which left me feeling all relaxed and chilled. Then the alarm went at 6am on Sunday.

Surpisingly waking up before it was dark on a Sunday morning was quite okay and had the added bonus of now hangover. Saturday night drinking has been shelved until after the event (or that might just be an excuse for not having the social life I imagine I have) and so I was feeling quite spritely on waking.

This sadly didn't last - a cup of tea, a small bowl of rabbit food and I was having a little snooze! I finally made it out of the door at 8ish and although it was cold I forced myself to do my 10 minute walking warm up without which I am in toxic pain for the first couple of miles.

I chose to run a different route - in part because a bit of Regents canal had been blocked off the previous week and I'd stopped and looked at the bit of wood stopping my access like it was personally to blame. So I headed off through the streets of London to do my 12 miles think of it in part like a tourist trail without that many tourists.

Mostly the run was fine and I was pleased with how my legs are holding up since the change of shoes. I got home and managed to scoff some food and have a bath before heading out to the last of 5 writing workshops I'd been attended run by Creative Writes. It wasn't til I got home and remapped my journey that I discovered that I'd actually run 13.1 miles - my very own half marathon.

Just a little bit pleased with myself!

Trying to catch up with myself

From February 5th 2010

I've been training for the Virgin London Marathon since the beginning of January, battled through the snow and finally a couple of weeks ago was told that I did have a place to run for the charity Relate. I should confess that I also work for Relate so am in a brilliant position to be able to tell people about the fantastic work we do to help build positive, healthy relationships.

Relate hasn't had a marathon place before so we're playing catch up on fundraising but watch this space for information how to give. In the meantime find out more about how we support people with their relationship difficulties through counselling, sex therapy and education and learning from our websites www.relate.org.uk and www.relateforparents.org.uk.

Fortunately my training seems to be more or less on track. I've had great encouragement from everyone at work and from my friends and family. I quite enjoy the looks of half admiration/ half you must be crazy when I announce I've been for a run and give a distance which to me no longer seems a long way.

This week I've done two 4 mile runs and seems to have finally loosened up my calf muscles. I've also joined a local gym so I have some back up if we get some really bad weather again. Looking forward to a long run on Sunday when I've got 10 miles programmed in and have a probably unrealistic ambition to get up really early in the morning so as to have some of the day left to go out to play!