Hi all,
I have dusted this blog off to keep me on track to smash some personal fitness goals and hopefully raise some money for a cause I am a trustee of, the M3 Job Club. I will post more details soon, and have updated the “ABOUT” section, so have a read and let me know your thoughts!
Hello,
It has been a while – a while since blogging, a while since racing and sadly a while since running! But, all that is about to end as tomorrow, I will be dusting off my trainers and hitting the pavements of Farnham to remind my legs what I expect them to do on Sunday, when I will be running race 11 / 12 in Fleet.
I am both dreading and looking forward to this race – dreading it as I am unfit, hate road races and am not allowed my precious music, but looking forward to running it with great friends from Commando Fitness Bootcamps who have given me so much support with this challenge – oh, and the promised gossip round the course!
So, the physical side of the challenge is nearly over – only 20K of chipped runs left to do! Needless to say I will be finishing in style, but you’ll have to wait and see which race I will end the challenge on!
A big thank you to all who have sponsored me so far – if anyone can spare a £5 for either of my charities, I would be eternally grateful, as would they. The two charities are Different Strokes and The Stroke Association.
Much love, as always,
Gail x
I know I said I would post pics from the event, but the intermittent internet signal made even tweeting hard! But anyway – I survived and am now the proud owner of a lurid orange Thunder Run t-shirt and a very heavy medal! (If you have annoyed me of late, or plan to in the future – be warned, I am now armed!).
The 10K laps we did were on a mixture of hideous terrains – bumpy rock hard mud (great for turning the ankles on), thick grass (super for the hay fever) and narrow, twisty pathways with trees in the middle of them (!) in the woods, which were dark even in the hours of daylight. My ipod showed it has a sense of humour – as I was running in the woods at 4.30am, it selected Insanity by Oceanic – very apt indeed!
These were the stats:
24hrs of running
470km run,
14000ft climbed,
(and on Friday night unknown units of alcohol drunk)
Everyone ran 40k over a hilly, and rough terrain, some did 50k – and everyone ran at night.
I feel very privileged to have run alongside such great team mates – we all had a great weekend and supported each other – no matter what time of day or night it was – thanks guys.
As promised, a few pictures from the event (including some howlers of me – I did joke with a friend running is not my best look recently – I wonder if these might break their silence) but once you have stopped chuckling, please remember why I am doing this – 2 fab stroke charities
. The begging bowl will be coming out soon……
Thanks for all the support – texts, tweets, FB, calls – it has all been amazing!
Much love,
Gail xx
The trainers are packed (I hope), I have eaten more carbohydrates than a female would ever consider this close to a beach holiday and I have just about come to terms with the fact that I will not have access to my GHDs until I get home on Sunday night. (Never will you see so many photos of me in a baseball cap!!).
Tomorrow, at noon, the Adidas 24hr Thunder Run starts – I am running as part of the Commando Fitness B Team – where over 2000 runners will take part in this endurance race. I had always banked on doing 4 10K laps of the course, but have just read 2 other blogs saying that last year they ended up doing 5 – eek! I will give each lap my best shot and keep my mind focused on my personal running challenge – as well as having a laugh with the team.
Thanks for all the new additions to the running playlist – please keep tweeting them, texting them, FBing them or simply adding them – with at least 4 hours of running to do, I will need them all. Thanks to everyone who has trained with me and pushed me hard in recent weeks and helped me to believe I may just come out of this exhausted, but smiling!
We intend to post pics and videos from both teams on here and FB (Commando Fitness Fan Page) and we will be tweeting using the #cvtr24 tag if you want to see what we are doing. The official event tag is #tr24 if you want to track the event as a whole.
And please remember the 2 great charities I am supporting this year – Different Strokes and The Stroke Association.
Much love,
Gail
Hello,
I have been as useless at updating this as I am my professional blog of late, but I have not neglected the challenge – no way. In fact, it is about to pick up pace with just 11 days to go until the Thunder Run! (Read here if you are not sure what madness that is!).
Running is going well – I have managed 8K straight after a leg heavy bootcamp with only a twinge from the knee, so I am hoping 4 10Ks in 24 hours should physically be fine – the only downside? I have to sleep in a tent – where on earth will I plug in my GHDs between races?
Just a quicky – we will upload pics from the event and let you know how we go. Thanks for all the sponsorship to date – if you would like to donate to either of the fab Stroke charities I am raising funds for, click here.
Much love,
Gail
xx
….but on July 28th, with (hopefully) about 23 others from bootcamp, I will be taking part in the Adidas Thunder Run. This is a 24 hour relay event run in teams of c. 6. The rules are simple – 1 runner on the course for the full 24 hours. The course is conveniently 10K, and I would imagine I will have to run 4 10K races within 24 hours.
It promises to be a tough challenge – physically and mentally – but I am asking friends, family, clients, social media followers and virtual strangers to sponsor me for 2 fab causes – Different Strokes and The Stroke Association – no-one would do that for an easy challenge, would they?
Now the call to action bit marketing peeps love. I do need each and every one of you to help me out with this bonkers idea of mine (which I am signed up and paid for, so no backing out!!):
1) Run with me – I need to pick this up in frequency terms – no matter how fit you are, fast you are etc – if our diaries permit, please please drag me out!
2) Music – playlist is starting to bore me – please please jump on to the Spotify list I have created and create merry havoc!
3) Send this blog to anyone you feel it may inspire to run, raise money or do some fab PR for these 2 great charities
4) Sponsor me – I hate running round, begging cap in hand, but by December 2012, I will hand over £1006 to each of these charities.
Thank you for the support, inspiration, music, money and hugs you have all given me along the way – this challenge scares and excites me at the same time – I am counting on you to get me through it!
Much love,
Gail xxx
Sunday saw me reach the half way stage of this challenge with the Frimley Park NHS Trust 10K. There was a great atmosphere in the car park where we were put through a warm up by 2 very enthusiastic aerobics coaches. My memory will forever be dancing with a guy dressed as Zippy to LMFAO “Sexy and I Know It” – not my usual Sunday morning 10am activity!
The race was tough – I felt under-prepared after missing 10 days worth of training due to illness – but I did run the whole course in 1 hour dead – am still a little hacked off, as had really wanted to do another in sub 1 hour – if only I had started my sprint finish 5m earlier!
The fundraising side of this challenge is about to kick in – my Facebook Page and Twitter feed will start plugging the charity giving sites soon – I am also planning 2 fundraising events for the next few months, so watch this space for an update.
Thank you to each and every one of you who has supported me in whatever way to help get me here – 6 down and 6 to go!
Gx
Yesterday saw me return to the scene of my 1st 10K of the challenge- Eton Dorney – very cold and very nervous! Thankfully, I needn’t have been – I ran a great race and finally managed the whole 10K without walking ANY of it! This has been a huge psychological block for me and to have smashed that course yesterday should hopefully see me really get to grips with running 10K races! I had also wanted to run the course faster than I did in January – as you can see from the pics, again, I smashed this target – c. 8 minutes faster than last time which I am so pleased with.
I had also hoped to be running these races in sub 1 hour by the end of the year – 55 minutes and 58 seconds yesterday – as I tweeted Get In!
As ever, there are people to thank for this – my great friends from bootcamp who remain so positive about each and every step I take in this challenge either when I see you in person, or in my virtual world; Tom from Commando Fitness for continuing to inspire me to push myself harder every week; my twitter buddies – too many to mention who are with me on the start line and again when I cross the finish; and also to my children, who keep on asking me when I will win one of the races!
The next race is on May 6th (Frimley) and I will be running this alongside 2 friends that I know of any hopefully a few more friendly faces will pop up as it is so local. If you are not up for a race, but fancy coming out running, you’d be so welcome – it has been great fun running with different people and putting the world to rights! I am also still researching that book of excuses not to come running with me – the list is certainly getting longer – from 1 friend in particular, but they support me in so many other ways, I’ll let it lie – for now!
Fundraising:
I know many of you have been bombarded with charity requests for so many different fab causes, but now I am nearly half way through the challenge, I will start pushing the 2 charity giving sites on Facebook, Twitter and via e-mail, but for those of you who cannot wait, the charities are Different Strokes and Stroke Association, and their links can be found here!
Thanks again to each and every one of you for reading this, taking up running, calling me a nutter -whatever! Your “support” always keeps me focused!
Much love,
Gail x
……..well, at least to where it all started. Eton Dorney was the 1st 10K race of this challenge and on Sunday April 15th, I will be back there to run the course again and hopefully, knock a minute or two off my time! No-one has volunteered to run with me on this one (yet), but I have had the usual offer from people to come for a drink with me when I get back to Farnham.
I am nervous about going back – true, I did the G3 twice and knocked 3 minutes off my time the 2nd time round, but I will feel as if I have failed in my training and, in a daft way, in this challenge if I do not improve. Those of you who know me well probably find no surprise in that at all!
These last 2 weeks have been a reminder to me on why I am fundraising for these great charities – I won’t dwell on them on a public blog, but the next race will be run with 3 friends very much at the forefront of my mind.
Thanks again for all the support you lot give me – whether through pushing me out the door running, reminding me of the importance of the fundraising side to this challenge, coming out running with me at the weekends, and hopefully now the evenings too, or even just amusing me with your excuses why you can’t (not won’t) come out running with me, you are all making this challenge a hell of a lot of fun!
Gx
Next races are:
Sunday 15th April – Eton Dorney
Sunday 6th May – Frimley Park
Wednesday 6th June (eve) – Yateley
Yesterday saw me complete my 4th 10K run of the challenge – this one was in the beautiful Swinley Forest in Bagshot – part of the Crown Estate! I had hoped The Queen and Prince Phillip might have popped out to cheer us all on, but alas, they did not, however, in spite of the drizzly weather, there were loads of lovely people cheering and clapping as we trundled by. My endearing memory will be when a kid popped out from behind a tree to cheer on his mother and she jumped a mile in the air – a tad amusing!
The course was a lovely (as my friend Catharine put it) undulating forest run, taking in twists and turns all over the shop! Negotiating low hanging branches and slippery roots to avoid falling into a mud bath and starting a mud wrestling competition was a tad tricky at times, but it all added to a great atmosphere.
As ever, there are people to thank – all of my lovely friends who comment on the blog, tweet me support, text me, drink with me afterwards and have sponsored me so far – I know I say this a lot, but I could not do it without your support. There is one extra person to thank this week though – they guy who had clearly bathed in cheap aftershave before the race – in sprinting past you to stop myself from throwing up, I am sure I knocked a couple of seconds off my time. This was a non chipped race and it was nearer 11K which I completed in 1h and 7minutes according to Runkeeper.
I need to start planning and booking the next races, so those of you who keep saying you will be running with me – time to put up or shut up!
Gx
2012 - The Reluctant Runner's 10K Challenge 