Sunday Night Celebrations!

We had a great time Sunday night, it was great to meet everyone!

We Did It!!!!!!

Wow what a weekend, I have had such an amazing time! We got to Newcastle late Saturday night and went straight to bed in anticipation of the next morning!

Sunday morning arrived and Gill and myself were surprisingly quiet on the drive to the start, but once we arrived with the other thousands of people all nerves disappeared! Everything went smoothly and we were in the starting positions and warmed up at 10am. We tried to look 'cool' and avoid the 'Mr motivator' starting warm up, but soon gave in to the cheesy tunes and jumped around like the rest of the crazy runners!!!

The run was brilliant, the first 7 to 8 miles flew by and we felt fab! The crowd were brilliant and being from 'the south' I found many of the cheers and banners hilarious, especially on a banner that read ' Ha way!! you're nearly there! ' Classic northern banter !

We struggled a bit on the 2 miles up to the 12 mile marker, but as soon as you could see the sea all the pain in the legs numbed and the excitement and realisation that we had made it began! My self and Gill finished in 2 Hours and 4 Minutes and 20 Seconds! Amazingly 20 minutes of Gill's previous years time and 11 Minutes of my time from a few years ago! We were exuberant!!

What an amazing run and what and amazing atmosphere, Thanks Kay for all the help in getting us to the race! And for the drinks on Sunday night!

Its Thursday night and just been out for a slow jog around the block, feeling like i should be doing more, but i know the reduction in running before the run is good!!! We had all the girls out too, for the final training run which was fun, so the old gang were back together plodding around the streets of Shepperton! Lisa, Jen, Gill and Me!

Gill and me are already talking about next year and what the next aim is, but we are definitely having at least a weeks rest after Sundays run before we get back out with the girls!!

Really excited about the weekend now and can't wait to get started!! Flying up to Newcastle Saturday and really looking forward to meeting all the team and everyone that has supported us in the build up!!

Ready!

Another day another run, but not any run! the last big training run before the the GNR! yeahy! Me and Gill had a good run this morning, a steady 7 miles and we finished feeling good! Felt quite comfortable and neither of us had any pains in legs which was excellent! Home now for more stretching, icing and possibly some eating!!!

We are going to do a couple of small steady runs next week and a sports massage Wednesday, so should be super fit for the run Sunday!

TICK TOCK TICK TOCK !!

Its Monday, and Gill and myself went out tonight in the dark, for an hour and a half. During the run we realised that we only had one more big training run to do on Saturday!! TICK TOCK count down begins!!!!!!!!!!! I think we are more excited than scared, we have put so much training in, more than ever before, so we had better enjoy it! Can't wait for the celebrations afterwards! I think I can see Gill and myself being very good at the celebrations! ha ha!!

Got a couple of hour runs to push out later in the week, but rest and ice tomorrow. My calf muscles are starting to get fed up with all this running! so stretching and icing is now a necessary part to my day in order to keep them well behaved!

3 Weeks to Go!

Well after the good run at the weekend, Gill and myself decided on a steady start to training this week! Slow and steady wins the race, as our friend lisa says frequently to us!!

We did some fast/slow training and drills in the local park on monday night, much to the amusement of the 13 year olds boys playing football near us, who i don't think could work out what we were doing!! But a nice easy start to the training week!

Last night we ran for an hour. Usually when i run after work i am tired and don't always feel to good, but i think i have now resolved that issue! I haven't been eatting enough, to my delight! I now make sure i have a sandwich etc at lunch rather than a salad, and drink as much water and lucozade drinks as i can during the day. This definatley paid off last night, i felt so much better and actually had some energy!! So I will try this again on thursday.

Rest and takeaway tonight!

Saturday's Run!

Well today was a suprise! Gill and myself headed off at 9.30am this morning for our long run, and to be honnest we weren't in the mood, and didn't really want to run! But our thought's returned to our charity, and we began! After half an hour of the run, we were both beginning to enjoy the run, and an hour in, we were both feeling comfortable. All the thoughts of our sore legs disappeared! We finished after an hour and a half, on a route of what we think is just over nine miles and 3 minutes quicker than last time, so it was a successful run after all !!

Time to relax now! Rest until monday night!!

Training

I have been training with Gill (second left) and our two other friends Jennie and Lisa, for over a year now. This picture was the completion of our first target, The British London 10km in July!! We all ran it under the hour, so were really very pleased and it gave me and Gill the confidence to get training for the GNR!

We have been following a 12 week training schedule for the GNR and with less than a month to go now, we are now running 1 hour and a half comfortably (at last!).

Tomorrow morning we are running for an hour and a half, and Gill and myself have both had tired legs this week, so tomorrow maybe challenging, but we shall see!!!!!!!!

Great North Run

I started running at age 8. I began running for Bedford & County Athletics Club and competed in cross country Under 9's, and progressed through the years to under 19, when I left to go to University. At Loughborough University I ran only for myself to keep fit and in the second year decided to enter the London Marathon. I completed the Marathon in April 2001 and since then I have only ever run in charity fundraising events.

Now I live in Sunbury and have a great group of friends who I have encouraged to run with me. Four of us run regularly and Gill Townsend (Team Lucozade - is one of them)!

Gill and myself are very excited about running the GNR this year and have put more training in than ever before for this run so hope to do as well as we can for our charity Kings College Hospital.

One of our friends has servere diabetes and we are running for the nurses that help her directly at Kings College Hospital, so it makes the run all that much more important to us and our friends and families. Our friend has suffered massively from diabetes and now she can not work, so we feel really proud that we can raise money for her