Never say never

This is so true! When I first started running in 2014, I could only manage a few hundred metres before I was totally out of puff. I never imagined for one minute that 2 years later I'd be training for my first half marathon, the Great Birmingham Run in less than 3 weeks!!! It just goes to show that you should never underestimate what you are capable of!!

I'm taking on three challenges in 2016 to raise money for Pregnancy Sickness Support. 

You can read about my three challenges here.

If you would like to sponsor me, my fundraising page is here. Thank you.

11.5 miles and making progress

Today my Facebook news feed has been filled with photos of inspirational ladies who last night completed Shinewalk for Cancer Research UK, walking through the night to complete the full marathon distance of 26.1 miles! What an amazing achievement! I'm totally in awe!

My own third and final challenge is to run just half that distance, but it will be a big challenge for me - it's the first half marathon I've ever run and it's only 3 weeks away! This week's long training run was 11.5 miles. I'm officially one of the "foxes" of the SE Fitness half marathon group ... which is a polite term for the slower runners who set off early and get chased down by the rest of the pack. Last week I was overtaken after about an hour but this week it was more than 2 hours before the first of the "hounds" overtook me.

So I'm definitely making progress and feeling a lot more confident than I did a few weeks ago. Let's hope I feel as confident on the big day!!

Vanishing jelly babies

It turns out there is more to this half marathon training malarkey than just running a bit further! After my bad experience with last week's long run, when I really struggled to do 7.5 miles and felt physically sick and shivery afterwards, I took myself off to a briefing and training session run by SE Fitness, a local running group, to see where I was going wrong. I learnt how important it is to stay hydrated and to have the right food at the right time.

So, with a proper breakfast, plenty of water and Jelly Babies to keep me going, this week's long run was much more successful - I managed more than 9 miles without stopping!!! My longest run ever ... and I felt fine afterwards too so I was pretty pleased! I have since been out to purchase provisions, although I have to confess this is the second packet of Jelly Babies I have bought "for running purposes". The first packet mysteriously disappeared one evening while I was watching t.v.!!

This is the third of 3 challenges I'm doing this year to raise money for Pregnancy Sickness Support.

You can read about my three challenges here.

If you would like to sponsor me, my fundraising page is here. Thank you.

Great Birmingham Run - 6 weeks to go!!

We have just come back from two weeks in France but, with less than 6 weeks to go to my half marathon (eeek!!), there was certainly no slacking for me even on holiday and I somehow managed to fit in 4 runs a week in between all the relaxing and wine-drinking! Of course, having a lovely beach and beautiful scenery on my doorstep made it just a teeny bit easier to drag myself out of bed and go out running while everyone else was still snoozing! It's just a shame all runs can't all be like this! Sadly, there are no beaches and considerably less sunshine in Sutton Coldfield!

I'm taking on three challenges in 2016 to help Pregnancy Sickness Support raise enough money to put its information leaflets in Bounty's Pregnancy Information Packs. This would enable it to reach every single mum-to-be in the UK with details of the vital support and information the charity can provide to sufferers and their families. You can read about my three challenges here.

If you would like to sponsor me, my fundraising page is here. Thank you.