Hello! *waves*

Well, I'm still here and still running. I have missed a couple of scheduled longer runs with the icy weather and then a streaming horrible cold, but have been trying to stick to the shorter and intermediate runs.

Trouble is, most of those take place in the pitch dark; limits photo opportunities and makes for repetitive blogging too. However, today I managed to get out late morning for a three mile 'jog' as per my training plan, and although it wasn't warm, the temperature has come up above 4 degrees and the sun was out!

So.... less than three months to go now. Just 12 more Sunday before the big day, and a whole lot of long runs to fit in and more fundraising to do.

Don't forget you can sponsor me any time - I've added a link to the right side of the page now, anything you can spare for this great charity will be very appreciated!

Looking down across the valley

No ice!!

Grumpy

This week has not been great on the training front owing to the snow. I missed my usual Early Birds slot after the heavy snowfall on the Thursday night before, and today was not much better. 

I got up super early so I would have time to eat and digest breakfast. I had planned an 11 mile route (which Nick D and Yvette from the running club are gamely up for doing too) and we met in Coxheath in the sleety rain today. We set off but found that less than 500metres in we were slipping on ice which was impossible to see as the roads and pavements all looked wet rather than icy. 

Given that our routes all have an element of rural roads/ pavements and hills, we realised we had no hope of getting a proper run in without risking injury and had to turn back. 

Once upon a time I might have been secretly pleased to have a good excuse to head back into the warm, but I actually look forward to these long Sunday runs. I will make up some distance in the coming week, and will get out again next Sunday,  but for now I'm just grumpy. 

100 Days!

This popped up on my social media feeds yesterday - only 100 days to go now. That is quite a scary prospect. There are a lot of training miles to be run over the next couple of months and a a lot of money to be raised.

Thanks Virgin Money - cos we weren't panicking at all already!

Current Status - looking good! More to go though....

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaAldrich

Another 10 miler

Another 10 miles for me today - and unlike Monday where I ran alone and then ended up stranded, I headed out with good running friends Nick and Yvette. Nick plotted a really lovely route from Coxheath, through Linton to Wierton and Boughton, and we managed a reasonable pace (they even waited for me to get up the horrible hills that are so unavoidable round here).

We stopped briefly for a chat with a group of runners we saw at a junction, and made 10 miles in about 1 hour 45 which I was happy with. I also tried some post-run protein shake today and so far so good - my legs feel pretty good at the moment, so even if the effect is largely psychological, it is working for me!

View from the top of the hill at about 8 miles

Me, Nick, Yvette looking knackered

These are the other runners we saw - they are a group called Maidstone Selfie Sunday Runners - I swiped this photo from their Twitter feed (if any of you are reading this and want the photo gone, pm me via twitter or faceboook!). They ran on down the road we had just come up and visited their goat at the goat sanctuary. Love it! Wonder if I can incorporate goat visits into my Marathon training....hmmmmmmm......

As always, if you would like to donate to the wonderful Children with Cancer UK charity that I am running for, here is the link: 

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaAldrich

Dad to the rescue

Well, I am now into the 'Going Further' phase of training, just about, so planned a 10 mile run for the Bank Holiday. It was also my Dad's birthday, so I made a good plan to run 10 miles from home to Wrotham Heath services, where Nick and kids would pick me up before getting onto the motorway and heading to my parents in Croydon, where I could get freshened up before enjoying a birthday/ Christmas get-together with my side of the family.

All good. Until Nick called me when I was about 6.5 miles into a non-circular route to tell me that he had met an ambulance travelling at speed through the lanes and burst a tyre in the process. Psychologically I find it really hard to make a change to a planned route of that distance so had to carry on regardless. Nick and my parents were concerned that by the time the car was sorted, I would be frozen, so my lovely Dad drove out on his birthday to pick me up. Luckily I carry a phone and card with me for these long runs so was able to wait in the nearest pub with a hot drink!

Thanks Dad!

My dad (who also ran the London Marathon a 'few' years ago)

My route - not a bad time given that I had to stop a couple of times to answer my phone!

Not very long at all now - don't forget that you can sponsor me at 

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaAldrich