20 miles DONE!

This weekend I needed to do a 20 mile training run. I was struggling to know when to fit it in this weekend as I knew it would take quite some time so in the end decided  to use up the last of my leave and go this morning.

It was hard. As always the first few miles felt impossible. A bit of Fatboy Slim came up on my music playlist and that got me settled into a better pace. I made 10 miles without too much trouble and headed into the petrol station for water and jelly tots. I needed the fluids but that stop killed my pace and the next few miles felt tough through to 15 miles. And then, even though I felt dead on my feet, I realised that just five more miles was doable. So I soldiered on at my snails pace and got it done.

The last few miles were painful- I had lost track of my pre-planned route so ended up running past the top of my road a short way to make up the distance. Timed to perfection though as my garmin  flagged 20 miles exactly as I stepped onto my driveway.

So- DONE! That was the last of the long runs before the big day. Now I get to taper. This means eat carbs and ease up on the distances. Taper is my new favourite word!

I'm also very nearly at my target following some offline fundraising so if you fancy sponsoring me this evening here is the link http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmAldrich 

Small things, big emotions....

On the school run today, a fellow mum, marathon trainee and friend handed me a tiny gauze bag saying 'I've got a present for you...' Inside the bag were these two little pieces of metal, punched with lace-holes and inscribed with personalised messages. They are for my trainers and will without a doubt help me every step of the way round the course in 4 weeks time.

Such a small gift, but so thoughtful. Needless to say I cried buckets!!! I will be a total wreck by the time this is over!

Thank you Becci. We can do this!

Maidstone Road Run

I needed to do a 17 mile run this weekend so signed up for the Maidstone Road run half-marathon option and plotted a route from there on to William's rugby club to make up the distance.

It was hard going to start with; I think I am getting tired and not fuelling sensibly and the first two miles I felt dreadful, but once I got my pace settled down I started to feel a little better.The route was erm.... 'undulating' and quite challenging, and had the added psychological struggle of being two loops of a 6.6 mile course so you approach the start/ finish knowing you need to go round again, AND you know exactly what is coming the second time around! However, the one small advantage of hilly routes is that all the flat/ downhill sections feel just that little bit easier.

Once the 'official' part of the run was over and I had grabbed my medal, some water and dashed for a loo break, I headed back out of East Malling and on down the road to add four more painfully slow miles to the rugby club. I have no idea how my running friends Nick and Naz managed to add on 8 more miles. They must have been hurting by the end; the only saving grace is that they are running Brighton so presumably can now taper off the long runs ahead of the race!

A bit more bling for the collection

Carolyn and Yvette from B2R were marshalling this time and it was VERY lovely so see them. A hug and big encouragement is just what we needed today

A run of two halves

Don't forget that you can sponsor me here: Every pound I get now with a comment of support and encouragement genuinely keeps me going when I am on my knees and want to cry/ be sick/ poo/ walk/ lay down/ call a taxi/ stay home drinking wine....

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaAldrich

WE MADE IT!!!!

It is official. The merry band of Early Birds made it through the winter darkness and we are now back out in the sunlight proper. There was no question today, we chose the Greensands Way just so that we could enjoy the offroad route and marvel at the views. Just so so great to not be out in the dark!

Yvette, Debbie, Penny, Andrew, me, Fiona

Blogging the Bloggers

I saw an advert a week ago on the Children with Cancer UK pages asking for people who are blogging about training for an event/ fundraising for them or writing about a child with cancer to get in touch. I sent them my blog link, and they whizzed through it and asked me if they could take excerpts and repost them to their own site. Of course I said yes (because I am really vain and love a bit of social media), and so they did. They also pushed it out on Twitter and Facebook. Take a look! Nick Davis, I can only apologise that they chose photos of the more lovely Sarah to feature on their page, but they did retain links to my fellow runner's charities which I was really pleased about.

http://www.childrenwithcancer.org.uk/blog/headcorn-half-marathon

Got the Gear!

Last week I spotted an advert on Facebook for a sports-wear brand called Tikiboo who were advertising Mr Men and Little Miss printed running tights and capris. I commented on the advert pointing out that as I was running the London Marathon for Children with Cancer UK who use 'Team Mr Men and Little Miss' for their sports events, I would clearly neeeeeeed some of these legging to run in.

A very lovely friend suggested that she and her daughter, my Goddaughter, buy some for me so that I could have a 'Goddaughter Hug' for my legs on the big day. She was true to her word, and these fabulous running capris arrived today. Here I am modelling them (I think this pose is far more realistic than the models on the Tikiboo site.....) along with my CwC vest top. Not the best photo but in my defense I was just home from Pilates and also very very excited to grab a pic and send it to my friend.

So, I now have all the gear - I just hope that on the day I have some idea, too!

Little Miss Fun legs

I was tempted to test them this morning but will save them for a longer run. It was suprisingly cold again today and I struggled round my 7 miles this morning, but the sun coming up as I ran due East was pretty wonderful to see.

Hello Sunshine

6am Club

There are just five weeks to go now; please do sponsor me if you have not yet managed it. Thank you, lovely people!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaAldrich

Running and Riding

I was out on the driveway washing the car in the sunshine yesterday when our good friends and neighbours walked past on their way back from a dog walk. We chatted for a bit, and when I said I was running today but just local loops as I was on my own, the lovely Sue basically said NOPE - I'll sort my bike out when I get home and cycle your route with you.

And that is exactly what she did. And I can't tell you how lovely that was! The first 8 mile loop was done before I had a chance to even think about what I was doing and how far I was going, just pottering along and nattering as we went. By 10/ 11 miles I was feeling tired, but Sue nailed the balance of distraction and encouragement. Hitting the home straight of the last mile was amazing (in fact my pace increased, the end in sight!!!) and we made it back to the start point, 16.19 miles DONE!!!!

Thank you for giving up a lie in and leisurely morning for me, Sue xxx

Ready for off!

Yes, ok, off to run/ride 16 miles. We are FIT. We still felt the need to suck our tummies in though :)

The proof. About right pace-wise for me too

2,093 calories - yep, inhaled my Sunday roast today

As always, here is the link; I'm edging up on the training miles and edging up on the fundraising too. Not far to go now. http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaAldrich

Headcorn Half Marathon

Today I ran my first 'official' half marathon. Despite having run the exact route last weekend, I still had a sleepless night and ended up feeling really nervous! I met up with the rest of the Beginners2Runners crew who had entered, and also with Sarah Burden who I ran the Great South with and who is also training for the London Marathon for Prostate UK.

It was great to be our running with lots of people we knew, and the race conditions were pretty good - cool, breezy (OK sometimes too windy but better than being warm!) and a bit of steady drizzle to cool us all off. The whole route is very rural as we found last week, but there were water stations and a few hardy residents/ spectators with tubs of jelly babies to hand out! The base was at the primary school so there were also plenty of decent facilities; bag drop, refreshments and the all important loos!

It went well - Sarah and I ran together all the way, and we saw my other B2R friends off and on throughout. We also had some extra encouragement from Dean who tweaked his cycle training route so that he could ride down and cycle alongside for a chat and general coaxing along, which was lovely! I took a few minutes off my time from last week, and Sarah beat her previous half PB by almost 10 minutes which is amazing!

We still have a way to go before the marathon, but each of us has a motivation, and being able to enter local races and train together gives us a chance to say 'Yeah it IS a long way... Yeah today was bloody hard work..... but WE CAN DO IT!!!!!' And we WILL do it, for these superb charities:

Emma: Children with Cancer UK: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaAldrich

Sarah: Prostate Cancer UK: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sarah-jane-burden1

Nick: Teenage Cancer Trust: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Nickthestone

Beginners2Runners

Sarah and me

Yes we were knackered, but seeing your mate crouched in the hedge waiting to take a photo makes you smile

Sprint-Finish Sarah

One...more....step.....

Yvette, Danny and Carolyn, fellow Early Birds

Nick and Danny

WE DID IT!

Chip times

I'll go with my Garmin time I think!

Gotta love some runners bling!

And as always, my lovely husband arrived home from damp rugby training and set about cooking a much needed very tasty Sunday roast!

Inhaled it in about 3 minutes flat

Only two months to go...

23rd of February..... so now only two months to go until the London Marathon. That is quiet a scary thought, so I won't think about it too much. I need to run as much as I can as per my plan, I need to eat better, I need to raise more funds.

This week I hosted a charity Film Club, screening Girl on the Train.  I run the Film Club for work anyway, so it was no big deal to ask attendees to make a donation to my charity this time, which they seemed more than happy to do. I also extended invites to some local friends (the auditorium sits about 120 and given that I generally have 20 people tops, it seemed do-able!!!). We probably had about 25/30 attendees in the end (so I will invite even more along to the next one!!!) and raised £179 which I was really pleased with - a glass of wine, a few bags of popcorn and nibbles, and an evening spent watching a very good film. What's not to love! I will definitely be running some more; watch this space.....

Yep. Not me (sadly); even when you think you are having a rest day, you will see a character in the film you are watching go for a run. Just to remind you that you are not running. 

Pre-Headcorn Half and a Microlite

Today I headed out for my long run with Nick and Yvette again, who I've not managed to run with for weeks, We ran the Headcorn Half Marathon route, ahead of the Headcorn Half Marathon next week!

It was a stunning day and a stunning route. We started off too cold at 9am but soon warmed up as the sun rose higher, The route was fairly rural and took us past an assortment of beautiful houses, past cyclists, dog-walkers and other runners. We also watched a microlite take off from a tiny private airstrip at the top of a lane somewhere (a good excuse to stop for a few minutes, that's for sure!!

I was more than ready to finish by the end, but that is the furthest I have ever run (13.1 miles, so half marathon distance now ticked off) and it felt good to have completed it after a month of up and down training runs feeling rough with colds and bugs. It felt hard - but now I am sat here on Sunday night and skimming back through my blog, so did the 10 and 12K runs we were doing previously, so I guess I am getting there.

Don't forget that I am doing this for Children with Cancer UK and you can sponsor me here:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaAldrich


My running mate Nick is also keen to see the back end of cancer in young people and is raising money for his step-son Liam, and for The Teenage Cancer Trust. You can read about it here:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Nickthestone

Hot, sweaty, tired at the end - shall we do it again next week.? Oh ok then...

I'm off out on my microlite

Taking off over our heads

The proof

Looking for Dawn

A regular 5k/ 3 mile run out with the Early Birds today. We spent much of the route looking for Dawn. We found it (her?!) somewhere around Linton Park.... just the glow of the 'Civic Dawn' that officially reaches us at about 6:36, bathing us in enough light to make torches redundant and to pick out the early morning mist across the fields. It meant that we felt brave enough to cut in behind the church and pick up the footpath along the driveway for Linton Park; we could see the muddy bits, horse pooh, sticking out roots and low branches. So nice to get off road a bit!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaAldrich

The Early Bird crew (thanks to Danny for taking the photos today)

At Linton Park - it's getting light!

Running towards the dawn

Lovely photo Danny!

Linton Park - shame it is private, would be interesting to take a look!

DAYLIGHT!!!!

Ok, so it is half term so I was under less pressure to be out of the door by 6 on the dot, but today by the time I got half way round my 7.5 mile run, it was definitely almost light. By the time I hit the last mile, it WAS light! It felt good.... roll on the Spring, I think we may almost be through these dark winter training months. Yahoo!!!!

A bit gloomy still

Light! I could see sheep!

This is my 'fast' pace. No really.....

As always, if you can spare some sponsorship, here is the link: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EmmaAldrich

Treadmill miles

We decided to take a few days away this half term and booked a few days in Dublin. I knew that with only 10 weeks to go, I really needed to get some running in while we were away so dutifully packed the trainers. It was tricky to decided whether to attempt to run a route outside or give in a use the treadmill which I don't really enjoy, but in the end the treadmill won. Fuelled mainly by Guinness and Irish Stew, I plodded away for an hour in a deserted hotel gym. It wasn't too bad, I watched some TV and could see the family in the pool spurring me on.

Don't forget to sponsor me - I missed hotel breakfast to do this, such is the measure of my dedication!
Http://U.K.virginmoneygiving.com/Emma

All hot and sweaty!

Nice and cool

11 weeks and counting

It is now only 11 weeks to go until the London Marathon. I am doing my best to stick to my training plan, so this week consisted of a slow 3 miles, fast 7.5 miles, slow 3 miles and then 11 miles at race pace today. I am definitely feeling fitter, but those long 11 mile runs are still hard and vague panic at the size of the challenge is setting in.

I'm trying to pay more attention to nutrition, and also trying gel sachets on the go which are ok. It is still cold and mostly dark when I run, but my 7.5 miles on Thursday had me almost home as the sun was coming up, and that was pretty lovely. Feels like a while now since the early runs have been in daylight.

Today I plotted a route that kept me fairly local. It was a lot colder out that I was expecting and I was cold through by the time I got back. Still, another one under the belt. Next weekend I need to do between 13.1 and 15 miles. Yikes!!!

Sunrise spotted through the orchards at about 7am

Down in the Loose Valley today

I am about half way to my fundraising goal - please do sponsor me if you can - the link is on the right hand side of the page. Thank you!!

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