WE DID IT! Oh bhoy we did it! (couldn't help the maritime reference!)

Five months ago myself and my sister Tor decided, whilst giggling like schoolgirls, to enter the EDF Birmingham Half Marathon. Neither of us ran, nor were we fit or undertaking any kind of exercise really (well to be fair Tor walked her dogs and did her treadmill) but we thought we'd give it a go for a laugh. We began with little runs, probably walking more than we ran, had not a clue what to do so just built it up bit by bit, dragged Paul Hickling along from my Weight Watchers class to come and do it with us, faced all manner of weather, emotions, moods and finally on October 24th 2010, 5 months after that giggling decision WE RAN OUR FIRST HALF MARATHON!!! The picture above says it all really... such a fantastic feeling to find you can do the most unbelievable things when you actually commit yourself to it and try. AWESOME!

I had so many doubts leading up to race day. My back was narky, my hip was stiff and generally I was a bit bleurgh. I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish but found comfort in the fact that if worse came to the worse I could walk it but this wasn't supposed to be about walking; we were running for lifeboats dammit so run I must! The week beforehand we did a couple of short runs after I'd had to miss some runs due to my back. The first run back was hard even though it was only 4 miles but runs 2 and 3 on the Wednesday & Friday went much better. I had the best of intentions to have an early night on Halfmarathon Eve but I got caught up watching episodes of Fringe so it just didn't happen. However, on Halfmarathon Day the alarm went off at 5.45am and up I got (miracles do happen outside of Christmas). Looked out the window and all was dark but beautifully clear. by 6.30 the dawn was looking promising and I was beginning to get excited... finally! Pulled on the RNLI running vest and was all ready to go (well along with pants, socks, running trouser things etc and obviously washed, teeth etc etc). Managed half a bowl of instant oats before Tor turned up and off we went.
Tor's husband Dave dropped us into town but all the roads were closed due to some wretched half marathon taking place! We nearly got lost and I began feeling very nervous we weren't going to get there on time. So we bailed on Dave leaving him to sort out his own parking and made our FREEZING way to the start on Broad Street. We attempted to join in with the bizarre warm up which was more knackering than the run! Then we had to fight the spectators to get to our starting point (did they not realise they'd be nothing to spectate if we didn't get to our starting lines). The race started at 9am and it took us about 10/15 mins to get to cross the starting line. Then we were off! Then we were stopped as we hit the first bottle neck in the run. After a bit of shuffling we were off again and I soon found I'd lost Paul and Tor. Caught up in the flow of runners I couldn't get back to them. Not even 2 miles in and we ran past a line of, shall we say 'gentleman', well... ermm... watering the flowers against a wall! I checked out the time on my GPS and was running slightly above my normal pace but just couldn't bring it back down. I was a little dismayed when we got to Edgabston and started seeing runners coming back the other way - they were already on the homeward bound journey 40mins in! by Stirchley I was desperate for the toilet so thankfully was able to stop off at Nanny Kath's for a wee! The route took us through Bournville then back towards the city. Hot a nasty hill in Cannon Hill park - nothing major but just not in a good place!
The crowds as we ran were amazing. I lost a little faith in people on the eve of the marathon as some idiot drove into my car (nothing major) and didn't even stop. My faith was restored on Marathon Day as people lined the streets to cheer us by, kids held out hands for high 5's, there were people standing out the front of their houses giving cups of squash, water, pop, jelly babies, fruit cake. So much good will is a beautiful and amazing thing! A huge thank you to all those that stood out in the cold to cheer us on.
Miles 10 to 12 were really tough. Not only was this the furthest I had ever run but this was when some quite big nasty hills kicked in. We had a couple of nasty inclines round the back of Five Ways which started my hip off moaning. I had a moment of panic thinking that if it went now I would have to stop this close to the finish so power walked up the major hill to take some pressure off (it was OK on the flat's - just the uphills really setting it to fever pitch!). I broke into a run and before I knew it was passing mile 12. Looking at my watch I realised I was going to be finishing in a much better time than I ever thought possible. I got on the phone to Darren to try & find out where he and the boys were so I could look out for them. Having run on my own I was really needing a familiar face. I rang and rang and couldn't get through. For some daft reason I began to feel a tad emotional so called my Mom who was also seeing us at the finish. Mom answered. She wasn't in town yet! I asked her to keep trying darren and then got back to running feeling slightly miserable that no-one was going to see me finish. I then heard someone say infront of me "let's push on we'll go for 2hrs 20". It was at that point I thought "right then! I can do that!". I put my foot down... literally.
Coming up on to Broad Street I knew I was on the home straight. I kept the mantra "2 hours 20, 2 hours 20" going over in my head. as I passed the cinema I heard a familiar "Woooohooo! Gwan me babby" and saw Darren with Jarryd, Corbyn, Dave, Brandon and my Dad. It was such a fantastic feeling. I made a beeline over. Gave Jarryd a kiss and it gave me such a pick me up. I knew I was going to do it. From somewhere I found more energy and sprinted for the finish... then I saw the wall...
The wall of people that were queuing.. yes QUEUING to cross the finish line. I hit the wall of people, pressed stop on my GPS and looked at the time.
2 HOURS 19 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was thrilled to say the least. When we registered for the run we estimated our finish would be 3hrs 30. After training we hoped for 2 hrs 59mins to be within that 3 hours, so to finish at 2hrs 19 I was over the moon! It is unfortunate that there was congestion to cross the finish line. As the timing chip recognises an exact point on the line, to not be able to cross affects your official time. I know there's been lots of complaints, especially for club runners who are going for PB's etc and as a result for me my official chip time was 2hrs 21. Even so I'm still very happy.
It was also fantastic that our family came to support us. Huge thanks should go to my Mom and Dad, sister Kati (not a nun just a sibling), Darren and my boys, Dave and Brandon (specially for getting up so early to take us there) - erm I'm sounding like the Oscars.
Tor and Paul have also been an absolute inspiration. Without Tor dragging me out three times a week and supporting each other through our happy, manic, moody, achy moments I'd never have got started in this whole running malarchy. I have the best running buddy ever!
It's also good to have a reason to run above and beyond the benefits to ourselves and to run for the RNLI and know that we have raised nearly £400 between us for such a fantastic cause has been brilliant. A massive thank you to everyone who sponsored us. Your money is going to very good use and we hope we've done you proud.
This post I shall leave there - at some point later I might share the aches and pain of post run but this one I want to leave on a high. We did what we set out to do. I am now a half marathon runner (oooh get me!) and am already planning the next run... watch this space! We've proved it's amazing what can be achieved when we stop coming up with excuses and actually crack on and what's more.. fat girls can run!

STOOPID BLOGGER! BLEURGH!!!!!

Forgive the over use of exclamation marks but I've just done my blog and then the whole gosh darn thing dissappeared! ARGH! So to summarise as I'm done in:

• Went away for the weekend thus missing runs and eating too much
• Felt bleurgh, globularbobular, and didn't want to run
• Excuse planned - Tor can't run and I'm rubbish at running on my own
• Get off my backside and go anyway
• Manage (just about) a personal best by being a little daft and all self competitive
• Little local run ends up being about 7 miles in 1hr 15minsish
• Pleased I went not so much for distance but more for chasing the inner demons away not wanting to go
• Still feeling bleurgh so going to chase away that last inner demon by climbing the stairs to bed

So there you go. The abridged version of tonights blog. Now I'm off to bed cos I'm just done in.

Nighty night world!

Someone come rescue me... I'm stuck to the sofa!

Welcome to October and my gods what a day it has been today! It has rained, rained and then some. Proper cold wet stuff as well. Now I'm not averse to rain - infact I quite like the stuff - but I was a bit worried about being swept away by a random wave flowing down the Bristol Road. Thankfully by the time we ran at 6.30ish the day was turning into a beautiful evening. One of my favourite things about running is the things you get to see which we so often miss stuck in cars, offices, houses, supermarkets etc. Watching the sky turn through all shades of pink to a sumptuous midnight blue with stars blinking into existence one by one, was thankfully enough to distract me from the nagging pain of my body objecting to being hauled round the streets of Longbridge, Rubery/Rednal and Northfield at ungodly speeds.

Tonight we extended our run. Now Tor showed me the route previously and I said to her "you do realise how big that hill is?" She confidently assured me that she did and it really wasn't that bad.

THE WOMAN IS TRYING TO KILL ME!!!!

It was a mile of sheer hell I'm sure the oxygen depleted, the air got thin, whatever, it was just damn hard. I managed to get to the top and I really have no idea how (as I say I thank the distraction of Mother Nature at her finest which certainly helped on the lower levels) but my head was so spangly when I got to the top. I had to take a mo to catch my breath and reassure my head it was attached to my body and the pain it was experiencing was proof of that attachment. I just figured if I could get to the top of that wretched hill then anything after that was going to seem relatively easy. It kind of worked except for the fact that I was then knackered at the start!

After all the rain there was puddles and mud aplenty. Now I've found that it's just impossible to avoid puddles so it's best to accept that you're going to get wet and just run through as if you're walking on perfectly dry and stable land. This approach works well most of the time but tonight I nearly lost my foot as I plodded through seemingly shallow puddle only to find my foot disappearing into Davy Jones locker. This resulted in giggles which then threw my breathing out (especially when I could hear yelps from Tor making similar mistakes behind me).

All in all though a good run. We upped it to about 7.5 miles in about 1hr30ish mins so not too bad really as it was quite tough in places.

I am done in now though. Had to pick kids up from Tors, get them home, washed/teeth/milk/bed routine by which time it was gone 9pm. Collapsed on the sofa after they were in bed for a cup of coffee before I go shower and now its 10.15pm and I'm still here in my running gear typing this feeling tired, stiff, cold and achy (and lets face it propbably smelly too). The radiators are kicking in so I may not move... perhaps I can't... no I'm sure I can... but maybe I won't...at least not for a while anyway.

The green or the blue pill...

I was rudely awakened by a screaming 5 year old at 6am today. I wearily yelled at him to come to me (whilst I'd woken it seemed by legs had somehow missed the wakeup call). "What's up?" I enquire. "I think I poked my eye too hard" he sobs. This is followed by a sorrowfull wail "I poked my eye while I was playing" which gave way to more sobs. Thus began Sunday 26th September in the life of me.

I tried to no avail to get back to sleep (quite difficult with a 5 year old poking your eyes to see what sleeping eyes feel like) and gave in at 7am to begin my day. However full of positive thoughts I at least knew I'd be on time for running today and had time to risk trying breakfast first.

I don't usually eat before running as on evenings it makes me feel bloated and increases my weeble levels but I figured I had enough time between 7 and our scheduled run at 11am to give it a go. In keeping with the new WW plan I had tomatoes on toast and so was welll prepared when Tor arrived just after 10am and so we headed to Paul's.

Paul comes down to meet us positively beaming, a mischievous glint in his eye. Proudly he whips out two pieces of carefully folded paper. "Do you want the green route or the blue route?" he proudly announces. Oh yes, Paul has been extending our route. Now I'm having a blue or green pill moment knowing neither are going to be as yummy as smarties nor have such a wonderfully indulgent effect. Tor very cleverly (ooooh she's so sneaky) asks Paul which one he'd choose to which he responds green. And so this is the choice we go with and ye gads! he certainly extended it. At least another 2 miles. I'm fearing for my back, hip and sanity. Just out of interest Paul shows us the blue route and Tor instantly collapses into hysterics! It was like goddam spaghetti junction. Uphill downhill portside starboard and over the deep blue sea. Perhaps blue route can wait til next week... ah yes when I'm away and Paul's in Poland...

So how was today? Tough in a word. Think I'm booking in at the docs in the morning with my hip/back as it got really painful today... definately beyond achy. See what they say or if they tell me to just get over it! We did drop into a walk in a couple of places but still must have covered about 7.5 miles in 1hr30 and most of it was running. Had a few distractions... Marvin the Garmin ran out of battery right at the start and I felt quite lost without him (mental note to self to take a pic of Marvin and post it up here) then Eid Mela was on in the park so we had to run past some amazing cooking smells... thought we were safely past then hit the funfair with chips, hotdogs, candy floss, doughnuts... mmmm.... doughnuts... Tor broke into a sprint to get past and resist; I've never seen her run so fast and this may be a useful tactic to employ in the half marathon. Now if I can only find someone to run in front of us with hot doughnuts.

Apparently we have only 4 weeks to go so guess at some point soon we're going to have to step it up another notch and swallow that blue pill.

Better at running than blogging? Possibly, Probably and Yup!

I shall begin with an apology.
I have been a horrendous blogger. I fully intend to blog and update the wider world of my running malarky and suchlike but alas and alack that wretched miscreant Proscrastination and his wingman General Lackoforder have thwarted my best intentions. Sorry. I can only assume that this is the online version of lateness. I'm perpetually late. I blame it on a late birth. I was born two weeks late and seem to have spent much of my time trying to catch up and this is the virtual embodiment in our computer based world. Much like Gandalf I arrive exactly when I intend to... it's just unfortunate this rarely fits in with the rest of the world and is usually after the balloons have been popped and the cake eaten. To conclude, I run better than I blog!

The running is coming on some though. I think we've got about 5 weeks to go now and it's a little scary to think how quickly it's come round. We've had a few ups and downs and not all on route. Tor's blood pressure was truly scary for a while but she soldiered on totally awesomely regardless. Infact she's a total inspiration and i really couldn't run without her. We've ran in a variety of weathers - sunny, scorchio, windy, humid (also known as no-airy), drizzly, windy (yes that's repetition as it's been really windy) and rainy. My favourite is the rain by far. Although it makes it a bit hard to see (could do with window wipers - we make do with a cap. I was tempted to get a visor a la poker stylee as my head gets very hot in a cap, but I simply couldn't be that fashion foolhardy!) it's just so gosh darn it refreshing. You don't get too hot and the air seems to be much easier to breathe making the run much easier. It's also much more fun as we can dash about in muddy puddles and generally splash around acting like the crazy spritely folk that we are. So I love the rain running. Wonder what we'll get come half marathon day?

My main running issue has been my back which reduced us to walking a bit last week which made me feel poo and like a cop out. Apparently it's gone into spasm and I should do shorter runs if I must run but there's no way I'm cutting back this close. So spasm, schmasm! I might look into pilates classes this week to see if that will help. It must be bad - I've worn flat shoes to work all week! I'm also hoping some weight loss will help. Have started a new plan (which as a Weight Watchers leader I have to trial before I launch it to my class) and it does seem to have given me my mojo back. It'd be nice to lose half a stone before the run and then at least I'll be carrying less of me around! My physio said to try a hot water bottle (for my back that is not the weight loss) which I did after last night's run. I was then disturbed at 1am by the fact I had a soggy back and a not so full bottle so feel I may need to replace it (my bottle not my back) but it did seem to help until the flood!

It's also getting dark for our evening runs now which is very exciting. I love this time of year. It's so electrically charged it's like the tide is changing. It makes me want to giggle like an over excited 5 year old on orange smarties waiting for Santa! We have needed to invest in some reflective and high visibility gear though so I have a lovely running gilet (or whatever they're called) in fluorescent yellow... feel a bit like a traffic cone on legs now! We also have to run with torches as part of our route takes us through parkland and we can't see where our feet are going. That may not sound important until you hit a drop you aren't expecting and suddenly your hip is best buddies with your collar bone or you turn round to find you've lost your sister in a Vicar of Dibley puddle moment. We got a torch each as I run ahead a little which is a bit daft really. You see as I mentioned we go through parkland which is dark and somewhat secluded. However, whilst the torch is fantastic for picking my way through this treacherous terrain it suddenly struck me one evening, as I imagined the Crimewatch music in the background, that it may not be so effective at fending off knife weilding assailants or the like. It was with haste I doubled back on my route to the safety of numbers in the form of Tor and Paul (who now sometimes joins us in the week too).
So in this changing weather safety is the name of the game and the game is paying off. Last night we did our best time to date. We flipped our northfield run and ran it in reverse managing 6.04 miles in 1hour, 9 minutes and 27 seconds. Definately running better than I blog!

URGH...PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER GIRL!

Only a quick one tonight. Before I start I should explain my day confusion in my last post. The rainy run was Friday, the half run half walk was Sunday and really I don't think I intended to refer to Wednesday at all and where I have I probably mean Friday. Well I'm sure that's all just been made crystal clear!
Just back from running our regular Wednesday 6.1 miles and am feeling a little done in! So quickly writing this while Darren's grouting in the bathroom as I can't get in the bath til his done... trust me I need to... I stink... not even I want to sit by me and I have to!
So don't know what on earth's wrong with me tonight. The weather was perfect, nice and dry and cool with lots of lovely air to breathe so really I shouldn't 've had a problem but I found tonight quite tough. Way back in the days when I used to go to the pub all regular and everything, occasionally I'd drink a certain brand of jamaican inspired coconut rum and cola. Sometimes on such occasions I'd find this would give me a horrible feeling in my chest. The best way I can describe it is like there's a fist behind my solar plexus and it's pushing really hard outwards (oooh alien flashbacks!). OK sounds dramatic.. it's not at all, it's just damn uncomfortable and makes me feel like I can't fully breathe in. So that's what happened tonight which is pretty pants cos it was bugging me and making me feel uncomfy all the way round. At it's worst half way round it began to feel I had a rope tied round my bra line that just kept getting pulled tighter but persisting past that it lapsed back to jamaican rum syndrome.
With this in mind I haven't really enjoyed tonight's run but am happy as I still got round it. I just kept thinking I've done it before so I have to do it again - if I slow down or take a step backwards just once it could be a slippery slope back to square one and we've come far to far. Tor did awesomely fab again tonight, doing all the dodgy hills etc and we're still keeping to our PB time.
Well I refuse to moan and groan on anymore cos reading back through this it's so whiny and annoying I'm feeling the need to give myself a slap so I shall move on. Some positive thought's: Tor's sister-in-law has pointed out that we're running the best part of a marathon every week, my justgiving page donations have lept up today and I lost 1lb this week! Woo hoooooo! As for now, Darren's finished his little bit of tiling so I'm off for a bath...

Rain, Socks and Chav's v Runners

Well a chance to catch up on my blogging then to bring us semi up to date. Are we sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin with Wednesday...

The weather turned cooler as we set out for our Wednesday night run. This run up through Northfield, round through Rubery towards Rednal and back to Longbridge has become our regular 6.1 miles midweek jaunt (now there's words I never thought I'd string together in a sentence!). It was my socks that most concerned me on heading over to Tor's. You see, since becoming a runner (heehee.. me a runner) I have found that the right socks in the right shoes helps. I can't tell you how much pleasure it gave me that when I bought my first pair of running socks one was marked with a little L whilest the other was scribed with an R.. now all I have to remember is which side the L goes and which side the R goes. Anyways, I digress... So my regular running socks were all in the wash and I was left with a black pair of Tigger socks (the annoying tiger from Winnie the Pooh in case you wondered). Now whilst he may be the bounciest flounciest Tigger this unfortunate happening was not helping me feel remotely springy. You see my socks made my trainers feel wrong which isn't a good place to be when you're about to run 6.1 miles! However, frantic searching was futile and failed to turn up any suitable alternative so it was off to run in Tigger socks I went.

The run however was great! It was cloudy and very very rainy which seemed to make everything so much easier. I didn't get too hot as the rain constantly cooled me down and generally it was a much more comfortable temperature to run in. Breathing was a lot easier too (yes I know you'd think it comes naturally but you'd be surprised). I do find my head gets hot when I run and as such needed to remove my cap but this then led to me getting rain in my eyes (a condition that from this day forth I shall refer to as raineye!) meaning I couldn't see where I was going so I did need to put the cap back on. A hot head but I was no longer running into things which given the harm potential of such things is probably the better of the 2 options.

Another rain hazard is of course the chav's in their boy racer cars who rather than think "Oooh look at that couple of portly young ladies out for a jog trying to improve themselves and the world around them in small everyday steps.. wish I had that sort of motivation to levitate my backside to a position where I could achieve such things... perhaps I should slow down and steer widely so as to make their journey that little bit easier and thus express my support and admiration" think in stead "oooh joggers, oooh big puddle. I'll whack me foot down, steer into that mini lake and soak the sad cows". It is with glee then that I report of Tor's amazing excellent evasive skills! I'm sure she read their minds a la Alice in Meyer's Eclipse as with one tiny little step she ensured they missed their target and runined their sport! YAY Tor! JOGGERS 1 - CHAV'S 0!!

Other fantastical type developments are that we are completing this run now in a regular time of 1hr 15 mins and Tor did the whole route non stop too including the mountainous hill which taunt and haunt are every turn (OK so they're not mountains but you run up 'em and see how you feel!).

Overall then Wednesday night's run was fantabulous and whilst wetter than a wet thing on a wet day in wetsville (running for the lifeboats seemed rather apt), I felt really motivated by the end of it.

Today's run was a lot more tricky. Not sure why but think not doing a proper warm up may be taking it's toll. I felt quite stiff before starting and very much like I was struggling before I started. Sunday's we run a 5km route twice and I think doing laps may be the problem. You see when you run one big circuit you feel like you're actually heading somewhere no matter where in your route you are. Doing a lap and knowing you've got to run another one feels like there's no progression so I think next week we're going to tackle an 8 mile run round the same area but in one big circuit so we're actually heading somewhere an not just going round and round in circles. We ran the first 5km non stop then speed walked the rest so we're only 15mins slower than running the whole route. Leg muscles are definately complaining though so I'm going to google warm ups to see if that helps. Wonder if the time if day affects how we do too?

Well, am still sat here now in my sweaty running gear as the water's turned off whilst we have some plumbing issues. Going to go see if my involvement helps solve the situation or adds to it...