I’m going places…

Our Children’s Emergency Fund, which I’m raising money for is massively important at the moment. Whether it in emergency situations in Kyrgyzstan, Niger or Pakistan, the children are the most vulnerable and the most at risk. Although I am biased, I do think a great way to fundraise in these situations is to organise an event or take part in an already up and running one. 

We’ve had some really inspirational stories of individuals fundraising for Pakistan – whether it be a seven year old doing a sponsored cycle or the company Totemic who raised over £10,000 for Haiti and are fundraising again for our work in Pakistan. This is so fantastic!

Sharafat has just signed up to run the Royal Parks Half Marathon for our work in Pakistan and has already raised a fantastic amount. Any more takers? The deadline is Friday 27 August. Get in touch if you’re interested!

One top fundraising idea is from Terry. He’s running the Great North Run for Save the Children (a half marathon three weeks before mine) .  He’s going to match the highest donation that someone gives him if he beats his personal best time. I have no personal best time as this is my first time, but I did put myself in the 2.15-2.30 hours bracket for completing the race, so if I beat that, I will match the highest donation. 

I have been busy out and about over the past couple of weeks, but not always running. There was the London Triathlon on 7 and 8 August which was great fun. We had 30 Save the Children supporters take part and it was inspiring to see so many people throw themselves into the Royal Victoria Dock before cycling around London and running up to 10K.

I haven’t run 10K yet, regardless of swimming and cycling before that!  But it was great to see anyway, and everyone did really well.  Michael Garnett has raised an amazing £1800 and managed to complete his first ever Triathlon in under 2 hours 30 mins – very impressive.

I was so inspired by all this energy and fit people that I promptly didn’t do any training for a week and then I went on holida. Good from me!

Went to the South of France with 11 friends. I did amaze myself by going on a run. In the mountains. In the heat. While on holiday! I feel I may have caught the running bug (or the fear of how soon the half marathon is).

In a word, it was awful. Steep hills are not my thing, so it was a real struggle. I went with my boyfriend Pat and friend Jack who are both really fit and are doing the Amsterdam marathon the weekend after I do my half marathon, so perhaps not the best people to choose to build my confidence and make me feel better about my own abilities.

It does make such a massive difference having people to spur you on, and to push you. If nothing else, these boys just ran a lot faster than me. So after feeling proud of my acheivements there. I didn’t go running for another week.
 
This week I went for my first run in the rain and dark. I feel that was a psychological boundary. When I used to see people out on the street on a Sunday evening when it was dark and raining I thought they were absolutely mad – and now I’m one of them.

One top tip from Runner’s World is if you’re struggling to find the motivation to run, just get out and try to find the fun in running again. Don’t worry about time or distance. My best friend Ali had just bought a new bike, so we went out together in the rain and the dark to road test it. Needless to say he was somewhat faster than me, but it was just fun to be outdoors and to hear him whizz past me every now and again. Running with someone on a bike also made me run faster than my normal plodding. I also enjoyed how the rain can cleverly disguise your sweat.
 
Following on from this I went for my longest run yet – breaking the 50 minute boundary. It was 4.5miles, which I’m really chuffed with. I’m obsessed with map my run. It totally makes you feel better when you come home absolutely exhausted to see that you have actually run further than you did the day before. I did feel it by the end – whilst the run in France I felt was more my lungs hurting, this run was more my legs.
 
This weekend I’m going back to France for a week for my sister’s wedding. Not sure how much running will be done there. My sister’s fiancé is a mad-keen runner and does marathon distances for fun, so maybe he can take me on a little run as his warm up. Just over 6 weeks to go…