Halfway report!

I wish I could say I was halfway through the miles.... but not quite there since I missed a few months with my hip.  I'm halfway through the year though and very pleased to say that I'm 25% there with the distance. Tonight's 3.73miles puts me at 157.9 (typical)miles, which is 252.6km.  And yes, all the .2s and .9s matter as they all add up!

So far I've done 2 races- a 10k and a half marathon.  Here's 2 of the official photos from the half. I love the one of Ryan and the acorn. If you look on Acorn's facebook page you'll spot him in some of their advertising, and he even made the paper (with Mark and Lucas too!!).

Today I started a 16wk training plan for my next half marathon. It'll get me out 4-5 times a week which will make those miles add up quickly. :) I'm going to be brave and join the local running group too now that it's a bit easier to fit in on a Wednesday.


Still to come in the next 6 months:

-the next 750k!! That's 124k (77 miles) a month and my favourite time of year to run is pretty much here.

-lots of races!
Evesham 10k and Race for Life Pretty Muddy 5k in July
Worcester City 10k in September
Great Birmingham half marathon in October
any others I like the look of ;)

-2 month long 'challenges'
August will be 'parkrun month' where I'll do all 5 parkrun races - that's 9am on a Saturday!! Even when on holiday
November will be a runstreak - I'll run every day for the whole month. Hopefully get a race in too.

-a virtual 5k for you to join in and get yourself a medal!! (coming very soon!!)


Thank you all for the support as always, and if you are local and see me out on the roads, give a wave! :)
Emily x

Half Marathon - done!! :)

It was HOT!!! and it was hard work, but I did it - I got round. :) My Garmin said 2:40, my official chip time came through as 2:43 though, as I forgot my Garmin was on auto-pause and stops timing when I stop running. So I had 3 minutes at drinks stations ;)  They were worth it!! :) And now I have a time to aim for when I run the Great Birmingham half in October. Training for that starts in a week, this week is recovery and boy do I need it! I was lucky enough to have a day at the spa with a friend today, but you'll be proud of me that I not only took my running gear but actually used it - only 2 miles, but my knees took a beating yesterday with all of the road running, so I needed to go easy.

The children ran the 1k fun run with Mark yesterday and loved it. They took their medals to school today to share, and Ryan's been wearing his since he came home too. :)
Here's a few pics:

Next race is Evesham 10k in 3wks time, followed the week after by a mud run - I'm doing the 5k Pretty Muddy with some friends - it's a Cancer Research UK event and we have a joint fundraising page -https://www.justgiving.com/crazy-quartet-racers/  if you want to donate. I'll be counting the miles from this one but want any sponsorship that week to go to CRUK who do amazing things.  :)

Ryan was casted for a new splint on Thursday. His current one doesn't fit quite right and is giving him blisters and making him walk badly. We get his new one in 2wks and he is very excited because he's chosen Superman for the design - it'll have superman up the back where his current one has Bugs Bunny. He picked this after the day at Cadbury World with HemiChat where he saw one of the other boys with a superhero on theirs. :) Will post pics when he gets it.

Thank you so much for the donations this week and previous. I'm over 20% to the goal of £1000 pounds (and 23% done with the distance challenge!!) and I can't wait to see both numbers going up as the months go on. :)
Emily x

The countdown is on!!

This time next week I will be sat at home with a large glass of wine having just run my first ever half marathon.  It's getting real now!!! Training has been going well, I'm much more confident about the long runs and as long as I space out the days I run, my shins are coping ok. Hayfever has not been a great help this week, leaving me feeling very rotten, thankfully it's been time to rest my legs before the race so I'm not missing any training that I've needed to do and can cope with short and easy runs.

I've hit 200k this week too!! So I'm 20% done, quite pleased with that. :) 

Next Sunday is the Acorns Triple Run, which means there's 3 races all starting at once, the Malvern half marathon which I'm doing, a 5k fun run, and a 1k fun run.  Mark, Natalie, Ryan and Lucas will be running the 1k fun run at the same time as I start my half marathon. This month, HemiChat is doing a charity-wide fundraising challenge similar to mine called 1000 Miles of Smiles. Children and their siblings have all pledged a distance that they will do this month to make up 1000 miles. It can be walked, wheeled, scooted, swam, biked.....  Natalie, Ryan and Lucas have each pledged 5 miles. This 1k will be the first bit, then in 2wks we're off to the Forest of Dean for some scooter and bike fun, and we'll do a family run to finish off the rest. They're very excited to do a proper race (they'll get a medal) just like Mummy, and would love it if you'd sponsor them. You can just donate to my JustGiving page and note that it's for the kids, and I'll make sure it's included in the 1000 Miles total. They'll all be wearing HemiChat tshirts and will be there to cheer (carry) me over the line a few hours later....

Last weekend we had a day out with 16 other HemiChat families at Cadbury World.  It was fantastic to see familiar faces, and meet new people too. The chocolate we came home with was a bonus! Great for after a run ;)  We had lunch in the indoor picnic tent as it had been raining, and after the mass group of girl guides left, Ryan had a great time with other children running around/over/under the empty benches. He's already asking when the next meet will be. :) This was us (apart from me!!) catching the falling chocolate balls.

I'll update the blog a bit more this week in the lead up to the race. Will keep me from getting nervous!! :)
Bye for now, and as always, thanks so much for your support x x
Emily