Evesham 10k race report

Exciting news is that I've hit 300k!! :) 30% done with the challenge, and I've run 30 miles already in July. Happy days. :)

Today I ran the Evesham 10k with 3 friends. Now, these friends are all speedy speeders, and I'm much happier just getting the distance in without worrying about times or working too hard at it.... but when you start racing and you've got the chance to run with someone for a while to distract you from the pain that is running 6 miles faster than you'd like....  :) Thanks to Kerry for keeping me going!! Really pleased with my time of 1:01:53 as it's 8 minutes faster than my previous 10k time. Next 10k race is in September and I hope to get under 1 hour. 2 months of training should take care of that, just need to get the speed sessions in!

The best part of today was seeing Ryan and his siblings and friends taking part in the fun runs after our race.  Ryan has been really tired all weekend -turns out he's been playing with the playdoh at school and has glutened himself, probably by not washing his hands before sucking on his fingers/thumb which is a new thing he has started doing. So this morning he was saying he didn't want to do the race as his tummy hurt and he was tired, but when he got there and got to put on his race number and see all of his friends, he got very excited.  :)

He ran really well, though I'm still trying to work out if his bumping a poor little girl sideways was an accidental wobble due to his unsteady running gait or deliberate due to Ryan's overexcited behaviour before the race (I did apologise to her dad!!) but he gave it his all and was very proud to finish and collect his goodies. :)  Natalie and Lucas ran too, the race was 500m and has finished their 1000 Miles of Smiles pledge of 5 miles each. Most of this has been scooting, with the 2 races they've done as part of it. Please do sponsor them for such a great job, you can use my Just Giving page as all money will go direct to HemiChat.

Here's some photos from today!

Next up is lots of training and a 5k mud race next weekend! It's the Race for Life Pretty Muddy, and if you'd like to sponsor me and my 3 friends for this amazing cause then please use the following link: https://www.justgiving.com/crazy-quartet-racers/  My 5k will count towards my distance challenge, but we'd love to get a good amount raised for Cancer Research UK.

Thank you to those who have donated to my Road to 1000k recently. It means SO much to so many, THANK YOU! x x x
Emily

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

100miles!! my first parkrun, and Natalie's first 5k

Sooo.... since that 10k race a few weeks ago I've been getting stuck in with the training, getting out 3-4 times a week, and managing 8 mile then 10 mile long runs in preparation for the Malvern half marathon (3wks tomorrow- eek!!). My shins aren't loving me for it.... but some new shoes have helped and I'm loving getting out and running regularly again.

Yesterday morning I spotted my ticker stood at 99 miles. I wasn't due to run yesterday, but I couldn't leave it like that.... so after we got back from Mark's birthday dinner and the kids were in bed I headed out for a 1 mile run. Up until this week I'd been using an app on my phone to track my distance, but the GPS was never very accurate so I'd have to come home and re-route my run on the computer which took ages. Since I'm doing a distance challenge this isn't a good thing, so I sold a few old baby bits and got myself a new toy. Trying it out for the second time, I headed out with the intention of running half a mile down the road, then turning around and coming straight back. A nice glass of wine and some Pizza Express tiramisu was waiting for me, so I made it a quick one :)

1 mile on the dot and I'm at 100 miles!! For those of you who think in kilometers, that's 169, so still a long way to go, but I've done a lot this month and will keep the miles coming in!!! I enjoyed that wine and pudding to celebrate :)


This morning we didn't have our usual football and ballet so I decided to try out the local parkrun. For those who don't know what that is, look it up! A free, timed 5k every Saturday morning at 9am in parks around the world. I've been wanting to go for ages!! Natalie, who is 6, decided she wanted to run too, so off we went. It was so much fun and she did brilliantly, running the first half completely then only walking a little bit for the last half. We finished in 41minutes. It was muddy, and she was tired in this pic (and I look awful!!) but here we are :)

I wore my fundraising top, and while we were waiting in the queue for coffee afterwards a lady asked me what Hemiplegia was. I told her, and explained that Ryan (who was with me) had it and expained about HemiChat and all the great things it does. About 20min later she came and found me, and gave me £20 for the charity pot. Was the loveliest thing, and really made my day. I doubt she'll ever see this or I'll see her again, but a huge heartfelt thank you to that wonderful lady and what she did today. It also took the total raised so far to £100!! :)

I'm planning something to help raise funds that you can all join in with, so watch this space in the next week or so while I get things organised!! :)   x x

Race report and 10% of my goal complete!

I survived the race -yay! :) I had my doubts because of the training (or lack of) but made a point of going slower than I felt I needed to for the first lap and planned to go from there for the second. I'm glad I did, as there was a long gradual incline for most of the first lap so on the second one I kept it steady for that and when I hit the downhill then I knew I was going to make it.

I loved the race atmosphere. Encouraging stewards, lovely runners to chat with to keep me going for parts of the race, and that fantastic feeling when you cross the line and know you are done!! My time was 1:11:40, which isn't brilliant but is much better than I thought it was going to be and it gives me room for improvement. Here's a photo of me with my medal after the finish.

Since I was running with a friend, there wasn't anyone there to get action shots (what a shame...) but will try for those in my half next month.

In other news, with my recovery run on Monday (ouch!) I hit 62 miles, which is 100k and 10% of my goal distance.  900k to go!! :)  I've made a training plan for the next 6 weeks to get me ready for the Malvern half marathon, and counting up the miles (estimating a bit for tempo/interval days) I'll be adding over 100 more miles to that total by the end of June.

Tonight's run was a bit of interval work. I'm trying to get some quality training in but still recovering a bit from Saturday's race so it was a shorter one at 2.31 miles, but it was a bit faster and with more hills than normal.

Ryan has his 6 monthly paediatrican appointment tomorrow morning, this should be fairly straightforward but and we have a great consultant but Ryan said to me tonight "mummy, why do I have to keep seeing him?" which was too complicated to explain at bedtime!

Thanks to those who have sponsored me so far, can't wait until the end of the year to pass the money on to HemiChat.  Last night I've booked us in for a meet up in June at Cadbury World. Ryan's excited to see some of his friends again, and this wouldn't be possible without the funding that goes into HemiChat.

More soon!
Emily x 

First race tomorrow!!

Not had a lot of sleep this week due to a poorly little one but will get an early night tonight ready for my 10k in the morning. Please pray for sunshine! And pop over and sponsor me on my year long challenge if you haven't already. :) 

Ryan won't be coming to watch this one, it's a long way and he's had a rough week thanks to a piece of cake that turned out to NOT be gluten free as we thought.... but he's excited to see my medal when I get home. :)

I need to fix my counter above as it's cheating me out of 4 miles that I have done, but it'll start jumping up rapidly now while I get in the longer runs ready for my half at the end of next month. Eeek!