Sports Relief 6 miles - 25th March 2012

Well, Im sure you've seen the previous post about Sports Relief after the brilliant tv show, with such very sad stories, and the incredibly inspirational charity events done by people like John Bishop, David Walliams, Frank Skinner.

So on the 25th March, it was my turn to take part and try and raise money for Sports Relief and at the same time the NRAS as I finished the next 6 miles of the 100 mile challenge. I have to say it was an incredible day and an incredible setting.

The setting was the Mall, we were running down to Buckingham Palace and then round the fountain and back up towards Horse Guards Parade. As I arrived with the family, Anton De Bec was just giving Anne Widdicombe a piggy back racing against another pair from Strictly Come Dancing.

I was supposed to be running today with two others - my brother - who unfortunatley was unable to run due to being on crutches (unfortunately it also looks like his injury is ruling him out of the first half marathon of the year - the Tewkesbury Half), and Abbey Stead who was taking part in her first event and running a mile.

The key aim for me was just to make sure I ran the whole thing - didnt want to walk at all. The course was flat and 6 mile long laps was all that had to be done and although the legs were really feeling it, especially as it was the longest I had run in 2012, it was all doing very well, until.....................

..............I turned the corner to start the final lap. Minutes earlier running up the Mall I had seen running in the opposite direction a certain boyband with bouncers all round them - yep thats right - JLS were on the route.

Unfortunately as I turned the bend to start the final lap a new set of runners had just started off and were feeding into the route and at the same time on the other side of the track JLS and the ridiculous girl mania that follows them everywhere were just finishing their mile (Given how fit they are you would have thought they would have given 3 or 6 miles ago - obviously they've got no stamina!!!!). It appears that this meant everyone had to get as close to JLS as possible and no matter what people were doing, the girl fans would do anything to get to JLS. This made the start of the last lap very tricky, playing dodgems, avoiding being tripped up and knocked over by crazy screaming girls - and they werent even screaming for me!

Eventually the 6 miles were completed. Abbey had completed her mile and I had finished in a time of 1 hr 13 which I was really pleased with, especially given I had managed to run the whole thing!

Here's the tracking for the day : http://www.adidas.com/com/micoach/WorkoutDetails.aspx?WID=f0fdf373-707b-4a74-a924-a49f79583dc7 and I thought you may like to see a couple of pics too - which are below.

One final thing - got notified by friends on twitter on the way home that I had made it on to the BBC news - eventually managed to get to see the footage - and there I was plodding through the shot :) Atleast it got the NRAS a bit more publicity as well.

                                                           The Mall

                                                    Abbey and Me after the run

Crystal Palace 10k - 4th March 2012

So, event 1 of the 100 miles for the NRAS was the Crystal Palace 10k. Unfortunately the build up to the event was not good, with me being ill for a couple of weeks before hand. Having not been able to do the level of training I knew I needed to do, and with the Sports Relief 6 mile and the Olympic Park 5 mile runs in the next couple of weeks, I knew I had to be sensible and not do anything to risk any sort of injury.

The event was great - not an easy course by any means, but a really well organised event by Wrap Up and Run for Age UK. It was a cold wet day, and after a warm up from a tv style Mr Motivator (I can never do these - if I do - Im too tired to run - thats part of the problem of not really being very fit and being quite overweight!), we were then given a motivational speach by the ex tv celeb who played Tony Stamp from the Bill.

The course was two 5k laps starting in the Crystal Palace athletics track and after running past the track on the first lap, the final 300 metres was back round the track to the finish line. It had some lovely flat section, but these were punctuated with some very short sharp steep hills, which I decided I would walk given the lack of training. As a result it was a very slow time, with some very fast runners! I was overtaken at about the 3k mark by the leader (at the 8k mark!!!) I tried to trip him up but failed miserably.

Eventually managed to finish the race with a time of 1 hr 23 finishing (NOT LAST) in 636th place. No medal for this event, but quite a nice t-shirt which came in very handy on my holidays a few weeks later.

If you want a bit of a laugh, this is the link to the pictures on the day : http://sportcam.net/CompetitorImage.aspx?ID=507&General=No If this doesnt work, then the sportcam website is where you will find them and I was number 507.

Finally heres the ups and downs of the day - and that was it 6.2 miles completed 93.8 to go!!!
http://www.adidas.com/us/micoach/WorkoutDetails.aspx?WID=169b6c67-ee71-4a4c-88ca-b7cb24df5d1c

It's time to catch up!

Well, firstly all I can do is apologise for the silence on here. It's been a while and it's time to catch up!

So much to tell you all about, as I'm now 17.2 miles through the challenge, with another 13.1 tmiles taking place in just a couple of weeks time!

So, the next few blogs are a bit of a catch up, to let you know what I've been up to, the good, the bad, the injuries, and to try and drum up a bit of publicity for a few other challenges that are going on as well