Done!

It's Monday 22nd April and it's all over! 5 hours and 11 minutes.

I am a bit stiff and creaky but nowhere near as bad as I thought I'd be which is a great relief!

So how was it? Well, it was pretty tough going towards the end but mostly I felt good.

I found the heat quite difficult - I'm used to rain and snow and yesterday I got sunburn! I just wasn't sure how to deal with it actually being warm! The first 19 miles or so went well, and to see family and friends along the way was a highlight of my life, let alone the day. It was very very special - thank you for coming. Craig and Jack managed to find me at three different points along the way which was amazing and very emotional.

Huge thanks also to all of you supporting from home, watching the tracker and playing a seriously challenging version of Where's Wally by looking out for me. The support you have all shown me throughout has been incredible and I have gratefully relished all of it.

After that it got tough. The crowd was amazing but in truth I found it a bit overwhelming. I tried to listen to music to get some focus back but I couldn't turn it up loud enough and I was also afraid of running straight past someone who had gone to a lot of trouble to come and support me! I felt like I was still going well - I was after all overtaking a lot of people who were walking - but the time tells a different story! As was the fact that I was overtaken by a Rhino, a bottle of beer, a camel and what I think was some kind of Mr Man - or was possibly hallucinating by then. Had I kept a better eye on my watch I think I could have got it overwith more quickly and if I'm totally honest I'm a wee bit frustrated with myself that I didn't do that. But hey - I got there in the end!

It was an incredible experience. Tower Bridge was every bit as fantastic as people say it is. The tunnel was awful - people strewn all over the place in all sorts of trouble. I found that hard to see given that I would have quite liked a lie down at that point. I had a quick stretch and walked for about a minute. Felt quite faint and thought "this is annoying" and realised the only way was to keep running - and as I ran (slowly!) out of the tunnel there were some magnificent and very special friends and suddenly it all got a bit possible again.

Most wonderful of all though is to have raised a total I never imagined possible. I was hoping for £2000. When I did that thing you do where you wonder 'imagine if...' I had secretly dreamed of getting closer to £3000. Your incredible support and generosity has in fact raised £5375. Unbelievable!! I am thrilled, humbled, grateful and proud. Thank you.

I can fully identify with John Bingham's quote;

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."

A marathon has been something I had very vaguely thought maybe would be an amazing thing to do, usually once a year whilst watching it on TV and tucking into a bacon sarnie. A thought repeatedly buried a few days later. My courage to do it came from one man and I am proud to have achieved this in his memory.

For you Grandad.

Take care all and thanks for coming along.

Love, sweaty socks and tiger balm

Lizzie
xxx

12 hours to go!!

I really need to get to bed!

But it's been a while since my last post so before I (hopefully) get some sleep the last week or so has involved:

Shock, sadness and sympathy for the bereaved and injured in Boston - my heart absolutely goes out to you all.

Some running - some of it even in the sunshine!! Just about perfect conditions for tomorrow which is great.

A great experience at the expo picking up my number.

A lot more tears - the donations and incredible messages have continued to pour in. At the time of writing an unimaginable five and a half thousand pounds has been raised. Even a coffee morning at which I hoped to raise twenty or thirty pounds brought in an amazing £211. I am grateful beyond words. My aim was to make a horrible thing that happened to a great man something that good could come from - and thanks to all of you it has.

I will be carrying all that love and support with me. And especially carrying with me my beautiful Grandad, my Granny, Great Uncle Ken, Jo's Grandad, Rebecca's grandparents, Jane's Mum, Caroline's Dad, Phil's Mum, the Richardons and above all my wonderful family and the hope that we can find out how to make this horrible disease a thing of the past. Thank you for all your donations that are helping the great work that goes towards that goal, and to supporting the families who need support. You are all amazing!

See you at the finish line....!
xxxxx

Sunshine

This time in two weeks it's all over!! Eeeeek!!!

Friday was the last of the big runs. It was a bit of a departure from the schedule but having missed the long ones back during Footgate I just felt I needed to get one more decent distance under my belt. So I did a 13 miles in what was yet again freezing cold, wind and yes, you've guessed it....snow. I mean, really?! It was quite hard going which worried me a bit - how can I do twice the distance if 13 feels so tough - and feels way tougher than when I did the half marathon all those weeks ago and am supposed to be fitter than that now? Hmm. Will just blame it on the weather I think. 

A nice route though on the Groombridge to East Grinstead cycle path. A flat route. Flat is good!! I was momentarily distracted from my weather related grumpiness when I ran past a field of people camping. Camping???!!!! I happen to like camping but seriously - it is waaaay too cold for that kind of thing. Camping is for August. People of Britain - snow and camping equals not ok. Get yourselves somewhere warm with some walls.

Also felt very bad on that run as had been very grumpy due to snow before leaving the house which was very unfair to my lovely Mum who was spending that few hours looking after the boys and dutifully making sock puppets and keeping them entertained. Sorry Mum! Mum also brought me one of those sporty restore your energy type drinks to try - which was very nice of her, but again I was all grumpy and said "but it's blue". I'm sure it's fantastic stuff but I just can't see how something blue could be good for me. But it was actually quite good. Only drawback was it made me, um well, burp a bit. Sorry to say but no other way to put it. So might have to shelve the blue drink just in case I happen to get stopped by the BBC as it would never do to burp at Sue Barker - that's like treason or something?!

Back to the schedule since then and that meant a 90 minute run on Sunday. Knees were a bit unhappy with all this running about so I did half of that on the cross trainer. And now, rather excitingly, I don't have to do more than an hour. I like this tapering malarkey. And now I'm the kind of smug arse who says things like "only" running for an hour. "Just an hour. Pah!" Still, it won't be long before normal service is resumed and the prospect of running for an hour has me reaching for the biscuits/excuses/other pressing matters that are way more important than exercise.

Of course there is also one more run that is quite significantly more than an hour but am trying not to think about that. Pace wise my running app kindly informs me that I am running at around 9.30 per mile (that's minutes, not hours) so looking at taking about four and a half hours. My, that sounds like a long time to be running!

Donations and messages have continued to come in in a way that has been profoundly moving and heartwarming and I couldn't be more grateful. I now have so very many reasons to get round this thing - it has been unbelievable. Thank you.

Some great advice coming in with those too. Alan, your advice regarding ensuring that in the unfortunate event that all thpse miles gets a bit much I am well prepped to aid bystanders who are trying to help me while the emergency services are on their way has all been noted. I will wear said white shirt with arrow pointing to where my heart is. Alan also gave me the following advice. 

"Also, you may want to think about putting an X over your lips w/ the inscription "Don't even think about it!" since it has been shown that mouth-to-mouth (M-T-M) resuscitation isn't necessary or more beneficial than chest compression alone.  Plus, you don't want to start gagging when some old guy w/ a beer breath is trying to administer M-T-M."

I'll be taking all the advice on board - thanks Alan. Although I will have to add a make exceptions for Ryan Gosling clause to that last bit. You never know...

A few of you have asked whether Craig is running too and the answer is sadly not. We had always hoped to do this together but he has quite literally found his achilles heel so long distance running is out for him at least for now. He has a plan to do his big thing though. And to be honest to have both somehow got this training done would have been really tough - just not enough hours in the day. So on marathon day Craig will be having to keep our boys entertained in the middle of a huge crowd where it's miles to the nearest loo / place to eat / something that would entertain a child - so believe me he has by far the hardest task on the day! Friends and family will be with him though so am sure it will all be fine!

It was sunny today! And yesterday!! This is good. Not too much sun - a heatwave would be unhelpful. But sunshine makes me actually feel like going running rater than wishing I was on the sofa - so more of that please. Marathon or no marathon we are all enjoying the sunshine!

It's getting late and my pact with myself is to be in bed by 10pm in the lead up to this. So off I jolly well pop - see you soon for a getting ever closer update!

Night
xx

Snow and Sponsors

Evening!

Just sitting down to catch up on a bit of blogging with a glass of red. Wine is of course an essential part of my training regime - almost as important as chocolate, and a snow plough!

Having arrived pretty late to the Twitter party in the last few months, amongst all the stuff I'm looking at from a work point of view I must admit to following a few just for the giggles. None make me laugh more than the fake Queen (Elizabeth Windsor, @Queen_UK if you're interested) and her post today was:

'Dear the weather. Just to confirm, it's APRIL. Regards, the Queen.'

Couldn't have said it better myself! It has snowed all day. Not settling, but nevertheless snowing. (No this is not Groundhog Day - it is I promise a new entry to this blog) I fear come marathon day if it's even a teeny bit warm we'll all be dropping like flies from dehydration having got used to running in the freezing cold!

Still - managed to sneak a run in. Indoors! Never mind a treadmill to protect my foot - it's all about protection from the elements now! A friend had my boys so that I could run - just one of the huge number of ways people have shown their support is the way friends and family have helped me to shoehorn this into my life!

The response to sending out sponsorship messages on facebook and by email has been absolutely overwhelming. Not just the generosity of the pledges, but the lovely words of support have been just incredible to read.  It feels like every time I check my phone there's another lovely message. I had hoped to be working towards £1000 by now, and am at almost twice that. Unbelieveable! It's not helping with the crying though frankly! There is a lot of weeping going on - it's getting embarrassing - it's out on the road, it's in the gym, it's on the train when I see a message - this blubbing is getting everywhere!

And joking aside for a moment - I am truly, profoundly and deeply grateful. Thank you so very very much.

Not to mention really excited to raise a serious bit of cash for this cause. This is all such an amazing experience in ways I never imagined.

My Mum's local quiz night raised £30 last might - and several made their own personal donations too which is fabulous. The cakes also raised £30 which is brill.

Thoughts are now turning to what to wear? I see you rolling your eyes but this is a genuine concern for several reasons...
1 If it is warm, the clothes I've been wearing and which have kept me a remarkably, and thankfully, chaffing free zone, will be too warm, so I will have to wear something different and could be in all manner of scratchy trouble!

2 Do I wear something bright on my head so that people can spot me?

3 If I wear something easy to spot that could mean that I am captured on film forever with sparkly deely boppers on my head. Although to be fair, I think there is footage of that from the eighties from when I wasn't being ironic or attempting to be highly visible so I guess it's already out there.

4 I go red when I run. Very red. Very red indeed. I need to hide my face otherwise St Johns ambulance will be running after me the entire way assuming I'm about to keel over.

Right - off to stretch a bit, foam roll a bit and send some thank you messages.

Cheers all.

L
xx

Hello!

It's Bank Holiday Monday (marvellous - there should be more of these - especially the day after the marathon!) and there is a great deal of chocolate in this house - surprising when you consider how much has already been eaten!

So, I did my 19 miles on Saturday. The big one before the big one! And still it snows! I couldn't believe I was still running in snow, albeit little flurries that weren't 'landing'. But snow is snow, and to snow it needs to be cold. Can't complain too much though as clearly there are parts of the country that I wouldn't be able to get out of the front door, far less trot around Tunbridge Wells moaning about my sore legs!

The first half was fine - from then it was pretty tough going. I'm not going to deny there were a few tears! Many of you reading this will know I love a cry - so no great surprise really. When I got home I bumped into a neighbour and attempted to answer her question and managed to half speak/half blub a load of nonsense. Her words to my husband were "Your wife is broken!"

It is hard going though. More so than I imagined. I was literally trotting like an idiot by mile 17 and was longing for a sign I could hold explaining to the passing traffic that I was running like a newborn fawn because I was on mile 18 and I don't usually look like this! Two days on and I'm still pretty achey - yesterday involved swearing under my breath whenever I had to walk downstairs. But it does feel a teensy bit possible. Incredibly daunting that I need to add another 7 miles to that total - but also that little bit possible.

The run to the Hare and back from our house is 6 miles. (One of these days I'll sod the training and stop at The Hare for a pint  -  and they do a fantastic Sunday roast). So the way I'm seeing it there is there is a Hare and back to go - surely I've got a Hare and back left in me??!!

I'm also told the crowd gets those final miles on the clock so am banking on that! Am sure it will be amazing. Especially when I see family and friends. Although again I fear there will be blubbing - except this time in front of thousand of people. I really need to not do my ugly cry in front of that many people!!! I know I've been emotional watching others in the past. I also know it's really hard to spot people - so huge apologies if you go to the effort of coming and I don't see you. I'll be sorting a venue for meeting up afterwards so hopefully catch any of you there at that point.

Feet are holding out ok. Stretching a lot! Really, a lot!!

Sponsorship is coming in and that is really exciting and a huge incentive as that's what this is all about. It will be amazing to raise a good amount for this fantastic charity.

The cakes I made on my course last week have been selling well - am chuffed with that. And local tweeters have been re-tweeting about them and has all just felt very lovely to have local community getting behind someone they don't know just because, well, just because. Thanks TW!

Right - time to go and send some sponsorship mails. Still finding it difficult to do the asking but there is really no point doing all this if I'm not willing to ask - so - here we go!

Thanks for giving this a read and for all the support.

Bye for now
L
xx