Some More Photos and Films

This was just passed the 6 mile mark (it took a lot of effort to put that smile/grimace on my face!)

This was just after I crossed the finish line, and the floof gates opened!! See the pain on my poor face! I've never felt pain and exhaustion like it!!
Videos on You Tube:

Warming up: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zUQmx5BdAH8

Getting ready: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ja4DwaJPJHA

Starting off: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ChEn8DEjVh4

6 mile mark: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBpkqON91iY

Finished!: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=T31IaPCqftQ

I RAN IT NON STOP!!!!!

I've done it!! I can't quite believe it's all done and dusted (although each time I want to move, the pain which is consuming my whole body quickly reminds me of what I've just achieved!).

And how did I do?? I did GOOD!!! I ran it all, NON STOP. It was amazing. Horrifically painful and exhausting, and by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. But I did it; in 1.48 minutes.

Official stats:

Overall Position: 8997

Age Group Position: 4193

Gender Position: 3024

Age Group and Gender Position: 1537

Finish Time: 01:48:22

5k Time: 00:32:55

10k: 01:06:43

15k: 01:40:40

So when you consider 19,500 people were running it, I did pretty well. AND I was literally one of the last people to cross the starting line. There were some Army guys pulling a range rover right at the back, and I was just in front of them when I crossed the start. So to finish in overall place of 8997, means that I overtook almost 10,000 people during the run! Which doesn't sound possible, but it is! 

The whole thing was horrendous. The first couple of miles were okay, but tricky because there was such a high volume of people, the hardest thing was to keep a steady pace because you kept on getting stuck in bottlenecks. Then after about 3 miles I got a really bad stitch, which lasted until about the 6 mile mark. 

Then I passed Tom who was cheering for me at 6 miles, which was really nice, but the last four were so, so, so hard. I wasn't ever out of breath which was good. It was just the pure exhaustion, and pain in my legs, specifically my calf's. I kept on running and realised that actually, although I was in so much pain, I had reached the pain limit. At 7 miles I thought I couldn't go on, but then it dawned on me that actually, yes I was in horrific pain, but it wasn't actually any worse than it was at the 6 mile mark. So at least it wasn't getting any worse.

The last two miles were mentally the hardest. Mile 8 was tough, but you knew the end was in sight. Then mile 9 came around and I was able to tell myself that I wasn't running for the next mile marker, the next mile marker was the finishing line. But it was during mile 9 that I almost stopped running. It was weird, it was like my body decided it was going to stop. I hadn't been thinking about stopping, but suddenly my mind realised that my legs were about to stop. So it was like my body was doing it on it's own accord, then when my mind realised what was about to happen, I was able to give myself a good talking to! Very strange. I knew that I didn't want to stop running. I wasn't bothered about the time I did it in, I just wanted to run all 10 miles without stopping. And I did!!

I had to REALLY dig deep though. From mile 6 onwards I had to give myself little pep talks, telling myself to keep going, keep running, and come on! Unfortunately, the only way these had any positive effect was if I said them out loud, so I think some people around me must have thought I was mental. But it helped.

Then when I saw the finishing line it was amazing. I didn't think I could do it, then when I realised I was actually about to finish it, after running non stop, I got a little bit emotional. Then I finished the race and stopped running and oh boy, that's when the real pain kicked in!! I could barely walk. And then the tears started. Proper floods of them. I couldn't stop them, I was just so proud of myself.  

This whole thing has shown me that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. I hadn't done nearly enough training, and if I had done more, it would have been a lot easier for me. But the fact is, I wasn't physically ready for it, but mentally I decided that I was going to just keep on running. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other. And that's just what I did. The pain I was in (and am currently in now) will fade, but this feeling of accomplishment will be with me forever. It was definitely worth it, although I will be in no hurry to do a race like that again. But I will keep up a bit of running. I want to be able to do 3 miles easily now forever. 3 miles is just enough to get your heart going, but it can be done in 30 minutes so it's not long enough to bore you to death.

So if we look at my reasons for doing this from my first ever blog post. They were:

1. To cure my lazyitus: Well I think I can say that this has definitely got my bum off the sofa and has stopped me from being quite so lazy. I don't think I can say I'm cured as I'm a lazy sod at heart, but it's shown me that if I want something, even if it's hard (and I hate it), I can do it if I put my mind to it.

2. Getting fit and having a nice trim body: Well I've not been mistaken for Kylie yet, but I have definitely increased my fitness. When I started I couldn't run for 3 minutes without getting out of breath, and now I've just run for 1hr 48 minutes non stop. So yep, I can say that I am a lot fitter than when I started. And trimmer? Yes I think so. More toned for sure.

3. Personal achievement: Yes. This goes to the top of my list of personal achievements. I didn't honestly think I could do it. But I did!

And actually, I think writing this blog helped a lot. The fact that I knew people were reading it and following my progess meant that I couldn't just quit. It was also thinking that I would be able to write here 'I ran it non stop' that kept me going. I knew that as soon as I stopped, then I wouldn't be able to do that, and that was someting I really wanted. 

So thank you to everyone for all your support, advice and just for reading this blog. I couldn't have done it without all your help.

And I will soon start a new hobby (when I've recovered from the pain I'm in at the moment), which I'll be blogging about. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but I will keep you posted.

I will also upload some videos when I can figure out how to do it! I might have to put them on You Tube then just link to them. I'll also add a link to the official photo's when they've been uploaded.

Less than a week to go!!!

So my minging gym reopened last week. And I've been doing well. Even though it smells like a chimney and only half it is actually open to the public (the rest I'm guessing was too damaged from the fire - inc. changing rooms - there are now portacabin type things outside. And no loo's! Not nice). Anyway, so the last couple of training sessions have been pretty good(ish).

I was on the treadmill for 1 hour ten minutes the other day, completing a total of 6 miles. But I probably only ran 5 of those. My gym has no air con, and I think parts of it must still be on fire, because it is hot, hot, hot! That's the main problem I have - not getting tired or out of breath, which is good. I stop running because I'm sweating so much that I'm in danger of dehydrating and dying! But I checked the weather for Sunday, dry, coldish and cloudy. Perfect!!! So I won't have to cope with overheating hopefully.

Then Sunday I went running in the gym again, and ran solidly for just over 5 miles I think, when my treadmill suddenly stopped. And it wouldn't start again, and there were no other free ones. Which was very irritating because I was actually doing pretty well. However, I don't know whether it's because I stopped so suddenly, or because I've upped my training recently, but my calf muscle on my right leg is really, really sore and tight. But I'm going running again tonight so I'll see how it goes, and then Thursday, then that's it until Sunday!!!!!

I've got some podcasts called PodRunner, which are set at a certain BPM. So the 165bpm one's are at the same pace that I run at. I have two which are an hour each. So I've started listening to them. Although they're not as entertaining as Mika or Girls Aloud, because they're at a constant pace, and at the same pace as I need to be running at, it helps me keep going. So I'll be listening to those while I run round.

So I'm feeling quite upbeat about it at the moment. I'm nervous about it, but although I would really love, love, love to run it all non-stop, I've realised that I might not be able to. So although I will try my very hardest, I've taken some of the pressure off, which means I'll hopefully enjoy it a bit more. I do start to feel a bit sick when I think about it though. But it's just nerves! If I can do it in under 2 hours, I'll be happy.

I got my race position through - there's a wave start - all the fast people (Paula Radcliffe, etc) at the front and slow coaches like me at the back. Each wave (orange, white, green) has 3 sections A, B and C. Guess what I am?? Green C!! The very back of the slowest wave!!! I'll be last to start, and there's a very good chance I could be last to finish!

I also realised that I'll only be updating this blog another few times. I need a new hobby to blog about. I'd like to do something that I actually enjoy this time. As much as I'm very proud about how far I can now run non-stop (at the beginning I couldn't even run for 5 minutes without stopping!), I still actually, really dislike running. It's boring, and painful and just horrible!!! I'm going to carry on doing the gym and a bit of running, but I feel this will probably be the one and only long distance race I ever enter!

So if you have any suggestions for new hobbies, please let me know!

xxx

Don't Panic Mr Mannering!! Fire Fire Fire!!!

At last!! I have a legitimate excuse as to why I cannot go training.

My last excuses were:

1. Louise didn't have proper trainers, so I needed to wait til she bought those so we could go running again

2. I got a cold, and running would only make it worse

3. It was getting dark in the evenings, and so I needed to go running in the gym again - as opposed to Southampton Common (fyi - Lou didn't buy any new trainers - naughty naughty!).

4. I went to the gym - but it was closed. Why?

MY GYM BURNT DOWN!!!

What a brilliant excuse. Even better - it's true!!

I got there and it was all dark - the car park was empty. Which was pretty suss. So I after a bit of private eye sleuthing (looking at the signs posted up), it appeared that the gym had suffered a fire, due to 'member error'. Which strikes me as strange. I'm not being funny, but when I'm pumping iron (faking obviously) in the gym, all I have is my water bottle, towel and little old me. Last time I checked, I left the matches, fireworks, cans of petrol etc, at home. So how a 'member' could accidentally burn the place down, I don't know.

Anyway... so I couldn't go running (shame) so I came home and stuffed myself full of marathon fueling foods (like Cherry Coke!). So overall, it was a good training session!

Apparently, this burnt down gym of mine will be reopening this weekend (God knows how long it's been closed for!), so I will attempt to attend and re-start my training from Monday onwards. I am busy this weekend celebrating Nick and Jules wedding, so will be in no fit state to be running!!

Good luck to Nick and Jules (and good luck to me too!! I need more than luck... bring on a miracle!).

Roger roger.

xxx

I'm getting nervous

Or to be more acurate, down right scared! I watched the Great North Run this weekend on TV and it just made me panic!! I feel sick now whenever I think about it.

There are now only 18 days to go. I'm not even going to mention how many miles I can run now because I fear that if I actually admit to how few it is, I'll probably run (walk) away and come back on the 27th, just in time to miss the race!

I also haven't been running in a while (again, I'm not going to say exactly how long ago I went running last), but this is because I have been suffering from a cold. And there's no point making myself even more ill by trying to push myself.

But I am now all healthy (ish) and will start running again from tonight. I'm going to go to the gym and just not get off the treadmill until I've done 6 miles.

And I've found out that Paula (as in Radcliffe) has discovered that I'm running the race and has decided to run it too, just so that she can beat me and gloat. But that's fine - she'll finish it in under an hour I'm sure. I'll be passing the finish line about 40 minutes (hopefully) after that. You'll be able to track all of this on TV because they're showing it on channel Five.

So I should be getting my race number and stuff in the post any time now. I will update you when it arrives!!

Aarrggghh!!!!!

Oh Poo!

Oh poo indeed...poo all over my BRAND NEW EXPENSIVE TRAINERS!!!!!!!!!!

And.. even worse - ALL OVER MY BUM!!!

And no - it wasn't my poo...

Some idiotic dog owner let their dog do their business in the park, then didn't clear it up. So some innocent runner (i.e. me) went running in her brand new (still blindingly white) trainers and ran through it all. But unfortunately she didn't realise, so when she finished running and did her stretches, she ended up getting the dog poo, which was all over the sole and heel of one of her trainers, all over her bum (luckily she was wearing posh running shorts - she's not the kind of girl to go running in public naked!). But she still didn't realise, so got in her boyfriend's car, with poo all over her shoes and bum and sat there all the way home. It was only just as they got back to the flat that the smell alerted the unsuspecting couple of the horrific incident that they had been so unaware of. It was like a poo massacre!! It was everywhere, and it was soooo smelly and disgusting!!

Why can't people be more responsible. It's really not on. Although it's really my fault - I told two people at work yesterday that they smelt of poo (yes, I am super mature I know!), and then karma went and gave me a big old heap of smelly poo myself!! What out what you do people, because it'll come back to you threefold!

On a plus note, me and Tom ran another 4 miles yesterday quite easily. Things are slowly getting better...

New Gadget!!!

Hello all, checkout my new gadget: a Garmin Forerunner 305. This spankingly excellent piece of technology has been loaned to me by my lovely sister Anna - the girl in charge of payroll and benefits at Garmin (don't get a job at Garmin if you want to be paid correctly each month!!).

So Tom and I went running round Southampton Common last night. We ran 3.72 miles in 37 minutes - averaging a 10 minutes mile, which is 6 mph. The Forerunner, which is surprisingly comfortable and light to wear, beeped after each mile and also gave me a warning beep to let me know if I was going too fast or too slow (as per my instructions to it before I went out). It is really quite a fab bit of technology. It tracked our laps, so now we can do it all again, but run against ourselves to see how we're improving.

There' also a heart monitor which I've not used yet. It doesn't look too comfortable, but then again, neither did this brick of a watch, but it's actually okay. I think I'd like to check out my heart rate as I run, as sometimes it feels like my heart is about to explode in a dramatic and disgusting fashion, straight out of my chest and onto the grubby common floor, pulsating and throbbing slowly to its death.

I think you can upload your details onto the computer and it'll match where you've run onto a proper map, so I'll do that later on today. There's loads of bits and bobs you can do with it, but I've not had a proper chance to look at them all. The instruction book is rather boggling, so I think I'm just going to have to play about with it.

But overall - verdict is a cool 10/10!