Dear All,

Monday 26 April Update!

 

I did it ! Had a totally fantastic day and managed a PB of 3:48:47 which was beyond my wildest dreams as the route was so packed with runners and it started to get really warm. As ever, the last few miles were a killer but I just gritted my teeth and kept on going..... I could see I was close to my previous Abingdon time of 3:50 and didn't want to go beyond it!!

 

The support , atmosphere and crowd were amazing and I felt very privileged to be running with so may other people who were running for excellent  ( and often very personal ) causes. A day never to be forgotten!!

Here I go again......How did I get here?.....

As some of you will be aware, this time last year I had a charity place in the Flora London Marathon 2009 but was fairly convinced I wouldn’t be able to run it as a result of an injury I had suffered in training in early February.  It’s a long story but ultimately (and largely because I was running in aid of a charity, The Spinal Injuries Association) I did run the 2009 and it was one of the best days of my life!  Thankfully the injury seemed to subside on the day and although it came back at intervals over the summer I continued running and then ran another marathon in Abingdon in October 2009. 

Having  got over the finishing line at London in a time of 4:49 (with a fair bit of walking in the initial stages to avoid flaring up the injury) I was delighted to complete the Abingdon Marathon in a time of 3 hours 50 minutes.  At the time I was very inspired as I had just received notification of obtaining a ballot place for the Virgin London Marathon 2010.  I approached the Mayor of Brentwood, Tony Sleep, to offer to run the Virgin London Marathon 2010 on behalf of his nominated charities, Helen Rollason Cancer Charity, Crossroad Caring for Carers, Brentwood British Legion Youth Band and Children’s Holiday Ingaone Play Scheme, and the rest is history......

The big day is  very nearly here and so far the training is going well and (fingers crossed and touch wood!) I have not suffered any major injuries thus far...  the "long" training  runs are under my belt and now I am in the taper phase of training  with only two short runs  in the final week and a bit of spinning to keep my legs " ticking over". 

I am not and never have been a sporty person – I only started running semi seriously (and I hasten to add I am still only a semi serious runner!) a couple of years ago and I can only attribute this new found passion to some sort of mid-life crisis and the need to find something to relieve the strains and stresses of everyday life (which include being mum to four daughters aged between 8 and 19 and a partner and Head of the Property Department at Wortley Byers Solicitors in Brentwood).  (The other more obvious explanation is that I am actually (almost certainly) very sad... -I understand that other people have ordinary lives and socialise, drink and make merry rather than spending hours each night in a sweaty gym?)

On 28 February  ( I was visiting my daughter in Rome so decided to to enter the Half Marathon in advance  ) I ran the Rome Half Marathon and had a good run. I finished in a time of 1:43:12 which was really encouraging as the last few miles were by the sea and were really windy. Looking at my split times at 5, 10 and 15 kilometres I did speed up for the second half ( before having to battle against the head winds) so I was encouraged by that The total field was 8504 and I was the 171st woman out of a total of 1130 women so I did my bit for the UK!

I ran the Brentwood Half marathon with a number of my colleagues at Wortley Byers on 21 March. The sun was out( but not too much!) and it was a glorious Spring day. I managed to knock 41 seconds off my Rome time finishing in 1:42:31 which was really encouraging. I now have three more long runs of  up to 23 miles each over the next three  weekends and I will then " rest" for a couple of weeks which will mean no more long runs( yippee!) until the big day but just shorter runs, weights and general gym work.........

 I am delighted to support the Mayor of Brentwood’s four charities  and the cross section of chosen charities offers a wide choice of causes which potentially impact on everyone not just those local to .  I would be immensely grateful if you were able to support my marathon effort (I use that word figuratively and hopefully not literally!) in making a donation via this page?

You will see that my Just Giving page indicates that I am only raising money for Helen Rollason Cancer Charity.  I am obviously raising money on behalf of the Mayor for his four chosen charities but given that only one charity can be designated for the purpose of Just Giving Helen Rollason Cancer Charity have kindly agreed that they will split the donations made to my website with the other named charities.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to Helen Rollason Cancer Charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the  Mayor's charities.

Many thanks for your time in reading this. Sunday 25th April is  now very close  and my adrenalin levels are already sky high just thinking about  those 26.2 miles .I will need to dig deep to get round that course, I am sure, so please help  me by making  a donation  to my chosen charities through this website. Last year I printed off and  read through all the kind comments again and again on the way down to London and they definitely  helped carry me along when the going got tough!!

Jane