Hi All,

I am taking part in various sporting events throughout the year. Mainly to maintain my fitness addiction.

This year however, I have decided to do something good at the same time and will run for Refuge, a national charity that helps women and children who experience domestic violence. This is a subject that is very important to me and I would like to give a helping hand to those who need it this way!

I am wearing a vest top from Refuge to show my support on each of the events. This vest top is PINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dear friends, you know that this is not my favourite colour and you can now only imagine how important this matter is to me if I am wearing a pink top volunteerily in public!

Here is a list of events I will be taking part in this year:

30 March 08 - Sandy 3k run
12 April 08 - Oxford Parkinsons 5 mile run
27 April 08 - Oxford Blenheim 7k run
11 May 08 - Luton 10k run
8 June 08 - St. Albans Half Marathon
22 June 08 - Race for Life 5k run
Summer Break!!!!
7 September 08 - Adidas Womens 5k challenge London
12 October 08 - Herts 10k Haropenden

Wish me luck to run good times, I will need it!!!!

Scroll down to read the race blog!

Yours Melanie

If you are a UK taxpayer, Justgiving will reclaim an extra 28% for charity at no extra cost under Gift Aid.



27 April 2008 Blenheim 7k
This was a fairly small event, the atmosphere was great though. The only downside was that there was so many uphill bits that I felt like I was going really slow. At one point there was a really steap hill which kept going for about 2k that was sheer agony! But the most important bit, I did it in 46 Minutes, given the difficulty of the course is VERY GOOD!!!!

11 May 2008 Luton 10k
What a day! It was extremely hot, no clouds no breeze!!!! The route seemed to be failrly easy but the heat stopped my body from moving any faster then grandma with walking stick pace!  And I think due to the heat at least half of the registered runners didnt turn up! I managed to run it all the way and only did it in 1.14hrs, which is about 15 minutes over my personal best! Speaking to other runners I realised that I was not the only one having this problem! I am dreading the Half Marathon coming up now, since I have seen so many runners on the 10k already collapsing!

8 June 2008 St Albans Half Marathon
21k/13miles. What an ordeal!!! It was a hot day, again! Not only makes it that much harder, but I never ran that distance in one go before!!! After 10 miles I thought every step was absolute agony. my pace was steady but very slow! so i managed to do it in 2 hours and 50 minutes. Just under 3 hours, which was my aim. Of course there are people that do this distance in a far shorter time, but I thought, Hey, I am not a full time athlete or in my teens, so I am doing fairly well. Taken into account that I actually ran it the whole way and didn't stop or walked. There also were people collapsing on the side, but i was clever this time and took a bottle with me, which i was able to refill at every water station and was well hydrated throughout the whole race.

22 June 2008 Race For Life Luton 5k
I went together with 2 friends that haven't been running for a long time and barely trained for the event. So I promised them not to run off and stay with them throughout the race. We did it in 36 minutes which was a very good time considering the circumstances. I was so proud of the other two girls, because they didn't give up. Of course I wore my PINK refuge top, which matched the occasion perfectly! The weather was sunny but there was a welcome breeze which made the run very plesant. This had so much importance not only for me and Refuge, but also for all three of us, as our good friend Carmen has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. Her name was flashing in big letters on out backs! I hope this race has collected a big sum for cancer research and of course I also hope, that this will encourage everyone who has a look onto this site to give money to Refuge.

12 October 2008 Herts 10k
My training lacked slightly and i had to get up and do the run with not much fuel, or so I felt. But my dear running buddy Gemma, who i ran this race with, didnt feel quite up to it either. So we decided to stick together during the race and just enjoy ourselves, Which we did thorougly. Although, and that is a well known fact, this race is a real tough route!!! We managed to get a good time without even trying. 1 hour and 8 minutes!!! HURRAYYY!!!!!

So, dear people. I am now done with this years challange and have run many races for REFUGE. It seems like it would be your turn to reward me by giving a little change to these people - DO IT ONLINE NOW!!!!!!!!!!

Love you lots
Melanie XXX