Oh look - you came! Thanks for stopping by.

This is my once yearly put myself through pain for money effort. And this year it really will hurt. After last year's first ever 10k I put in some half decent training over the winter in an effort to get my time down to around an hour by May. I didn't even let the weather put me off, and yes - I did look ridiculous with a hot water bottle stuffed down my tights. 

 

But the training was paying off - By early March I'd got my 10k time down to 70 minutes. It was all going so well. But that isn't usually how things work out for me, and sure enough the wheels fell off. I got some virus thing which knackered my respiratoy system for about 3 weeks, then hot on the heels of that my back went on strike. So I've run twice in the last 5 weeks and I'm mainling Diclofenac as I type. 

 

Right now I am not even confident that I will be able to bend down and put on my trainers come race day - let alone hit my target of an hour. But... I am determined to make the start line next Sunday (and hopefully the finish line) come what may. I've paid the bloody entry fee for heaven's sake. Waste not want not and all that. Plus which, I'll do almost anything for a free t-shirt. Although I'm not sure handing over a chunk of money and grunting my way round Bristol really qualifies it as free...

So please donate whatever loose change you have down the back of the sofa to a cause that is very close to my heart. I benefitted from a UWC scholarship as a teenager, and it really was a life changing and formative experience that has gone a long way to shaping who I am today and how I engage with the world. Which may well be all the reason most of you need NOT to donate! But please, it would motivate me enormously to know that people have donated. It might just prevent me from quitting and collapsing on the floor of the nearest pub, artfully positioned flat on my back under the drip tray.

 

Thanks.

 

Plum. x