This page was started as a bit of an afterthought - totally informally raising money for Surrey Wildlife Trust because I thought I might as well. Clearly I didn't raise a heck of a lot (but bearing in mind I was simultaneously raising money for ICR centneray campaign in the other half marathon, that's perhaps not surprising - i raised £250 for that (under my work name gayle dower!! anyway, that makes my thanks to my friends who donated to this page all the more sincere - thanks guys!!) Gayle
OK I decided at the start of this year that my efforts to get fit post-Pippa needed a bit more focus to become a reality - so I signed up for not one but two half-marathons - and if I'm doing that then I should at least attempt to raise some money for a good cause while I'm at it, right?!
The first is this weekend - 6th Sept 09, round Norbury Park in Surrey, which is beautiful... but hilly and tough running, and I'm injured and my knees are old and and and... but I still want to do it, so here goes!
Now, as the lovely land I'll be running (limping/hobbling) through is managed by Surrey Wildlife Trust - who are also rather dear to me because they provided solace for me by giving me weeds and the like to massacre (as well as some saplings to plant - not all conservation is destruction y'know) when I was signed off on stress-related sick leave all those years ago - it seems to me only polite to raise some money for them in return...
UPDATE - I ran the first race and did LOADS better than anticipated. I came 135th out of the 394 people who completed it (and 19th of the ladies, but I don't know how many of us there were in total), with a time of 1hour 46mins 36seconds. So I'm quite chuffed!
The second race is 3 weeks later (just about time to recover, right?) and is the bigger brasher Run to the Beat in London...
UPDATE - I ran the second race, and again did better than expected. I'd not managed to do as much training as I'd hoped, so I was getting a bit nervous, but I think the sheer scale of the event swept me along (and it was a much flatter course!!) - I came 902nd out of the 9030 people who completed this one (and 26th out of my age/sex category - 1047 ladies aged 30-34), and best of all, I beat my previous time, by getting 1hr42mins33secs. Very pleased though a bit sore today!!
but I see the two as a kind of double-whammy - though sadly Aidy tells me that two half-marathons in 3 weeks is not particularly hardcore and definitely does NOT equate to his marathon of 2 years ago... Sigh.
Anyway if you want to support me in this frankly rather foolhardy endeavour, then please give here - thank you!
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