Keep Pushiinnnggg!!

Last night, I really pushed myself the last 850m of my run. When I felt I didn’t have much breath left my husband said to me ‘Keep Pushing!!’.  This really encouraged me and has stayed in my head since. I have titled this blog ‘Keep Pushing!!’ as I am a Lotus F1 fan and this is very much their motto at the moment......


Cirebox live cartoons - Keep pushiinnnggg guys!

I am 421.94km (262.18 miles) through my 1000km challenge. Which is 10 marathons worth of distance, which I have achieved in 40 separate runs. My longest run has been 25.9km (16.09miles) and my shortest has been 5.35km (3.32miles).

I want to share with everyone my ‘Keep Pushing!!’ moments so far......

Back in January when I arrived at Thruxton, my first motor racing circuit of the year to run on, I was greeted by horrendous headwind. 30mph winds are pretty darn strong to run in! (In the Runner’s World article on me they put it at 60mph – yes this was a misprint.) However 30 or 60mph, I think this early experience toughened me up for what was to come.....

At Goodwood in March I suffered mild hypothermia due to a sudden dramatic drop in temperature and already being soaked through due to the rain....that turned into sleet....that turned into snow! On my last lap, when I had to get back to the finish line, it took my every strength to keep running, even though I was petrified because everything was so cold it felt like a thousand shards of ice were running through my body. There were tears amongst the pushing... believe me!

In February, when I did my run to Windsor castle and back, I ran further than I ever have before. I ran 24.40km. Previously to this I had run half marathon pace. I was pretty much ok up until 22km...for the last few km’s my legs just wouldn’t work anymore and I felt so tired it was untrue.

And for the 25.9km run this included a lot of hills. I wanted to see how I would do on my Nurburgring run in September which is 24.4km and involves some brutal hills. I live in the Chilterns, and the hills around here are brutal.

This run involved getting to the top of Winter Hill in
Cookham....locals reading this will know how steep this is!!! The last 4km of this run saw torrential rain, torrential head winds and yet again another steep hill to get home. At this point I was limping up the hill....my head kept me going I am quite sure as my legs didn’t even seem connected to my body anymore.

There are many more runs to come, I hope by the end of this month I will be closer to half way through my 1000km.

So far I have raised £544 for Challenge 1000. The Child Bereavement Charity and Cancer Research UK are very close to my. A big thank you to all 39 donors so far who have sponsored me. It means so much to me. I have also been thrilled to receive some sponsorship from people I have never met who are also motor racing fans – thank you to these truly lovely people! heart

My aim is to raise £2000. I am going to’Keep pushing!!’ so I hope you will to by being a fantastic, amazing, wonderful individual by sponsoring me J

Challenge Update: Speedwork, Runner's World and Spa Francorchamps.

It's official, the more I run, the quicker and fitter I am becoming. My heart rate is becoming less while my speed and endurance are improving. I can also put this down to taking three spinning classes a week and two body pump classes.

I did a 5.38km circular run yesterday evening at Cookham in Berkshire. The route follows the River Thames for a while, and then goes into fields and woodland. Cookham was recorded as Britain's second richest village by the Daily Telegraph in 2011. 

This running route is around a 15 minute drive from where I live, house prices in the South Bucks area are on average £529,184...not that my one bedroom house in Wycombe matches up to anywhere near this price of course. In and around the home counties, there are some really wealthy people. I must find these people and ask them to sponsor me....

Back to my run round Cookham. The whole run I pushed myself, there was not a moment when my breathing settled. Even though at the end I felt sick and that I couldn't push my body anymore, I was able to manage a sprint finish. Apart from stopping to open and close various gates while running I would definitely have run my quickest ever 5km, of which this route is slightly over. I was quite proud of myself and congratulated myself later that evening with 3 large scoops of Ben and Jerry's ice cream at the cinema :-)

In this past week I have two bits of very good news!!!

National magazine 'Runners World' will be including a feature on me and Challenge 1000 in the July edition of their magazine. This will be out in shops in June. I will be featured in the Real Runners section for inspirational runners. It is so nice of them to support me by doing this.
AND

I have confirmed with the lovely Event Manager, Chantal, at Spa Francorchamps that I will be able to run their circuit on Wednesday 2nd May. I am very excited!!! It is my favourite motor racing circuit, and it is in such a beautiful location. I am looking forward to blogging about my run there!

As you can see I have lots going on and Challenge 1000 is taking me to many places. I am experiencing some great runs and meeting new people. However in terms of fundraising things are going quite slowly.

When I first started this Challenge I was a little naive and I thought people would be happy to sponsor me. However to get sponsorship from those you don't know you really have to push people, and pushing people does not come naturally to me. It's hard work to run all these km's and encourage people to sponsor you, on top of working full time. I am working my bum off to put it bluntly. I am happy to do so for two charities I care lots about - Child Bereavement Charity and Cancer Research UK.

So if you are a family member or a friend of mine who hasn't sponsored me yet please do. It will really help to keep my motivation up more than you know.

Also, please SPREAD THE WORD to your own friends and family members and see if they will sponsor me. I would be so grateful for your support.

To sponsor me go to www.virginmoneygiving.com/challenge1000

Thank you to all of my sponsors so far. You are all amazing! xx