They have been invited to No 10 Downing Street and are heading there for 1pm then over to our offices for a shower and some food. If you are in London come to our offices for 3 to cheer them on! We are at 12-14 Harcourt Street, London W1H 4HD or if you can’t make it, sponsor them here.

They finish their amazing challenge at our Ovingdean centre tomorrow at 3 pm, hopefully the sun will be shining for an exciting end to their incredibly tough week!

So I am tapering now, which is really hard and involves me stuffing my face with carbs (and anything else I can find) and not doing any running. This part is jolly good and it is a shame that it ends on Sunday morning.  I could be a professional taperer, is it an olympic sport by any chance?

I had my last run yesterday and just to shake me up I had a couple of comedy near fall moments. They were both on wonky paving slabs and I very nearly came a cropper –  I can’t imagine it would be good to run on Sunday with scabby knees. Upon tripping on the slab and seeing the floor come rushing towards me somehow I managed to twist myself out of it and land on my other foot. In my mind the re-enactment would be very similar to something in The Matrix - in reality it would be me looking totally daft, nearly smashing my face in and making a daft eeek noise. Obviously when I landed and realised I wasn’t going to hurt myself I did a mad sort of chuckle hoping that people around me would think that this was my plan all along.  I don’t think they were convinced.

It will be nice to finally meet the other Royal Parks runners on Sunday, we have over 20 running from St Dunstan’s – it will be nice to put faces to names as I have only met a couple of them. I want my photo taken with Burt and Ernie.

Off to eat more pasta…..

My training has been going ok. Getting a bit bored of it now to be honest, it sort of eats up the whole weekend as I am either:

a) not going out with mates because I will want a beer and that is bad (and therefore sulking)

b) preparing to go for a run

c)going for a run

d)recovering from going for a run

All in all, this is very, very dull.

So to spice things up a bit I went for a run on Saturday rather than Sunday, the park was quite busy considering the weather wasn’t great. Everything went fine apart from the fact that I misjudged the amount of water I drank that morning – 30 minutes after leaving I was bursting for the loo. Why is it that I have never, ever seen tiny children weeing in the park until I need the toilet? there were loads of them, their parents waving them in the air so they wouldn’t wee on their clothes. It was very rude and I blame them for the defeat of my mind over my bladder. After a coughing fit that nearly led to an accident I realised I had better find the toilets. Luckily they were open, and clean. However I did have to run up a hill to find them and I had to wait for children (who were surprisingly using the toilets) to stop faffing around in them.

There was no-one drinking Special Brew this week, but I did see a cat eating a piece of ham and a squirrel eating a pork pie (I am guessing that these items were left behind from a picnic) the cat was ready to defend its ham but I think I could have scared the squirrel off if I had wanted the pie.

So who is coming along on the 10th to support me? you might even get a St Dunstan’s clapper…

It didn’t help that I had been out the nights before going for my runs (I was socialising, it would have been rude not to have a drink!) which made things much harder than they needed to be (and meant my legs gave up about 1 mile before I had hoped they would) and I felt physically sick once I made it home.

My long run yesterday went much better (had no alcohol the night before and even went to bed earlyish) I wore my St Dunstan’s running vest to check it was comfy and my new shiny trainers were broken in and ready to go. I was ready. I had even arranged for my long-suffering boyfriend to cycle down and find me in the park and supply me with a bottle of lucozade after I had been running for an hour, just to check that my body wouldn’t reject it and force me to go to the toilets and leave my body like something from the exorcist.

Upon arriving in the park I ran past a man in his 50s, in exercise gear (not fancy stuff, but it was football shorts and not jeans) he appeared to be drinking Special Brew. I couldn’t see it clearly and didn’t want to appear to be gawping, so I didn’t slow down to check – I must have made a mistake, it must have been a can of soft drink. I saw him again about 20 mins later and had a better look, it was definitely a can of Special Brew and I even saw him have a swig (which made me feel a bit grim, and makes me feel a bit grim writing about it actually) Can you imagine? swigging flat, warm Special Brew whilst exercising? uuuuuuuuuuurrrrg.  The next time I saw him he was with a shifty looking man who was getting something out of his bag. I spent the rest of my run wondering what this was – was it money, as it had been a bet (or to buy more beer); was it fags to go with the beer? was it a card for alcoholics anonymous?

That was the only excitement of the day, there were a few birthday party picnics, but nothing worth snooping on. Boring!

So I thought I had broken all my records and done a really good run. When I checked my Runkeeper when I got home, it turned out the thing had gone a bit mental and recorded about 1.5 extra miles which I hadn’t actually run. This was a bit gutting, but looking on the positive side, the run felt quite easy (as opposed to last week, where from mile 6 I thought I was going to collapse) and I felt ok enough afterwards to go out with some mates for a big Sunday lunch (and was able to communicate!) Going forward I will not trust Runkeeper quite as much and will maybe map the run better before heading out, so I have a rough idea in my head and will not rely upon technology!

I really need to start hassling people to sponsor me too, I have been far too nice to them so far less than 3 weeks to go now…

I ran home from work last night and I actually quite enjoyed it (until maybe the last mile) it wasn’t the slog it has been for the last few weeks and I actually shaved a couple of minutes off my time (over 10 minutes faster now than when I started!) People getting in my way are now more of a moving challenge than an annoyance. Not sure if it is because I know the route a bit better or because I am getting better at running it, but I am now prepared for people getting in the way and I was actually ducking and weaving around them (and not just in my mind this time)

I think my recovery is also improving as I was able to go out with friends afterwards for dinner and actually hold down a conversation. Admittedly, by 10pm I was knackered and would much rather have been at home in bed, but this is a marked improvement  on previous runs.

When I finally arrived home I found a shiny new pair of trainers had been delivered by the postman. It felt like I hadn’t actually had my old pair of trainers for very long. But putting on my new ones I realised the others were a bit past it, and probably rather smelly. I love new trainers, maybe I should have got a new pair sooner to cheer myself up a bit.

The Royal Parks Half marathon is a month tomorrow, St Dunstan’s is putting together a supporters team for the day. If you are in the area and would like to come along and do some cheering (and lets face it, it is easier and much more fun!) please give us a call on 020 7616 7966 or email fundraising@st-dunstans.org.uk Fingers crossed the weather will be nice, it should be a good day (for the runners too hopefully!)

It took me 3 hours from starting prepare to go for a run to actually getting out of the house. I was ok once I got out, but for some reason I just found it really hard to get myself motivated and get on with it. I didn’t even have an excuse  that the weather wasn’t nice, it might have been a bit humid, but it wasn’t exactly the Sahara.

Once I finally got out the house (and after going the wrong way for a couple of minutes) I headed off to Brockwell Park, which was much more busy than I had expected!  There was an Urban Green Fair (which you had to pay an entry fee to get in – I didn’t have any money on me, so can tell you no more about it I am afraid) which looked very interesting and very popular. There was also a fairground (which you had to pay an entrance fee to get in – a bit of a trend there) which had a Ghost Hotel (a more pricey Ghost House I reckon) and some inflatable slide things. I think the ethos contrasted with the Urban Green Fair (which was solar-powered) as it had massive generators pumping out music and to keep the rides from grinding to a halt. 

The fair ground didn’t appear that busy, I like to think that was because all the kids wanted to go on the steam train but as the train takes 5 minutes to complete the 200m track it isn’t the most scary of rides.

Four laps of the park (with my attempting to snoop on the fair and the fairground) and then home again. 10 miles. Somehow this feels like is should mean something, like I should be pleased with my progress. But I am just too tired to really be bothered. And it isn’t really like I can eat loads of chocolate to feel better, maybe it was the guilt factor before, but now I am hungry all the time and I need to eat for energy it sort of takes the excitement away. Bad food (like my favourite the cheese savoury sarnie) just makes me feel grim, my body wants healthy food, but my head wants trashy food. It is a battle of wills and I am not sure who will win.

I was sorting out my bedroom the other day and was disturbed to find empty bottles of Lucozade, For Goodness Shakes and numerous water bottles. Running clothes, magazines and paraphernalia were all over the place. I went to the pub with a friend over the weekend and I only had one alcoholic drink because any more and I would find my run the following day more sluggish. Is it bad that training for the Royal Parks appears to have taken over my whole life? arranging the rest of my weekend around my run? Is the first thing I want to see in the morning numerous pairs of trainers scattered all over the floor? Have become everything I always despised?!

Is this going to get worse or can it only get better? Is venting on my blog better than just being driven slowly insane by the drip drip drip of only ever thinking about running/eating after running/ that something aches after running.

I went for a run on Friday but I wasn’t quite sure whether it would be a long one or not – I had a massive bruise on my leg (no idea where from,  not even a UDI) which made it a bit sore to run. I had planned to meet my friend Bunches on Peckham Rye, so I figured if it was uncomfortable I could always head home after a couple of miles.

The weather was pretty overcast and I was convinced it was going to rain (another good reason to head home after a quick run – can you tell that I really wasn’t up for it?!) I picked Bunches up at her flat and we trotted down to the Rye. Peckham Rye is a funny one, a sort of triangle shape park, the pointy top bit is really quite busy with cars. In the middle you have an awfully nice cafe (for all the yummy mummies and their sprogs to have a nice drink after they have fed the ducks) and then you have a couple of playgrounds, a skate park and an outdoor gym (which I think is so clever. I wish I had invented it) maybe I’ll take Dunstan there  for a workout.

Peckham has a bit of a bad reputation, which I have never really understood – my only problem with the area is that it sells lots and lots and lots of fish (I hate fish) although the Rye isn’t really great for running around – the majority of the time you were pretty close to a main road and even though a lap of it was around 1.3miles, it still felt pretty small – I still think it is a very cute park though, with a nice pond and very nice gardens.

It was nice to go for a run with Bunches, she did a couple of laps with me before heading home. Being about 3 foot taller than me she thought I was a bit of a slow coach, but she put up with me! After she went home the weather had picked up and I felt I was doing ok, so I decided to attempt a total of 9 miles. I just about managed it, but my legs were really quite tired at the end and I was walking a bit weird for the rest of the day.

No injuries, which is obviously good (I am touching wood though, I am not superstitious, but I am clumsy!)

It wasn’t too bad until I got to the other side of Hyde Park (although the sight of sad wet deck chairs was rather depressing) Then the heavens opened and it poured down. It was at this point that I proposed my new running hypothesis - the collaboration between umbrella size and annoyance. The bigger the umbrella (golf usually) the more the chance of being battered. Tourists with their cheap small umbrellas (which were more often than not inside out, but at least families could keep track of each other by spotting the matching style and colour) whilst dithering and getting in the way a bit – were generally harmless and could easily be swerved around. Every time I ran past a person with a golf umbrella I was dicing with death. The size of the umbrella means it takes up the whole of the pavement, so I would have to either a) run in the road (risking being hit by a car) b) do a sort of duck and under of the thing (risking being hit in the eye by the metal bits) or c) jump over the top (this option failed rather dramatically, I don’t recommend it)

Tourists watched me open-mouthed as I ran past them, I like to think that this was because the were so amazed by my running style, but I suspect it was because I was soaking wet and looked rather pathetic.  I suppose that as it is nearly September now that this weather is going to continue so I better toughen up and deal with it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I suppose looking at the positive side it meant the run was out of the way – if I had travelled home the usual way, I would probably talked myself out of going out again into the rain.  Lets hope the weather is a bit better for my next outing…

After signing up for the Royal Parks Half Marathon, my colleagues here at St Dunstan’s thought it would be a good idea for me to go and train with some other fundraisers.

 I was thinking that it would be best for me to start slowly – like going on another seaside saunter or training with someone like Shizo Kanakuri (who holds one of the world’s slowest marathon times and took 54 years, 8 months, 6 days, 8 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds to finish his marathon!) Yup, I wanted to take it nice and slow, yes?  Yes?…..erm, NO. 

Instead of taking it nice and easy I went training with Squaddies SSgt Jim Offord and L/CplDean  Howard –  they are doing an event for the St Dunsan’s Forces Challenge in which they (and 8 others) will run 10 marathons in 5 days

Yes, 10 marathons in 5 days AND they will do all this in full Army gear (even 40 pound bergens) why wouldn’t I want to join them in their training?! Even the idea of training with those guys was exhausting!

Getting the train to Waterbeach was easy enough. Jim and Dean met us at the train station and took us to the barracks, luckily enough it was very quiet, the idea of loads of service people watching me make a fool of myself didn’t appeal.

The assault course was right next to Jim’s office and I have to say that some of it looked quite fun (the netting bit off Gladiators) but the wall looked a bit impossible to get over. Unfortunately (or not perhaps) I didn’t get a go at it!

Not long after arriving Jim said that we would go for a warm up lap – this was a one and a half mile gentle run (allegedly). They both started so fast and I usually take things slow at first, until I get into my stride (then run a teeny-weeny bit faster) I was out of breath after about 30 seconds! They were running rather too fast me (but I didn’t really like to tell them that for fear of looking rubbish) they were chatting away to me, whilst I was just trying to breathe.

On the lap around the barracks it has markings every 1/2 mile, which tell you how fast you should be running to be within the Army PT test. You will be pleased to know that I was well within it, so at least I don’t have to worry about that part when I go to sign up (unlike all the other parts)

After a breather we did another lap, this time you had to run as fast as you could to each marker. You had to get there within 5 minutes, if you got there earlier than 5 minutes you could spend the rest of this time having a fag (OK I am actually lying there, it was actually recovery time – or in my case trying to breathe time). Jim and Dean did this very easily, and I felt completely rubbish. After one mile I wasn’t actually sure if I would make it all the way round, but with their encouragement I made it to the end. I had to have a sit down after that to try not to collapse.

Due to my own daftness on a previous post, Jim decided that we would next have a go at the excercise trail (as I  had writeen that I have never seen anyone having a go at these things) Starting with the monkey bars, which I have never been able to do, they ended up carrying me across, oh the shame. Next was the gate jump, which I easily got over. Jim said the jump was boring, I take it this means that it is do-able by mere mortals such as myself.

With a gentle jog to the next couple of challenges on the trail, I had a go at the log vault (the small end obviously) the parallel bars (I thought I was doing press ups, but apparently you have to dip more than 1mm for it to be classed as such) the slalom (would be quite fun to do drunk) and the over and under hurdles (mainly under in my case, I had to be lifted over the over ones as I had no strength left at this point)

Not even having time for a cup of tea next we did another lap round the barracks – this time in all the gear! I had a fetching pair of combat trousers to wear (it’s like the 90′s never went away) and a 10 pound Bergen rucksack (a quarter of the weight of Jim and Dean’s, but heavy enough for me to get an idea of their challenge) This time I managed to keep up with the two squaddies (admittedly they were taking it easy, as they were both doing a treadmill marathon the very next day)

Whilst on the leg Jim went off to “answer a call” on his mobile, or so I thought, and he reappeared a couple of minutes later dressed as Wolverine! Dean had also snuck off during this and when he came back he was dressed as Shrek (but Shrek’s trousers kept falling down and he had to hold them up as he was running along) As I was rather tired (for tired read “an absolute wreck”) at this point it didn’t actually surprise me very much to see Wolverine and Shrek. At that point all I could think of was getting round the last lap without having to have a lie down on the grass. My ability to feel surprise (or most other emotions) had been surpassed by sheer desperation to make it to the end!

After all that (which felt like a whole day, but was actually only a couple of hours) I got the train back to London and had a much deserved lie down. My failure to stretch properly after finishing with Jim and Dean meant I was pretty sore the next day and was hobbling round quite a bit. But my mental exhaustion was even worse and I was completely useless in the office the next day (ignore those who say that is always the case!)

The bad news is that someone was actually filming us at Waterbeach – keep your eyes peeled on You’ve Been Framed I am bound to pop up there soon!

A big thanks to Jim and Dean for having us in Waterbeach, it was a great day (I can say that now I am not there) and now plan to get a bit fitter so that things like that don’t cause me such physical/mental exhaustion and pain. I’m just glad that I managed not to keel over even though I  wanted to for most of the day It made me realise that those guys are beyond fit, actually sort of super-human, so now I have a rough idea how hard they have been training for their HUGE challenge in November – so do make sure you sponsor them.

Injury update – sprained my thigh yesterday (only a little bit) I would like to say that this was caused by me doing star jumps or something like that. Actually I was sat on the floor and stood up a stupid way. Whoopsie!

Whoopsie, I deleted my last post in the attempt to add a photo. Basically, I am not going to write about what I did yesterday as that would involve using my brain, something not possible today.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow…