Sunday 23rd December (Week 12)

Wow I'm shit at running. (Or just not very committed during the festive period). But hey-ho, at least I've got 14 weeks of time to prepare still..! I haven't run for about 10 days before today, or played football because of the awful weather. And I have eaten my weight in mince pies, cheese, burgers, chocolate and other shitty foods. I think my mind is feeling the pressure of having to run a marathon and taking it out on my stomach, forcing me to consume enough food for me to potentially go into hibernation for a few months. 

As expected, today's run was tough, but even tougher than expected which was annoying. May have to cut down on food consumption during Christmas and concentrate on exercising, dieting and minimising alcohol intake.

Bollocks to that.

Route for Monday Week 10: 5.11 miles, 45 minutes.

Estimated Marathon Completion Time: Probably somewhere around 51 hours 32 minutes and 5 seconds

If you do get given too much for Christmas, you can always donate some dollar to a very worthwhile cause...

Ali and Fiona run the Marathon!

Merry Christmas one and all! Hope you all get what you want from the big man. 

Wednesday 12th December (Week 11)

Hello folks. Apologies for the (non-existent) updates recently, running has been going badly... I have run 4 miles in 9 days - that's an average of 0.44444444 miles a day. Shit eh?

Oh well, it's cold. And I'm busy doing fun things like jigsaws, watching tv and eating. Shit. I don't seem to be putting on weight though which is a good sign. Good metabolism n all. And I only have 10 days left of work. Woooooooo.

Tried a new route on Sunday after football was cancelled and I also had a running partner (who insisted on stopping to do star jumps every so often). Here some shots of the run:

That is all.

Monday 3rd December (Week 10)

Playing football yesterday was a disaster - not in terms of exercise but in terms of pitch quality and inadequate refereeing. The pitch was so frozen that your studs couldn't get through, yet the ref seemed to think that it was "safe" (in his words). It was like playing on a mix of concrete and sheet ice and everytime you fell over/tried to make a tackle, the ground would cut up your legs. Despite the injuries obtained from yesterday, I man'd up and forced myself out this evening after a hard day at work. 

I went out today with no idea of where to go (again) or with any distance or time frame in mind. Started running though and soon I was running through the centre of Tunbridge Wells, when it occurred to me how many roads there are that I have no idea where they go. And that was it. My goal for the run was to explore. I felt good today and decided to take it slow and just listen to my music which was fun. This is where I'd like to introduce a new feature...


Running song of the week:

I would like you guys to help me come up with good running music for when I finally have to conquer this mission. Something bassy, dancy, cheesy, jazzy, anything that'll keep me smiling alert whilst I'm running!

But anyway, today was brilliant as I mentioned earlier. My breathing wasn't a problem, my legs weren't tired and most importantly it wasn't too cold or raining. 


I wore a much better choice of pants as I'm sure you were all dying to know; although I may invest in some 'actual' running pants in order to put an end to the chafing between my thighs. (After a quick googling, it appears that these are called compression shorts. If anyone has any experience in this subject, please contact me with some advice!)

I just kept running and running down roads I'd never seen before (until I got a little lost) and ended up breaking into double figures in mileage!

Today, I am proud to have run 10.34 miles (That's 16km!). Feel like I'm starting to get there now!

Here is my route if you care that much.

Route for Monday Week 10: 10.34 miles, 95 minutes.

Estimated Marathon Completion Time: Probably somewhere around 5 hours 42 minutes and 56 seconds

So yeah, pretty happy folks! Decided to celebrate with this beast:

Jealous?

Hospice In The Weald

139 days to go! Crazy eh?! Not a running update today but just to let you all know that the fundraising will be starting soon; we have set up our Virgin Marathon Just Giving page and we would appreciate all donations! We are running for Hospice In The Weald which is a small charity based in Tunbridge Wells. Follow the link to the website if you want to know more, but it's for a good cause.

http://www.hospiceintheweald.org.uk/

This one is our donations page; again feel free to visit it but not very exciting at the moment! It will start to get more exciting as we get nearer the event.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AlasdairJones

I will be setting up a few things for you guys to participate in, it won't be too costly and you may have a chance to win some goodies!

Running again tomorrow so expect an update soon.

LOVE