I have signed up for my very first Half Marathon, and 10k!
There is a very good chance that I have completely lost my mind, most of my friends would probably say that this happened a long time ago, but I have actually decided to run my first Half Marathon! To be honest there are a few reasons for this.
The first and least depressing is that I can now comfortably, on a good day, run 10k with very little trouble, sometimes I can get as far as 12k before the breathing gets worse and my legs begin to ache. I am stupidly proud of this little fact. Not only because it is having a very positive effect on my mental health but also because, as you have heard me say before, I really wasn’t that kid who did sports at school or at university.
The second is way more personal.
A few weeks ago we lost a close member of my family. A lady who was very dear to me and who was one of the kindest and most amazing people I have ever known. Growing up she and her husband were the family we went to at Christmas for a visit, they lived in a gorgeous cottage in the middle of the Salisbury countryside. She was always interested in all the stories we had to tell her about the year and she loved the postcards that we sent her all year from all the places we visited. She was a lady who included and loved all animals so much so that she always seemed to adopt the strays! I remember that at one point it was a duck! (There were many different animals over the years) When she passed away recently it made me understand very deeply that we only get so long to do the things we want to in this life and I needed to stop putting off this run.
So now I am running the Salisbury Half Marathon in aid of The Donkey Sanctuary, this might be an odd charity for some of you out there but it meant so much to this fantastic lady that I cannot think of a better tribute. If you would like to help me raise money for this charity my JustGiving page is here
And before you are worried yes literally the next day I went out for a run and twisted my ankle! I knew that was going to happen! Have been resting it for about a week now and it is killing me!
Updates on progress to come and any advice you guys have for me would be amazing.
I am a complete newbie so the idea of following a training programme is alien to me!