Childflight

Hello everyone, I’ve had a slight poorly little week over here but now I’m back and off training again.

As most of you may know, [and if you don’t I’m about to tell you, ] I’m a children’s nurse who works on a local intensive care unit, i.e. I look after some very sick children and try and help make them better again.  However there are sad and hard times but I also get to see some amazing things and the most powerful thing in the world, a child smile again! And this is why I got involved with the chosen charity. 

Child fight provides once in a life time holiday’s for children with life limiting or life threatening conditions. [In other words these children are all poorly or disabled in some way.] Every other year they run a structured trip to Florida, visiting all the major theme parks and providing a little magic to these children’s lives, what make them special is that they also take the whole close family.  Making a perfect family holiday making amazing memories for everyone. Something which may not be possible for them to achieve without the support of this charity. Whilst there, the holiday is organised for them from the minute we arrive at the airport to the second we get back to the uk, no one has to worry about anything and there is medical support by the doctors and nurses who all volunteer and are constantly on call.   And the most important bit of the holiday? Well to see the children smile knowing everything they’ve been though, after all nothing matters in Florida!

Childflight also provides Santa flights every year for children to experience there first time flight and meet Santa as well as proving medical flights for children where treatment cannot be found in the uk.

So why run? Well I started doing a sponsored run in 2013 to raise funds and the running bug kicked in big style. So thought I would keep it up and get fit at the same time. So far since May 2013 when I started it’s been hard work but slowly managing to pick up pace etc. Looking at ways that are a bit novel to go with my running but we will see. 

So far I have raised around £600 pounds for child flight from august to Dec in 2013, and I am already at 10% of my target for this challenge. Every penny means the world to both me and this charity but especially the children so if you can, please donate or support in any way you can. 

Thankyou

helen xx

p.s... just something to make you smile as well!

Race for life, 2013

just realized i missed out my second race of 2013! so here is the race review if any one is interested! 

please support me if you can, every penny will go a long way in raising vital funds for childflight either click the button to the right >>>> or follow this link 

My second ever run was the race for life twilight on Liverpool waterfront. Another 5 k race from the ferry terminal along the front towards Otterspool and then back along the same route.  I finished this run in 38mins [ish] it was very very wet and very very cold. For those who don’t know Liverpool well the route is lined with cobbles and then paving slabs which became very slippery!  To the extent that the stewards were advising people not to sprint due to the slipping hazard. I had also broken my toe a few weeks before this race so wasn’t able to run to the same pace as usual.

This Race is aimed at raising money for cancer research, however I chose not to obtain any sponsor ship for this as I think there is a limit as to how many times you can ask people for money for charity etc. [I did make a donation out of my own pocket as I normally do when the race is organised ror a specific cause.]  however felt like they were constantly pushing for more donations rather than saying thank-you for what they had raised so far [£55000 the warm up guy said] and over all I didn’t like the way it was organised and didn’t enjoy the race as much because of this.   Would I do a race for life again? Maybe just to see if it is the same as this one, after all the twilight run was a first time event so perhaps a few teething problems were had. I’ll see if one fits into my shift pattern during this year and if I can I’ll do it but properly not. 

Top facts:-

Date:- 18^th October 2013.

Time:- 38mins

Surface:-  pavement/road

Distance:- 5k

1st run 2014 - linda McCartney

1^st run  of the 2014 challenge.

as always if you would like to sponsor me please press on the link on the right :-)

My first run of this challenge was a little 5k around Liverpool docs, starting at the Nike store towards the marina and back again. To summarize the run in two words… windy & ouch!  The run was being held to raise funds for the Linda McCartney center as part of another person’s fundraising efforts to raise £8000 pound by organizing 8 events: - link to their page  is HERE

So according to my Nike plus app I ran the run in 40:40, with a distance measuring of 5.10k. this time includes the brief time outside with speeches before setting off so maybe take a few minutes off the over all time. The App record that I achieved my goal of the fastest time of 39:19 minutes, fastest mile at 12:08 mins and fastest 1k at 7:18mins.  So a few good achievements had, according to the run graph I ran at a pace between 6.05 and 8.3mins/k, which is very good for me, good fast course helped but the running into a stong wind with lashing of rain certainly didn't! 

On the down side, I thought it was a good idea to wear a new pair of trainers, and I’m suffering now, but they were pink and orange and I thought it would be fitting!  But I got bad shin splits around 2k and now have a sore ankle, lesson to break trainers in in the future truly noted!  however cup cakes at finihs line is well worth the pain! 

Also at the run was the lovely Katie Brough a brilliant cross country runner and GB champ! 

race facts.

distance:- 5.1k.

time:- 40mins [39.19 for 5k]

race number:- 28.

surface type:- pavement. 

weather:- wet, cold and windy [very windy]

overall a very good day was had and hopefully raised a lot of money for this great cause! 

Santa Dash 2013

My 3^rd race of 2013 was the Liverpool Santa dash! Completed in an orange Santa suit seen as I’m in the orange team as part of child flight, finished the course in mins but hard to run with the mass of people around, amazing time and an amazing atmosphere though.  

The medal is very good and I would say it is the best one I received so far, very good quality; it was also amazing to run on the streets of Liverpool where normally you would never be able to although wasn't expecting it to be quite so hilly! 

Lesson learnt for next time to wear something thinner as I was very very hot and think this also slowed my time down a lot.  Least the weather was nice and dry … and I stood out from the crowd.   It was talking to people after this run which has made me sign up for this challenge. Hoping to make this run a yearly occurrence! 

1st ever run 2013

My first ever run was the Liverpool big fun run [5k], on august 17^th last year, ran it in 34 mins and raised over 400 pounds for child-flight.  

This was an amazing experience from the warm up all the way to the end being cheered on by everyone, to be honest though I did spend half it walking and needed to develop setting my pace rather than the walk/run method. However whist walking around met some fantastic people and shared stories n why we were all running. 

 

this was also the first medal i have ever won in my life so felt very good and i'm very proud of my first little achievement. if this run is on again i'm going to try and do it this year as well! 

top facts:- 

run number:- 2518

time:-34 mins

goody bag:- water, snackbar, iron suppliment 

medal:- YAY as above picture. 

lenght:- 5k.

The Beginning

The beginning of the addiction.

So how did I get into running? Well I wanted to do a sky dive for charity and couldn't find one that you could pick your own charity for or one that you didn't have to pledge thousands of pounds for, [will blog about sponsorships some other time] so I started looking around what else I could do. To fund-raise and discovered a local fun run which was 5k, so throughout I would give it a go… and low and behold, started running and fell in love with it!

That was April time last year on my 24^th birthday, decided on that day that before I reached 25 I would make a difference to someone.  Something I hoe I've achieved.  

Before this I was a complete couch potato, occasionally getting off my bottom to play on the Wii. But even then found you could play that whilst on the couch so It was a major undertaking for me.  So how did I train? I began with a programme called couch to 5k app on my phone, however that began to get on my nerves a bit too much..[thick it was the dog randomly barking] so just began to run for a long as I could then walk for 10-mins then run as far as I could then walk etc. till I was home [on the same route in a massive circle, and slowly began to cut down on the walking time in between and increased the running time.    i have to say though i'm still quite a slow runner/jogger, hoping to improve over the year. 

I have recently broken my toe [ouch!] so been out of running for a while so beginning over, My first run is on the 26th of January, a little 5k to kick off the new year anyone interested in joining me can sign up over here being organised for Royal Linda McCartney center!  played a vital part in my family so all for a good cause.  will let you know how i get on

And as you can see by now i have managed to put a button on the right hand side of your screen to my donation page! every penny counts and all support very much needed and every penny counts! [by the end of the year i may come up with a little slogan to go with all the running]

Scrabled Legs

Scrambled Legs.

the challenge has been set :- 14 races for 2014.

 In 2013 I went on a fantastic trip to Florida as part of the support team of Child-flight. 

This wonderful cause provides once in a life time holidays for disabled and life threatened children to Florida. as part of this group holiday they have a full support team of doctors and nurses behind them to make the trip possible! the charity also provides Santa flights to provide under privileged children Their first plane ride to meet Santa as well as medical flights for children.

After seeing and being part of this I am now on a major fundraising drive! Last year I also caught the running bug, started as a little way to lose weight [even though I now just eat more to compensate:-)] and turned into a minor addiction. Completing 3 5k runs around Liverpool including one with a broken toe. Therefore I decided to combine the two things together and decided to set myself a challenge, for 2014. This challenge is to do 14 runs [which will work out at around 100k] to raise 1K for Child-flight.  

link to my virgin giving page for anyone who wishes to support me / please press the button on the right of your screen.

This blog is going to follow this journey and hopefully support me along the way. First booked run is march 2nd at Tatton park 10k. This will be my first 10k.