mum's running journey!

hello everyone, bit of a quite week for me this week as seem to have injured top of foot.. better as time has passed so hopefully going to get to a training run tomorrow! so i asked my mum to write this weeks blog post... and this is what she has wrote.... 

We'll six weeks to go 

Have earned my first medal for a 2 k walk

I've now stopped counting lampposts and up to timing three minutes with a two min walk between

Looking forward to doing my first 5k after 30 years

Will see you in Llandudno in my duck onsie

short bu sweet... was meant to be about how shes found joining the jogging pals, a local couch to 5 k training programme to introduce people to jogging and how she feels she has progressed.. also to explain why she has decided to take up running.. maybe shell do another post sometimes?? 

anyway, she has decided to share my fundraising page over on the virgin site, to help me raise vital funds for the amazing charity that is child-flight! she has set a target at £200 pounds [please leave in the comments its for ali/duck] and please help her as it will mean masses if she reaches it! [i'll chuck a £10 in to start off]  

8 days till my next 10k! things cross my toe fixes its-self! 

Tatton park 10k.

Tatton park 10k.

Today was my first ever 10k run! And in short this was a fantastic run and a fantastic little day out!  Those who have followed the blog will know I’ve been a bit behind on training. The furthest I had ran beforehand was 8k, in 1hour and 12 minutes.  However I invested in a foam roller, compression socks and hoped for the best. The Nike Plus App on my i-phone was estimating I would do a 10k in 1hours and 35mins, so went into the run  hoping to do anything better than that!

The chip timing of the race records that I completed the race in 1hours, 16mins and 32seconds…. Yay! Celebration all around!

So a-bit about the race, it was around the Tatton park estate, mainly ran on grass across fields and also through wood land with several fallen trees and branches across the path. Recent weather has been very wet and windy; therefore this resulted in rather a muddy and slippery surface. Also a lot of the race turned out to be uphill, only one steepest hill but most was steadily inclines and with what felt like little down bits.  In short, think this course would be a on par with a tough mudder / mud run! Was nearly calf high at one point!  

I managed to run the first 5k well, slower than I would have liked at 36mins but had a steady pace at 7 – 7.3mins/k, I waked for half a k post water station and began to struggle slowly after that, and did walk a bit run a bit,  my ankle also began to throb through this but worked though! Still throbs so hoping it calms down if rested the next few days.  I would talk about elevation and pace in this bit but my Nike app will not sync for some reason off my phone will update, when I can, if I can!

And a big shout out to my mother! Who is in training for a 5k run in april and has even joined a local running club to build up her fitness. She did the 2k walk today whilst I was doing the 10k, she even ot a little medal! [the same one us 10kers got]! She is also supporting Childflight in her fundraising so please support us both! Sharing sponsorship page! She is doing the 5k in her duck onsie!.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/myscrambledlegs

thankyou to everyone who has supported me and sponsored me so far! even a little will go a long way!

Run facts:-

distance :- 10k

time:- 1hour, 16mins 32 seconds. 

surface:- trail, muddy/hilly. 

equipment:- compressionsocks.

momento:- medal [with orange strap! yay.]

rating. 7/10 

repeat/recommend? yes. 

Sefton park

Hello everyone.

 Today marks the day of it being 2 weeks until my first 10k, and am I ready! Defiantly not! Hoping the crowd will pull me along! The problem? Well in the last run I did as part of this challenge I hurt my ankle, during the race I thought it was down to new trainers,  but then couldn't run on it probably for a week and has taken time to get back into training again..  still not back up to doing the 5k in 30mins but I’m still going to go for it, an hope that I will be able to do the next runs faster and better. 

Target for this 10k, less than 1hour 20mins, hoping the crowd will pull me along, but why this time? Will my app Nike plus, estimates it’ll take me 1 hour 30mins so probably going to be happy beating that!   

so today i went on a bit of an adventure / new route finder around Sefton park, seen as it was a rare nice day with sun! unfortunately the whole of Liverpool also seemed to be there so spent half the time dodging dogs and kids on bikes..  and perhaps i would have been a tad faster if i hadnt stopped to take pics! :) 

 spot the palm house

 doesnt this place just look magical? sisnt know it was hidden away back there. 

 lovely band stand, would have loved a closer look. 

spring has sprung! the park was littered all over with lovely iris's in purples and yellow! bliss!

muddy trainers at the end of the run! few blisters from this due to running in puddles! lesson learnt! 

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!