Well in true me style – i forgot to write this blog in time. After i finished my 10k tour of the UK to try and buy Luca 2 new legs i realised i had only raised £10,000. As the aim was to raise £69,000 I feel compelled to “keep on truckin”
I have therefore started my 14 half marathons in 2014 to try and raise just that little bit more!. I ended the last challenge in December 2013 and essentially did nothing until the week before i was due to run Alan Taylor’s Inskip half marathon, when i madly ran 15k and went to some pump and yoga classes in the vain hope they would prepare me after almost a month of inactivity (I still dont seem to have caught the running bug – what is wrong with me!!!)
Anyway, we had a lovely trip up to Preston (mam and dad and me) on the train as they were worried i was going to be too tired to drive. This was one of the best trips we had had – lots of laughs, lots of madness and an acceptance between the 3 of us that was all full of our own faults but bottom line is that we love each other.
I met Alan Taylor at the Lancaster 10k last year. He is a champion of smaller causes such as Luca’s and he challenged me to run his half marathon with the tantalising offer of giving Luca a pound for every entrant running. Since this was expected to be 500 entrants I couldnt refuse. Besides which Alan is the kind of person full of so much enthusiasm you find yourself agreeding to some horrible challenges before you realise it!
Anyway, Alan sorted out all hotel arrangements and we had a lovely afternoon in Preston shopping and mooching and then met Alan for a drink before supper. We had a really good laugh and he organised our transport (thank you Jen) to and from the run for the following day.
Mam Dad and I ate the most enormous supper taking carb loading to a whole new dimension – we had to take pictures of our puddings as they were ridiculous. This amount of food meant that the following morning none of us could eat a thing which meant that I would be planning on being hungry approximately half way into the run – yippee – excellent planning as always! This led to my decision to keep a belvita biscuit up my arm sleeve which also led to my decision never to do that again when I tried to retrieve the soggy forgotten mess at the end of the run!
The run itself was …………. interesting! Alan said it was flat. His definition is not the same as mine! My fone battery died at around 10k so I had only the sound of my own voice and thoughts for another 1 1/4 hours – not the best as those of you who know me will agree with!
I actually ran with Shelby and Wendy from Sweatshop running for a lot of the way and actually the girls kept us all going with reciting the A to Z of food, music, vegetables and anything else we could think of (I was becoming a bit hysterical towards the end of this I think!)
I got overtaken by most of the 500 runners except about 10 and Jorja would have been proud of the policeman pushing a wheelbarrow that I could add to my list of interesting overtakings! Actually, am not even sure if he was in the race – I choose to believe he was as being overtaken by someone doing the gardening would take my speedy running to a whole new level!
Anyway, the weather was not the best although the rain did stop for most of the run, and I just about ran fast enough to keep warm. Jen ran her half in 1 hr and 40mins and used a jog out to join me and drag me in over the last 2 miles as part of her marathon training. I genuinely thought I was going to be unable to breathe at one point of trying to catch up with her gentle jog. She took my water bottle and gloves off me to hold so that I could go as fast as I possibly could. It was not impressive!! However, I made it in one piece and am now down to 13 half marathons left – yayy!!!
Jen took us back to the hotel who kindly kept my room and I had a lovely bath. We killed the 3 hours waiting for a train by having some food and cups of tea whilst lounging in the hotel, and then we made our weary way back home.
So many thanks to all the runners who donated their spare cash for Luca. Thank you to the very big hearted Alan Taylor who even had the numbers written on our running vests with “Legs for Luca” underneath to advertise Luca’s cause. Thank you to Premier Inn Preston for allowing me the bath afterwards and thank you to Wendy and Shelby for running with me most the way. Thanks to Jen for transport and company and thanks to Mam and dad for a really memorable weekend.
Onward and upward – have done nothing for last 2 weeks and am now 3 weeks away from next run – really have to do something about this!
See you soon lovely Luca
the 10k tour of 69 cities for two legs for luca 