Crossing the line

Last weekend I ran ten kilometres in fifty two minutes and six seconds. And learnt that drinking a pint of beer and nothing else isn’t a good way to stay re-hydrated throughout the rest of the day. It was the toughest run I’ve done to date – not in terms of the distance (I’d done an 8km route a few weeks ago) but the extra effort needed to do that last two kilometres was a real killer. But I did it.

Crossing the finishing line

(That’s me, second on the left, in the green. Honest.)

Thanks to everyone who sponsored me, and to the lovely people who came and sat in the pub with us afterwards on a beautiful clear October morning. If you haven’t done so already then you can still donate through my justgiving page and help me reach my target of rasing £250 for Fairbridge.

And thanks to the wonders of proprietary Microsoft/Adobe technology, you can see a video of me crossing the finishing line here and my split times here, although I suspect some of those data points are slightly made up, what with them only having had sensor mats every two kilometres. Simon has a better description of the ups and downs of running ten kilometres than I can manage as well as a photo of us in our gear before the run.

Next week I start the training again. Autumn is a great time for running if only you can get around the whole getting-dark-at-seven thing.

Running kit

Running kit

Today I did my last training run before the big day on Sunday. I’m hopeful that the last few months’ worth of exertion will stand me in good stead for my goal of 55 minutes, but we’ll see what happens on the day itself.

Time goals aside, I’m also hoping to raise a bit of money for the charity Fairbridge, who help out disadvantaged kids in inner cities. If you’d like to help me out then please visit my justgiving page. All donations gratefully recieved!

Oh, and if you know Simon then you should sponsor him too. But sponsor me first, natch 😉

Little fluffy clouds

There’s lots of tiny little flies hovering around the flat at the moment, a situation which I’m sure has been getting worse over the past couple of days. Much like me they seem particularly attracted to plates of food and glasses of wine. They also like it quite a lot in the bin – not like me. Despite their size, they’re annoying and not particularly pleasant.

*pauses to watch a police car scream past the window*

Today’s run time was a pleasing yet slightly annoying 35 minutes and 4 seconds, a clear improvement on my time five weeks ago. Still much work to do before the event on the 8th of October – and sponsorship to collect. I’ll be pestering you all soon :-).