Maxx and I have decided to run Basingstoke half marathon 2014. We dropped out last year – I’m embarrassed to say it was due to a serious lack of motivation – so this year I’m determined to get back on the running-trainer-shaped horse.
My time in 2012 was 2 hours 7 minutes – this year, I’d like to beat that. 1 hour 45 minutes would be a real achievement, but anything under 2 hours would be good.
I ran for Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare, the Surrey-based charity where my family have adopted 3 out of 5 of our beautiful long-snouted friends, and I will be running for them again this year. I can’t emphasise enough how dedicated the staff are, not only to re-homing, but also to looking after the hounds who are long-term residents. They genuinely care about what they do, they know each hound individually (no easy feat when there’s over 80 currently at the centre), and they are probably the most vivacious, friendly group of people I’ve met. You definitely hear Denise before you see her!
At this stage, I can’t even run 5K (3 miles) without a couple of breaks (by breaks I mean walking) – but, with over 100 days to train, I feel confident I can get up to standard ready to smash my time. As I’ve told my friends before, a huge part of running is getting the right mentality, so I’ll be training on the hardest parts of the course to mentally prepare myself.
As a former road cycling competitor, Maxx is the perfect person to train with for a long distance event. As a wonderful man, he’s also perfect to train with because, when I’m struggling to keep going, he encourages me in a way that doesn’t make me want to smack him in the mouth with a sweaty fist. That’s love.
Any donations, no matter how small, are appreciated. Here is the link to our Just Giving page:
Thank you!
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