Day 620

HA! Just read last New Year's Eve blog entry and there's more than a little bit of it that still holds true!

In some ways I have come so far...  Barnardo's did accept me for a charity place, the fabric did come out of the cupboard and get fashioned into bags - which sold!  I made it round my first half marathon and a further two, and I'm finishing 2015 with a further 600 training miles under my belt and scarily 116 days to go!

Less impressive was the paragraph about my hip, knee and ankle pain which I was going to sort by paying heed to the advice I'd been given!  Could have written it today, which is a little sobering and I think has confirmed my decision that getting myself marathon fit is going to be my only goal come the start of the next 100 Day Challenge tomorrow.

I had such grandiose plans to clean and tidy and sort my life out so that I finish the marathon and use it as a spring board into the new me, not going to be much of a arrival if I don't finish, and even less of one if I can't start!

So.... looks like it's the same resolution as last year - more focussed, less stressed and take it one run at a time, apart from tomorrow when we're running two - but with the addition of GET IN THE GYM AND GET ON WITH IT!

London -115
Total Distance covered     1046.1 miles

Day 619

1.  My sister has gone home again :(

2.  But it did give Al and I the opportunity to sit on the sofa and binge watch 'The Bridge'.

3.  It wasn't how we'd planned on spending the day, but it was just what we both needed.

4.  H's birthday tomorrow....

5.  Tree down as quickly as it went up, and Christmas is over for another year!

London -116
Total Distance covered     1046.1 miles

Day 618

1.  If yesterday's run with my sister and niece was a rare opportunity it was nothing compared to the chance to go into Leeds with them and be ladies who lunched...

2.  and shopped!

3.  I have been thoroughly spoiled by my sister - thank you!

4.  That's it! No talk of running, no thinking about running, no visiting running shops....

5.  Although come to think of it, I did glance in the direction of the Sketchers shop and dream of some new trainers that I love as much as my previous pair!  Once an addict always an addict!

London -117
Total Distance covered     1046.1 miles

Day 617

1.  Keen to get back into her marathon training my sister suggested a four mile outing this morning, with her and my niece.

2.  Keen not to disappoint and very much wanting to make the most of a rare opportunity I agreed despite my leg really not being in the best of form.

3.  Very glad that we went.  It wasn't easy but I took the opportunity to try and see if I could adopt a different running style that would alleviate some of the issues I'm having with my IT band.

4.  Not sure that I really got it sussed but I didn't have to stop which was the main thing, it also hasn't seized up completely so I'm hopeful that even though it isn't great it isn't as bad as it has been before!

5.  Under the circumstances it might have been prudent to withdraw from the 'sprint to the finish' race but never one to turn down the opportunity for some healthy competition off we went.  Running along side my niece to begin with, I then felt how people competing against Mo Farah must feel when he just ups the anti and accelerates away from them! Am not even going to suggest that if my leg had been better I'd have been in with a chance!

London -118
Distance covered                     4 miles
Total Distance covered     1046.1 miles

Day 616

1.  Gorgeous morning for a run - all eleven miles of it :)

2.  Made even better by the company of fellow parkrunner! 

3.  My right leg wasn't quite as enamoured with the time or distance and really started to complain around the nine mile mark. A bit of side stepping and I managed to keep it moving for the final two miles but I have no idea how I ever run 26!

4.  But hey seventeen weeks to get to a point where I HAVE!

5.  My sister and family are here! Lovely evening en famille xx

London -119
Distance covered                 11.2 miles
Total Distance covered     1042.1 miles

Day 615

1.  Might be Boxing Day but it's Saturday which can only mean one thing... parkrun!

2.  Very very wet. Very very glad I'd already offered to volunteer.

3.  I love it. Even in the  pouring rain. I love the different perspective it gives you.  If my training goes according to plan I'm hoping for the opportunity to do it more regularly on the run up to the marathon.

4.  I say if, because my right leg really isn't right and it's starting to play on my mind.  Can't help but feel like I've a bit too much riding on this and I really don't want to be injured, not least because I've the small matter of eleven miles to run in the morning.

5.  Haven't had much chance to read but on first glances it would appear my new tidying book is suggesting a complete blitz - I would have run for poncho cover but the wool is going back (let's just say there was a reason it was in the sale! ).

London -120
Total Distance covered     1030.9 miles

Day 614

1.  Not overly impressed with my wish to have all five of us at parkrun this morning,  C would have much rather stayed in his bed. But he came and he ran and he made his mother happy.

2. Not having run in a while we all stuck together and ran with him - until the last when H beat Al (and Dougal) in a sprint for the finish - way to go H! (Sorry Al). 

3.  My mum (and she may not be alone) thinks we're mad for running on Christmas morning, Al did point out that some people go for a swim in the sea or Serpentine - so we're not as mad as some.

4.  C was given the option of switching to this activity next year if he really hates running so much.  

5.  I am hoping against hope that he doesn't call my bluff! 

Merry Christmas!

London -121
Distance covered                    3.1 miles
Total Distance covered     1030.9 miles

Day 613

1.  Getting to bed at 2am and being in the supermarket to do the food shopping with no list at 7.30 was a bit of a grim start to Christmas Eve!

2.  All day I kept thinking that soon there would be a chance for a snooze but still the jobs just kept coming.

3.  We've wrapped, delivered, cooked and chauffeured....

4.  If I just get this finished and that present I've just remembered is hidden somewhere found and wrapped I think we might be ready for Santa to arrive! 

5.  Otherwise he'll just have to wait til after parkrun!

London -122
Total Distance covered     1027.8 miles

Day 612

1.  The weather was so nice Mr L and I decided to go for a walk with the dog together instead.

2.  Slight running guilt but haven't seen enough of each other to spend a precious hour in each other's company headphones in trying to get these lazy legs round five miles.

3.  I do think my leg is getting better for the reduction in miles recently and am starting to get a little apprehensive about eleven miles on Sunday!

4.  News from FMG is that her leg is on the mend too so hopefully it won't be too long into the New Year before we're pounding the streets together again!

5.  Truly lovely evening at some of our parkrun friends. Good food, great company and a much later night than I should have had given my early morning supermarket plans for tomorrow! Thanks for inviting us SC xx


London -123
Total Distance covered     1027.8 miles

Day 611

1.  Hmmm not sure my memory of today is much better!

2.  I think it's fair to say my days are merging together in a sort of pre-Christmas blur!

3.  Slowly slowly bit by bit I think I am edging ever nearer to being ready! 

4.  But there is a real danger that I've done my usual and think I'm better organised than I am - guess only time will tell!

5.  Decided against running today, the weather was so horrid. But there is sunshine on the way tomorrow!

London -124
Total Distance covered     1027.8 miles

Day 610

1.  Writing this on Wednesday after half a bottle of Bucks Fizz and I have absolutely no idea what I did on Monday!

2.  I didn't run, I didn't go to the gym, I didn't even walk the dog but as to what I did do?! 

3.  Perhaps I spent my day foam rollering and doing my corrective exercises...

4.  I know unlikely! I certainly wasn't cooking... Al did that and he excelled himself in the master chef department!

5.  The day remains a mystery but the evening was spent with good friends, eating delicious food. We have so much to be thankful for. 

London -125
Total Distance covered     1027.8 miles

Day 609

1.  I have found a new book on decluttering which has been highly recommended and added to my Christmas list!

2. What with this, my planner and my 'Artists Way' creative block (find out what I want to do) book - there should be no stopping me in the New Year!

3.  Clearly terrified at the prospect I have also impulse purchased a poncho knitting kit so I can bury myself in my knitting and forget about everything else! 

4.  Fair enough - but a poncho?!! Who knew?!! 

5. Another year gone, another BBC Sports Personsality of the Year, another chance to sit and get emotional looking back at sporting achievements... but this time with the added edge of hoping that next year I'll be watching with my marathon medal round my neck, figuratively speaking - honest! (although  it is a nice mental image!!) AND two new mantras courtesy of A P McCoy and Adam Peaty "Make the Sacrifices" and "Let's Have This" - going to be a good year.

London -126
Total Distance covered     1027.8 miles

Day 608 - Parkrun 100

1.  HALF A MILLION PARKRUN METRES!!  I have joined the 100 club!

2.  It was a good morning.... there were three of us running our 100, two running their 100 at Dewsbury, and two joining the 50 club.  Of these six other runners, I am lucky enough to call five of them friends.

3.  In the end the rain stayed away but having tidied the house it seemed a shame not to make the most of it and so a few of us came back here instead.  More relaxed than I am in the cafe with Dougal trying to sit on my knee and H trying hard not to spend the whole time looking like he's ready to leave, it was a lovely way to mark the occasion that I've spent two days of my life running to achieve.

4.  Said it before but it needs saying again...  I am so grateful for what parkrun has brought to my life, it is the mechanism through which I turned sporadic appearances at 10K races into regular weekly running which in turn has led me to believe that I can achieve my marathon dream and notch up a trio of half marathons along the way.  But so much more than that it has brought with it the most wonderful support network of friends and I am especially lucky because Al, H and occasionally C are part of that too, meaning my family are embodied in our wider parkrun family which is a very special place to be.  The last song is for all of you, and especially Al - thank you for being there when I've needed you. I hope it's been reciprocal.

parkrun 100 - 2000

5.  Tidy house - tree's up!

London -127
Distance covered                3.1 miles
Total Distance covered     1027.8 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas! Ha! Ha! Ha!)

Day 607

1.  Better day today.  Thank you Mrs J for your timely suggestion to walk the dogs together this morning.  Lovely as always to catch up, good to vent about Wednesday and get things into better perspective.

2.  The marathon will be what I make it.  I don't think I'll be attending the training day, nor will I be running the 26 miles looking forward to the Barnardo's after party, but thankfully Team Marathongirl750 will be there instead and we're going to have a great time and savour every mouthful of those marathon mojitos!

3.  The realisation that no one else is going to make this happen for me was enough to get me day dreaming of battling against the adversity of it all and hitting the gym with a new passion and focus and drive to succeed.

4.  It remained a day dream!

5.  BUT the house is tidy! In anticipation of wet weather for my parkrun 100 tomorrow I have invited our friends back here for coffee afterwards instead.  Thank you Mr L for stepping up and helping when it was the last thing you wanted to do on the first afternoon of your Christmas holidays.  I am aware that I am a nightmare to live with - I love you for coping with it so admirably!

London -128
Total Distance covered     1024.7 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 606

 OK so about last night.....

 For the most part the 30 or so of us who had turned up (out of a possible 130) sat around the perimeter of a conference room making polite conversation with the people next to us, luckily for me this was FMG and a perfectly pleasant man who ran the Great North Run last year and who's training is going well.  Less lucky for the girl sat opposite us who was sandwiched between two blokes discussing their training at length and bestowing the virtues of a recently purchased foam roller.

After about an hour of talking amongst ourselves, oh and FMG solving the conundrum of how to get the mulled wine out of the tea urn when the volume isn't sufficient to pour out of tap and one sip later wishing she hadn't, it started.

An introduction, a pep talk from Snowy - an 1972 Olympian decathlete, previous Barnardo's boy and friend of Daley Thompson who will take the training day (which incidentally will concentrate on how to warm up properly because Snowy has never run a marathon, at 71 and with two replacement knees is never going to run a marathon, and thinks we're nuts for even thinking about it), a brief insight into the work carried out at one of their centres by an employee and fellow runner, an opportunity to write a good luck message to ourselves in a book and, approximately twenty minutes after it began, it was finished.  As motivational, get to know each other and feel like you're part of a team events go it was about as flat as the deflated balloons they had lying on one of the tables.

Bottom line, I'm going to get to run the marathon and children in need of help will have benefited because of it, but I'm struggling to disassociate last night from the marathon itself and feel that all my illusions about how exciting it will be have been shattered.  An email in from Barnardo's today saying how lovely it was to meet us yesterday (by which read hand us a name badge) and a request for any suggestions as to how they could improve the event.  In my current mood I thought it best to refrain from replying!


London -129
Total Distance covered     1024.7 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 605

1.  Our day in London so very nearly didn't happen - we missed our train!  Luckily for us (less fortunate for others) a lorry had caught fire on, and subsequently closed, the motorway a picture of which had made it onto social media, so the very kind people at Virgin East Coast believed us when we said we'd been caught in traffic and let us on the next train.

2.  Love going away with FMG for a number of reasons, amongst which is her willingness to accompany me to whatever veggie restaurant I can find! Today's was amongst the best we've been to, and a great start to our time in London.

3.  Next up was some Oxford Sreet shopping which finally got me feeling Christmassy!  The decorations were just magical....

4.  Less inspiring was the Barnardo's Christmas Meet Up!  Of all the weird and wonderful places we would visit along our road to London 2016 who would have thought that this would have been amongst the strangest!

5.  Actually I think FMG and I had slightly more than an inkling that it might have been, given the lack of organisation to date, but I think it surpassed even our expectations! (Writing this four days later and I still words fail me!).

London -130
Total Distance covered     1024.7 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 604

1.  On a day when the weather looks like this...

Dougal's response to "Run?!!" is 

2.  Bugg*r off!!

3.  Which echoed my sentiments entirely so we went for a walk instead! 

4.  I have convinced myself that this is in my best interests and I can practically feel my leg getting better from the rest - I can't - but I just couldn't face it after Saturday.

5. Off to London tomorrow to meet with Team Barnardo's! Very excited and also very tired! I may get onto the train and collapse out of relief at having got through the past couple of weeks - on the other hand FMG and I might just chat all the way there and shop till we drop all afternoon...

Better head for our obligatory cake fix on arrival to help with the energy levels - good job I've found just the place!


London -131
Total Distance covered     1024.7 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 603

1.  Second only to not having one at all, our Christmas tree must be amongst the easiest to put up yet still it lives folded up under the bed!

2.  I just don't seem to be able to find the time, mainly down to the fact that I'd like the house to be tidy first.

3.  But if I stick to that plan we run the risk of not putting it up at all!

4.  Might have had more chance of being able to do something about it if I'd actually been home for a large chunk of this morning but instead I found myself going on an extended dog walk much to Dougal's surprise and obvious delight...

5.  Burst of energy? Leg feeling better? Mince pie to walk off?! Not at all (well OK yes to the last one) but much more a case of the longer I was out there the longer I could put off doing anything else!

London -132
Total Distance covered     1024.7 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 602

1.  Slightly stressed and a tad emotional getting C onto his train bound for Oxford this morning.

2.  Picked H up from a sleepover on the way back from the station and had the pleasure of his company whilst walking the dog.

3.  Meanwhile Al was out with parkrunfastfinisher running the Leeds Christmas 10K. 

4.  Proud of you Mr L xx

5. But.... How much sports kit washing can one family generate in a weekend?! Oh for a couple of days where we could all stay in our pyjamas!

London -133
Total Distance covered     1024.7 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 601 - Parkrun 99

1.  Running in the pouring rain at temperatures a little above freezing is not for the faint hearted - but isn't enough to deter the parkrun addicts amongst us!

2.  Nor was it enough to stop this marathon girl from running a further six miles home! But I wish it had!

3.  Early morning chauffeuring duties meant that we ran at one of the Leeds parkrun's, then dripping wet we got into the car and drove a little over a mile up the road, at which point I had to get out of the car, back into the driving rain and embark on my longest and steepest uphill ascent ever, it was just grim - BUT I DID IT!!


4.  At one point I thought I was going to have to call into a shop and ask them to tie my shoelace which had come undone as my hands were so cold my fingers could barely move - thankfully I managed it.  I did on more than one occasion think of phoning Al to come back and rescue me but I doubted my ability to both extract my phone from my 'flipbelt' and have enough warmth in my fingers for it to register a swipe (if that is how it works?!)

5.  An utter nutter?! Perhaps.... but one who doesn't have time to run at any other time this weekend and needed to get nine miles in, and also one who is on her ninety ninth parkrun and wants to run her 100th next week! And so although the title may be a little ironic given today's weather, here is the penultimate song - I hope I'm in the category of interesting middle aged people who still haven't worked out what they want to do when they grow up!

parkrun 99 -1999

London -134
Distance covered                 9.7 miles
Total Distance covered     1024.7 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 600

1. I found my planner!! It promises much... By completing each stage I will laying the foundations to achieve self mastery, reach my goals and find and follow my purpose!! Watch this space!

2. Watch out world! If it delivers all it claims to, it might not know what's hit it! 

3.  In reality it might take more than a book - even a very aesthetically pleasing one! 

4.  But if its commitment that's required then surely I must be in with a chance?! After all it's Day 600 today and I'm still going strong(ish!!).  Thank you to all those who have read even once - but a HUGE thank you to those who have read them all. 

5.  Nice walk with FMG and sisterof today, always nice to see them, but sat at home feeling a bit like Billy No Mates this evening as Al is out with friends from work and the majority of my running friends are at their running club Christmas Do.  Almost enough to make me think about joining but the thought of being organised enough to get there on a Tuesday or Thursday evening is enough to keep me at home! Although maybe once I've got my new planner...!!
Congratulations on the silver wear fellow parkrunner x

London -135
Total Distance covered     1015 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 599

1.  An advert popped up on Facebook first thing this morning for a rather exciting looking planner, lots of coloured sections and pretty looking pages.  By the time I had decided this was the answer to all my prayers the ad had changed and I couldn't find the company again.

2.  I then spent every available minute this morning trying to remember what it was called and typing various word combinations into google to see if I could find it, all unfortunately to no avail...
BUT I did call into our local stationers this morning and purchase an alternative.  Very functional and a bit drab but I'm hoping it will do the job - besides which I have coloured pens!

3.  So busy was I daydreaming about how productive this is going to make me, and how organised my life will become that I forgot I was supposed to be taking a friend out for lunch!

4.  This then led to a frantic rush to finish cleaning the bathroom, spilling bleach on my favourite navy top in the process, a mad three mile dash with Dougal to get his exercise in for the day (I say mad dash - it wasn't nearly as fast as I would have liked!), and an abandonment yet again of any jobs that actually make me feel like I'm heading in the right direction.

5.  I'm still formalising my goals for next year - but being more organised has to be one of them!

London -136
Distance covered                3.7 miles
Total Distance covered     1015 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 598

1.  The 100 Day Goal has finished and I smashed my target of selling 39 bags by an additional 11 which, added to the 18 already sold when I started, makes a grand total of 68! Along the way I completed a 6 week mindfulness course, made some purses, threw a whole three bags of clothes out of my wardrobe and finally got round to tackling the blanket! Yet still I feel flat...

2.  The fact that it didn't lead on to anything is disappointing, in that there is no longevity in a business that relies on friends to purchase, and the absence of an internet sale to a randomer will haunt me either until I make one (on some different venture in the future) or as I suspect for many many years to come!

3.  That is unless I remember to start practising the self love that I learnt on my course! So it's focus on the good and learn from the bits that have made me sad! Onwards and upwards to the next 100 days which kicks off 1 Jan - for anyone wanting to join me click here!

4.  In the end I didn't get all of my jobs finished. Settling down to make cards for my dad that aren't needed till Monday, I decided that I'd had enough of my arbitrary milestones and it was time I went back to the gym to put some work in on running past some very real ones!

5.  Not sure even I can count an hour with the Biomechanics Man as a gym appearance - but at least I now know that the pain in my leg is a secondary issue stemming from poor rotation at my hip and ankle and if this time I actually do the remedial exercises past the point where the secondary issue disappears - I should be fine!

London -137
Total Distance covered     1011.3 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!

Day 597

1. My leg is still sore - so I took the advice I would have given anyone in the same position and didn't run today.

2.  Consequently this week's 'run' picture looks like this

3.  I have had a busy day trying desperately to finish my 'to do' list by the end of the 100 Day Goal by tomorrow.

4.  Going to take a bit of doing but I'm hopeful I'll get there...

5.  That said I did remove any reference to 'pre Christmas clear out' from the list a couple of weeks ago.  I think this may be cheating, so as a cautionary measure I have made sure that all evidence that it was ever on there has been destroyed... just as well I didn't mention it on here! 

London -138
Total Distance covered     1011.3 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 596

1.  Sometimes even with the best of intentions choices have to be made.  It would appear that my attempt to get to the gym a further 8 times before Christmas is not going to happen.

2.  I've moaned far too much about going for anyone to seriously think I'm bothered - but I am. It feels like I'm admitting defeat and that if I only tried harder or was more organised or put it higher up my list of priorities then I could make it happen.

3.  But the truth is that the priorities that need my attention right now aren't mine - there are family needs which have to take precedence. I am needed elsewhere and suddenly finding the resolve to exercise that has alluded me all year isn't really fair. 

4.  Besides which there is nothing to stop me from doing my exercises at home - thereby saving travelling time - other than the fact that I can't be ars*d! Clearly my desire to be at the gym is directly related to the fact that I can't go!!

5.  As for my desire to run....well, whilst FMG is busy changing her FB profile picture to a running top that reads "I don't run to win races, nor do I run to get places.  I run to escape this world. I run to find peace within myself. I run to feel free, and I run to feel strong" Mine would currently have to read "I run because otherwise I'd have to walk the dog!" but oh how I'd like a week off from both!

London -139
Total Distance covered     1011.3 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 595

1.  Help! I feel like December has arrived and swallowed me whole! I just need the world to stop spinning for a day or two to give me time to catch up.

2.  Actually could I make that a month?!

3.  My anxiety levels are going through the roof and poor C is bearing the brunt of it.  With so much going on that is outwith my control, I have decided to home in on those bits that are, or potentially could be, consequently I'm barking questions about whether he's done X Y or Z in rapid succession and then getting stressed when it turns out he's opted for A B and C instead!  As if an Oxford interview wasn't stressful enough for the poor boy!

4.  I have apologised and warned him that I'm likely to get worse over the course of the week and just to take me with a large pinch of salt.

5.  Al has had his head in pile after pile of books marking all weekend.  I know it's not how he would have chosen to spend his time, but headphones in, lost in his own world was possibly a nicer place to be.

London -140
Total Distance covered     1011.3 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 594 - Parkrun 98

1.  I am starting to feel the toll of sticking to my training schedule and being so close to my one hundredth parkrun... I want a day off yet there isn't one coming!

2.  My time round the park is getting slower again and although I may well have to accept this as inevitable as the distance starts to increase it isn't getting any easier to come to terms with. 

3.  My right leg is doing its best to give me no choice but to slow down. I've done something to my hamstring and ignoring it over the past week has not made it go away.

4.  Huge congratulations to Mr L and Dougal on another PB this morning! Al is a little gutted that it is exactly the same time as C's - but not as much as he'd be if he'd been a second outside it.

5.  Didn't get the time I'd hoped for with Al today... And so for the sentiment and the dream of having some time alone together with nothing to do but be still and enjoy the surroundings here is my song for 1998 - just a shame you'll hate it Mr L.

parkrun 98 - 1998

London -141
Distance covered                    3.1 miles
Total Distance covered     1011.3 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 593

1.  Finally an anxiety dream I can relate to.... my house is a tip and we're going to be late for school!

2.  Thankfully when I came downstairs the reality was somewhat tidier than my 'dream' house!

3.   So much so that I seem to think I have nothing to do today! I met FMG for a walk this morning, which was lovely, and I had been to the supermarket before that, but since getting home at about 11 I have drifted around not really aware of what I am or should be doing...

4.  Catching up on yesterday's blog, it wasn't until I copied and pasted the countdown from the bottom to update that I even remembered I was member of a gym, let alone that I was supposed to be there this afternoon!

5.  Busy weekend ahead of us, but I'm hoping that Mr L and I can find a bit of time to spend together.

London -142
Total Distance covered     1008.2 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 592

1.  I don't get it! Why is my recurrent anxiety dream about being disorganised packing up after a holiday! I'm not going on holiday, it's not an issue that I'm going to have to contend with, and even when we went on holiday it wasn't a issue then!

2.  Why I'm having anxiety dreams in the first place is no surprise at all!

3.  Sitting in the cafe last weekend after parkrun we were discussing the annual 'There will be Fire' event at the park this coming Thursday, and how nice it would be to meet up and enjoy the 1000 flaming candles, 21 floating water lilies and 10 animated fountains whilst listening to the sound of harp and saxophone being played live and enjoying the festive aromas of cinnamon and cardamom from the burning spice tree...  Fast forward to today and instead of the above I find myself negotiating the joys of rush hour travel getting H to and from a casting audition in Manchester city centre at 5pm.

4.  Sitting in the waiting room and I got a phone call from C to say he's got an interview at Oxford #proudmammydoublewhammy!

5.  As the opportunities available to them just keep expanding there will be 12,000 children leaving care this year because they are too old to stay in it any longer, the majority have no families and nowhere to go.  This ladies and gentlemen is the answer to your question "Why Barnardo's?"

London -143
Distance covered                   5.4 miles
Total Distance covered     1008.2 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 591

1.  Despite all my best efforts not to get stressed by Christmas, I'M STRESSED!

2.  For every step I take towards getting organised for it, I take another equally large step away from getting the house sorted.... there just doesn't seem to be time for both.

3.  After the high of yesterday I came down with a bit of a bump today.  It would have been very nice to have had time to sit and reflect on where I'm at and how far I've come but that would require space in my head and there's not a lot of that going spare at the moment.

4.  I hate the way that this time of year seems to gather it's own momentum. I'm not ready for the next few weeks to fly by, not least because then it'll be 2016 and the marathon will come hurtling towards us!

5.  I am already a little concerned about the effect it has had on MG150 - when asked what she would like for Christmas the reply came back as 'a running hat' which is basically combining two of her least favourite things in one!  Tell me you've given up wine sis and I'm taking you to see someone!

London -144
Total Distance covered     1002.8 miles
Gym Attendance = 12 (Target 20 by Christmas!)

Day 590 - One Thousand Miles

1.  Title of my blog is wrong. It should read "Parkrun to marathon in 735 days (a journey of a thousand miles - and counting!) as I ran my 1000th training mile today!

2.  Almost didn't go but Mr L has taken to running before work twice a week and the running guilt I experience on his return is awful!  He gets up and goes whilst I'm still best part asleep and by the time I wake up I'm already beating myself up for not having been even though I had no intention of going till later! 

3.  No playlist mishaps for today's momentous occasion - Vanessa Carlton's '1000 miles' * added to the playlist and then an order worked out so that it would play at the right point! Told you Spotify membership was a procrastinator's dream!

4. An unexpected, but very pleasant opportunity to stop and chat to Mrs J almost scuppered the plan but I managed to stop both music and runkeeper and re-start - clearly  on fire today! 

5.  Or perhaps not... All the occasion needed now was a 1000th mile selfie... 

* Click here to listen!!

London -145
Distance covered                 4.4 miles
Total Distance covered     1002.8 miles

Gym Attendance = 11 (Target 20 by Christmas!)