Running 100km (and a few other races) for Hospice UK
As you may remember, a couple of years ago I ran the Thames Path Challenge for MacMillan Cancer, I managed to raise just over £700 for that worthy cause and this year I am planning to tackle the course again but this time I am raising money for a just as worthy charity, Hospice UK.
Hospice UK look to provide the best possible end of life care for people with terminal conditions, be that in a person’s own home or at a hospice. I chose Hospice UK because of the excellent service they provided a good friend last year, giving him and his family the sort of support and help needed at the end of his life.
Please have a look at their site to see the work that they do.
https://www.hospiceuk.org/
Although the Thames Path challenge is a race in which I have an actual fund raising target of £375, I’m looking to fund raising for Hospice UK across all of my races in the upcoming year and would love to break at least £1000 raised. So not only will you be sponsoring me to complete 60miles/100km in September but also for a number of other races.
The first of these is the Heartbreaker marathon in the New Forest, just 8 weeks away on the 26th Feb, which is then closely followed 3 weeks later with another run through the New Forest, but this time a 50km run on the 18th March.
So please head over to my justgiving page and give anything that you can, every penny counts.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Paul-Wenham3
Thank you all so much. If anyone is also interested in my currently planned races, links are below:
http://www.thamespathchallenge.com/
http://www.racenewforest.co.uk/running-races/the-heartbreaker-marathon-half/
http://www.rgactiveevents.com/altra-50km--75km-ultra-runs.html (they haven’t changed the date to 2017 yet)
Hospice UK look to provide the best possible end of life care for people with terminal conditions, be that in a person’s own home or at a hospice. I chose Hospice UK because of the excellent service they provided a good friend last year, giving him and his family the sort of support and help needed at the end of his life.
Please have a look at their site to see the work that they do.
https://www.hospiceuk.org/
Although the Thames Path challenge is a race in which I have an actual fund raising target of £375, I’m looking to fund raising for Hospice UK across all of my races in the upcoming year and would love to break at least £1000 raised. So not only will you be sponsoring me to complete 60miles/100km in September but also for a number of other races.
The first of these is the Heartbreaker marathon in the New Forest, just 8 weeks away on the 26th Feb, which is then closely followed 3 weeks later with another run through the New Forest, but this time a 50km run on the 18th March.
So please head over to my justgiving page and give anything that you can, every penny counts.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Paul-Wenham3
Thank you all so much. If anyone is also interested in my currently planned races, links are below:
http://www.thamespathchallenge.com/
http://www.racenewforest.co.uk/running-races/the-heartbreaker-marathon-half/
http://www.rgactiveevents.com/altra-50km--75km-ultra-runs.html (they haven’t changed the date to 2017 yet)
Comments
Training hasn't really gone to plan. My mum got admitted to hospital back around the 12th of Jan, with serious stomach pains, they ended up removing her whole large intestine due to bowel cancer which meant that most weekends have been used for travelling back and forth and therefore I haven't really done any longs runs.
Then just as things were starting to settle down with my mum a week or so ago, my daughter managed to cut to top of her finger off in a door. Which meant a trip to A&E followed by a visit to the plastic surgeons for assessment and another weekend of no running.
So all in all, I'm about as far away from prepared as I could possibly be, with a stress fracture, followed by a slipped disc and all of the fun of this year I'm just going to be happy to finish.
This is very much going to be treated as a decent training run and hopefully by the 18th of March I will have managed to get a few more long runs in and a bit better prepared.
;hug
Trying to donate with Just Giving. Keep getting an error message, saying session timed out. ;weep
Will have another go tomorrow - could be because I have a new debit card. ;puzzled
Good luck, anyway. Don't go nuts ... you've got many
rivers to crossmarathons to run. ;thumbsup;bowdown
Really felt the lack of any long runs. Main problem was hitting 20 miles and the last 6 pretty much being a long the ridge line of the track we were following. By this time the weather had gone from slight drizzles to what felt like the tail end of storm doris. Winds across the top were very strong, added to some seriously tired legs it was a case of just getting your head down and making any progress. 2 steps forward 1 back kind of thing.
Above picture is what feels like a mountain of an uphill right at the end of the race, at this point you have done 25 miles and have a downhill section to the bottom of a killer hill
Done and dusted! Now I have 3 weeks to get ready for a 30 miler on pretty much the same terrain.
Thank you so much to those who have sponsored me.
Let me know if you don't get it ;ok
I really enjoyed this run, well the first 20 odd miles anyway. There was a slight change of parking for the event, so we were being picked up by minibus from about 10 mins from the event. I got chatting to a someone who was running their first ever 50k race. Ended up running most of the race with him and another bloke we met at registration.
First 10 miles went by really nicely, stead 10 minute mile (ish) pace, finishing the first lap between 1 hour 40 and 1 hour 45. The second lap was of course slower, as you knew what to expect and walked a few more hills than the first lap. We finished the second lap in around 2 hours.
But just after climbing up the mountainous hill which marked the end of the lap, I felt something in my knee go. It was pretty much like someone had stabbed a hot poker through the back of my knee cap. I was a stone's throw away from what was the finish and seriously considered pulling out and having a DNF (did not finish) as the pain was that bad.
Decided that I would push on to at least the first food station and then decide, you don't want to make a rash decision. Miles 20 - 23 where pure agony. Every foot fall causing my knee to send a bolt of pain though my body. Around 24 miles, I think my body just got bored of the messages from my knee and decided to ignore it and just register a dull ache.
Managed to pick up the pace for the next few miles and even managed to beat my marathon time from the last race, hitting 26.2 miles in 5:07. The last 3.8 miles, were pretty much like miles 20-23. A number of stops to try and get some feeling back in to my knee and also calves, which had now pretty much stiffened up like bricks because of my running form, which had become some sort of Quasimodo style limp as I tried to not put too much weight on my left leg.
Still I got to the end and only 3 minutes slower than last year and happily not the last person to complete the 30 miles, there was at least 4 people slower than me.
I did win the accolade of the best finish, managing to finding the energy to sprint over the last 20 metres with a huge smile on my face.
Gym sessions tomorrow for some strength training and it is back out to resume, or truth be told, actually start, a proper 50k training plan on Tuesday.
Got home in time to see the result of the footy, followed by the England match....kind of wished I had signed up for the 75k run, then I would have missed both!
I had the same issue with it last year. I did have strengthening program, which I followed until the pain stopped and the stopped doing it ;doh
So I'm back on the plan for strengthening the knee and am also back on the normal strength work as well.
The start of the training plan only has a long run of 10 miles or so at the weekend. So I'll see how that goes and then make a decision if I want to see a doctor.
That puts me to shame struggling to run 5k once a week ;lol
You get use to the long stuff and being on your feet for hours and hours. But learning to run 5ks...it was harder to go on that 3rd run of a week sometimes than it was to make the decision to run the last 10 miles on Saturday.
I have so much respect for people who are getting out there and continue to work on nailing that first 30 min non-stop 5k run.
Well, things have not, as the saying goes, gone to plan. I had to cancel the 50 miler in July due to a trapped nerve in my shoulder and a back, which was in spasm which put me out of action for at least 3 weeks in total.
I just had a week long holiday in France, in which I was hoping to get 10 miles in a day as the restart to my training but on the day I left the UK I managed to pull something in my back (again).
The holiday was planned to help the father in law out in sorting out their place in France, so basically I dosed up on pain killers enough to block out the pain and then spent the days doing the work needed around the place, so not a good way to get over ANOTHER injury.
So haven't really got much real running in since the March ultra, mostly just 5ks / 10ks and a few 9 - 12 mile long runs.
BUT..had a bit more of a rest today, the pain killers seem to be working and no major issues, so I'm hoping that I can start my proper 12 week training plan on Tuesday with a 10k across London before work.
I also know it probably sounds cliche or corny but things like this weekend make me realise that my problems and issues really aren't anything massive and I need to just get up and on with it. My pain is just temporary.
;lol
;quaver Are you Carroll in disguise, are you Carroll in disguise.
He believes I have Sciatica and has recommended I see a physio. The only other advice was to just treat it with ibuprofen and see how it goes.
So dose up with drugs, stretch a bit and keep on running, the last bit he probably meant to say but didn't get around to..