April updates part 1: Now just two weeks to go….

Following my visit to the school assembly a week later I arrived at the village playing fields in St. Florence to be greeted by a wonderful sight. The weather was beautiful and all the eighty children, staff and parents were there lead by the Head Gari Davies. Bollards had been laid out around the field to mark the course, which was about a third of a mile- quite a long way for children. This was their ‘marathon’ course, which gave them a feel for the challenge of jogging a long way.

The children were so positive about their involvement in the run, one child had even made an ‘Action for Children’ logo to pin to her tee shirt for the occasion. The youngest were taken through a brief ‘warm up’ by Tracey, which they undertook with gusto and then set off on their lap of the field. This was followed by the middle school who did two laps and finally the year 6 children who completed three laps of the field. Every child completed the course and was rewarded by a bottle of water and sweet at the finish. Everyone supported each other and I enjoyed waving to the spectators as I ran every lap with respective age groups. We then had commemorative photographs taken which I will post as soon as I have them. At the end I learnt that the event had raised a fantastic £413 to the appeal, which I never expected. To cap it all the St. Florence luncheon club were meeting in the village hall and collected an additional £30 which brought the total for the day to a wonderful £443! After the marathon I’ll return to the school to donate the actual ‘Action for Children’ London Marathon vest- washed! And a letter recognising the outstanding achievements of the school. Hopefully I will be able to bring a finishers medal to show the school as well.

This has made me even more determined to complete the marathon so I returned to training with renewed energy. I completed another 20 mile run at about 9:30 per mile, a TROT summer run of just under 6 miles, 9 miles, 8 miles and then today 14 miles at 8:54 per mile. One of these runs was with my son who is very understanding and follows my pace, that said I am nearly 30 years older! Both my sons run and I am very proud of it being a family affair. The run today was shorter as now I taper off my long runs to build up reserves for the big day which is now just two weeks away! Today, Easter Sunday was considerably warmer which wasn’t a bad thing as I got a feel for running again in hot conditions just in case the marathon day turns out to be like two years ago, the hottest in it’s history. I was able in these conditions to run 6 seconds a mile faster then my target pace without too much trouble. I also carried all the carbo gels that I will need for London just to check that this was possible.

Over the next week I’ll run twice during the week and then next weekend around 10 miles continuing the taper. By now all the hard work has been done so although you feel you should be doing more it’s important to exercise some self control- and I don’t want to risk injury at this late stage! Since last September I have run over 700 miles in preparation and I don’t wish to put it all at risk now, especially with the sponsorship riding on it. It hasn’t been easy juggling training with work and family but I never expected anything else.

A marathon punishes the body to the extreme through constant pounding- every stride exerts 2-3 times the body weight. You will lose litres of fluid through sweating and breathing. Your muscles micro fibres will be constantly torn. You will use up all your available fuel- carbohydrates and could feel light headed or faint. Your brain can become jumbled with clear thought increasingly difficult. For a detailed description of the marathon effects click on the link to the right which takes you to a BBC website outlining the body's marathon effort.

If you visit my Justgiving page the total is now over £1800, well past my target of £1500 and I expect now to exceed £2000 by the time the marathon is over. Next Saturday I will be at Morrisons in Haverfordwest with colleagues so if you are there please say hello (and donate some money!). You can follow the link to the right which transports you to the justgiving page where donations can be made online- every single one really appreciated.

I now have to organise my list for London which includes some obvious and some less so including my St. Florence School top, rail tickets, money, cash card, mobile, camera plasters, Vaseline, safety pins, carbo drink and gels, running shoes!, kit, registration information, underground info, toilet paper, bin liner and even sun cream just in case! I’ll be staying just off Whitehall and will visit the Mall on Saturday to look at preparations and visualise the finish on Sunday.

So next weekend is the last before London, I’ll update then and just prior to setting off on the journey. At this stage it’s a mixture of ‘can’t wait’ tinged with the prayer that all goes well on the day.