Fundraising

With your help I raised about £500 for Goodenough College. This is not final, as the fundraising goes on for one more month. The money goes for bursaries and the average bursary is around £750. Let’s hope that we can raise £250 more so that one student can be helped.

Thank you all for your generosity!  

The London Marathon

This was it! It happened on Sunday and I’ve done it! I managed to complete the 26 miles in 6 hours 5 minutes and 7 seconds. It was an amazing experience and I loved it all. The bottom line is that I want to keep running. Looking back it strikes me as a life changing experience.

Back in September when I started to train with Marsha, I could only run for 3 minutes in a row and I hated every second of it. My lungs were revolting against this type of exercise, my legs were in dismay and mind kept on coming back to the same question: why do I do this to myself?

On Sunday the 22^nd of April I ran for about 13 miles without even feeling it and walked most of the second half of the marathon. There were few doubts in my mind about whether or not I could complete the race. That is not to say that I was certain about finishing. Far from me! I only knew that there was one way to go about it and that was to run mile after mile. My mantra during the entire race was to keep going and push it a little bit further.

Strangely I found it easy to run and walk. Despite the pain, that was not the main problem. What was almost impossible and took every bit of strength in my body was…eating. I hated every bite of those energy bars, but I knew that the effort would pay back. It did after mile 20, when I started to feel energized again. I do not know if it was the food or the fact that there were only 6 miles left, but I think that was the moment of truth. At mile 20 it suddenly crossed my mind that it might take me about one hour and a half to finish. It was the most realistic insight I had in about four hours.

Mile 20 was also a milestone because I met the Goodenough crew. They were cheering and waving and looked to happy and so encouraging that I almost cried. I ran the last 6 miles with their smiles in my mind and their hugs in my soul. They reminded me why I decided to do this in the first place and what the Goodenough community meant for me. Thank you guys for being there and thank you all for following me on the internet, cheering from home or from the streets, donating money and supporting me in every possible way!

A bit more to go and my half marathon

Only 11 days to go till the big day of the Marathon. I am starting to get excited (and scared at the same time. I have not quite figured out yet how these two work together). In the meantime I do the best I can to keep fit and positive. There is not much running around these days, just a bit to keep my legs on track. I did a few k in the morning and a few in the evening. It seems strange, almost as if my body does not want to move anymore. At least not before the big show. It must be related to my half marathon experience.

On the 25^th of March I went to Hastings for a half marathon. I have no doubts that this was one of the greatest days of my life. Before the day, I had not given too much thought to the race. As a real novice, I had not even checked the route, leaving everything to the last minute. So, it was a blast to see that Hastings was quite hilly and more than half of the route was running up the hill. In the end it did not matter, because I managed to finish the fist 20 something k of my life in a rather decent time for my standards: 2:35:30.

The experience was fantastic because of two main reasons: Marsha Providence and the energy of the street. Marsha was again my guarding angel. Her kindness and generosity are far beyond what I can describe! She woke up on a Sunday morning and travelled to Hastings with me, greeted me at the finish line, walked around with me, stretched with me and even asked people for chocolate to feed me. We finished our day in a Mexican restaurant in Charing Cross (thanks Javier for recommending it a million years ago).Thank you Marsha!

The other reason that made my day special was the incredible energy of the street. Frankly, I had never thought that I would be able to run so far. In fact if someone would have asked me to do it a year ago, I would have just laughed. In Hastings though, for the first time in my life it crossed my mind that maybe I could actually do that. It was probably the sun, the people cheering on the streets, the smell of the salty water, the oranges and the sweets given by the locals. It was that feeling of pure happiness when crossing the finish line, such happiness that literally took my breath away for a second.  I don’t know what it was, but if the London Marathon is half as good as Hastings experience then it is worth all the training and all the pain. Look forward to this one!