The weeks just seem to be slipping by and the milage is moving up! Week 7 was a good week, I felt strong, running just over 50 miles! I admit I still do have the odd moment of  am I going to make it, can I actually run 26 miles!  I have to say though I have an amazing set of running friends who all inspire me, seeing them over come their own challenges and achieving their goals gives me the motivation to keep going. Runners are a breed of their own, and I guess unless you have that running bug it can be difficult to explain why we do it! I ran a lot as a  kid, ran for a club and did pretty well at junior level, then music came along and I ditched the running for a good few years to pursue a music career.  I continued to run to keep fit and also maintain my sanity!

Anyway after a hard week 7, week 8 was about gearing up to do the Brighton half marathon, it came out of the blue, got a number from someone who wasn’t able to run. In 2014 I ran Brighton and got a PB of 1.31, so no pressure! The weeks training went really well and I felt strong, Race day came and I admit I always have a few jitters, once I get going I settle, pre race is always nerve racking! It was an early race start of 9am, leaving the house around 6.45am to get to Brighton, thank you to the lovely Rosy for driving duties. In all accounts the race started well and I felt  great for the first few miles and then we got to the point where we were running into the wind! not my favourite thing, it was tough and my pace dropped from 7 min miling down to 7.17 even 7.30.  I knew there was at least 7 miles of this, I dug in but it just wasn’t there for me. I battled through those 7 miles and  I  eventually came home in 1.35, disappointed of course,  but I took it on the chin and moved on. Drove back to Hastings and then did another 5 miles in another horrendous head wind  which seemed to have whipped up even more. I was extremely happy to get those miles down, 18 in the bag!

I have decided to try and raise a bit of money for two charities,  both of which are very personal to me. Colitis and Crohn’s is one that is an obvious choice having had Colitis since 2011.  It’s not any easy subject for many people to talk about and for me it is about raising awareness.  The other is Parkinson’s, my lovely friend Jennifer lost her uncle to Parkinson’s two years ago, Alan was larger than life a real character, loved his horse racing and music. We would just laugh all the time even through those really bad days! Alan had this knack of maintaing  his wicked sense of humour throughout this very destructive disease and I hope in the not too distant future they will find a cure for what has now become more common in much younger people. So if you have a spare few pounds lying around and want to help  out two worthy causes then please donate. There is no pressure, as I know there are lots of people fundraising for London. You can donate to the just giving page here: London Marathon 2017