Ok, so I haven’t quite reached the half marathon stage but that’s the goal. A few weeks ago I decided to apply for a place on the Tommy’s London Landmarks Half Marathon (LLHM) team and last week my place was confirmed. The LLHM is a closed road race of 13.1 miles through Westminster and the City.
Cue panic.
Then I had a word with myself and looked back on how far I’ve come.
You may recall, if you read this post, that in November 2018 I embarked upon the Couch to 5K running program and successfully completed it in February 2019. In actual fact, I never did run 5K during the program but I was running solidly for 30 minutes – something I’d never been able to do.
Since February this year, I have been building on my progress. That’s not to say there haven’t been a few hiccups along the way. Namely Christmas, an all inclusive holiday and a week in Cornwall. However, I am now able to run up to 6/7 miles (circa 10/11km) without stopping. I’m not a fast runner by any stretch of the imagination and therefore it can take me around 1.5hrs to complete such a run.
But, I don’t look at this as being a negative. I look at the fact I ran/jogged for that amount of time without stopping. Pretty impressive considering I struggled with 60 seconds less than a year ago.
I’ve always wanted to crack running, so to speak, and now my child bearing days are over it’s finally time. Being pregnant five times has taken its toll on my body yet I am seeing that it is still capable of great things if I put my mind to it.
If you haven’t been following me for very long you may not have realised that in 2015 I suffered an early miscarriage of a much wanted and tried for baby. We tried for around two years to conceive only to discover I was bleeding at an early scan at 7 weeks gestation. Our journey of trying to conceive was actually what drove me to start a blog!
Devastated doesn’t come close to describe how I felt and it, along with wanting to push myself, is what spurred me on to apply for my Tommy’s LLHM place. Tommy’s fund research into miscarriage, still and premature birth and, although I never felt I needed their support, I know people that used their services to help them through really difficult times.
The race isn’t until March 2020 so I won’t start serious training until the new year but, in the meantime, I of course want to increase my stamina, strength and speed gradually. Maintaining momentum when it comes to something like running can be tough; especially during the summer when it’s hot, you’re perhaps on holiday or have the kids with you 24/7.
If you fancy sponsoring me, I’d be ever so grateful – just hit the link below. The smallest amount will make a massive difference not only to me but lots of parents and parents to be in the future.
I track a lot of my training on Strava and also update my Instagram stories regularly when I’m out and about if you fancy following my progress.
