From Emily Wren's Running for ME blog, 8 March 2011. Emily is running in the Reading Half Marathon on 20 April.
I have achieved a new milestone. On Sunday I successfully ran 12km. That’s 4km more than the week before and now i’m only 9km (sigh…) short of the half marathon.
I’m still in shock (and so is my body, in particular my legs…) that I managed to run that far and boy was it tough. The first 3km was also particularly difficult…getting into the stride etc and thank goodness for gel bars, what would I do without them? At 9km I was ready to limp home, so scoffed a (disgusting tasting) bar and then powered on through my final 3km moving on from a slowish jog to a decent enough run.
I’ve developed a new style of running that I hope will carry me through the half marathon in *gulp* 10 days time. I run for 10 minutes (well, jog) and then walk for 1 minute. During this time I can have a drink, catch my breath and blow my nose.
Yep, one of the most frustrating parts of the run isn’t the aching limbs or shortness of breath, it’s my nose. It doesn’t stop running! (haha). So I have to run with a rather unsightly pocket full of tissues and blow pretty much every time I stop.
So my next run will most probably be my last before the big race. I’m planning on doing cardio for the next 2 gym sessions, to try and rest my rather achy knees, and then the last long run will hopefully be on Saturday, where I hope to jog around 11 miles of the beautiful Berkshire landscape.
I really can’t believe it’s come around so quickly, It feels like yesterday that it was the first week of January and I was writing my initial fears of running a half marathon, and now here we are. The three weeks out of training have really set me back but I have to try not to think about it and go for it.
If I end up walking the last half of it, at least I will have given it my all and tried my best and I guess that’s all I can ask for.
If you’d like to sponsor me, please visit www.justgiving.com/runningfome – I’m aiming for £1000 target and currently at £530. All money raised will go to the ME Association. They do the most amazing work for people with ME who can’t live normal lives. They support them and provide superb advice in an area where it’s sometimes near to impossible to get support.
thanks xx