April 25th 2010

Thank god for that it's over, many thanks to everyone who sponsored us, a big thank you to Mark, Dawn, Megan and lauren for putting us up overnight on the eve of the race and for looking after Heather and taking her to the finish for us, you were a great help guys and made our life alot easier. A big thank you to all those who put up with us on training runs and to Fred and Rita for having h when needed and to bob and carole for putting us up prior to the race.
As for the marathon itself it rained a bit at the beginning and the the hot weather didn't arrive until early afternoon. I wasn't impressed with the start and after a couple of miles I realised that 3hrs 20mins was out of the question. I was looking for 3hrs 30min but in the end was happy to settle with being able to run all the way and only just missed out. I was very emotional at the end as I have decided there are too many other marathons in the world and four London's is enough.
Liz was a inspiration, with all her injury issues for the past couple of months and not having completed all the long runs she wanted to I am very proud of her for what she has achieved. She set out to run it all, not be crippled at the end and to enjoy it, I am not sure if she enjoyed it but with the exception of a few zeppelin sized blisters on her feet the first two were a positive.
Thanks again to everyone who donated money to the Hospital, its a very worthy cause and maybe in the future we might even jump out of a plane for them.
Andy

Thursday 15th April

Well with just under two weeks to go tonight will be our last run with the club. We have both laid off the long runs and our injuries seem to be bearing up and we are both confident of a good race on the day.
The great news is we have passed the £1000 mark so thanks to everyone who has donated. We will put one last post on before the big day and then you will be able to see the after photos!!!!!!!!!!

Sunday 4th April 2010

we are back at last, I managed a 5 miler on Thursday with Steve and the lads, didn't feel too good at the time and the next day I was worried with the pains in my calf but since then it has worn off and we both went out yesterday and managed 7 miles with no issues so fingers crossed. Liz has taken to wearing her compression socks which she says seem to be helping, whether its in the mind or actually doing anything doesn't really matter as long as it gets the job done, although it doesn't do much for her street cred. Apparently she was running down the middle of a country lane with the ipod on full blast, singing at the top of her voice only to discover she had two cars following her!!
We will both be taking it easy for a few days and try to get a 10 to 13 miler in sometime in the week.
We have passed the £800 mark and it would be great to get to £1000, thanks to everyone who has donated so far.

26th March 2010

It's not been a good week for either of us and the toll of the large amount of training is causing injuries. Liz is still having problems with her right leg and has further physio booked and she has finally decided to take a week off altogether to give it a rest. As for me I have shin splints in my right leg, I stopped running after a painful 4 miles on Tuesday at the club and have been on the turbo ever since and I also have a physio session booked for Monday. Still there is no need to panic just yet, I believe we have both done enough training to this point and my main priority is for both of us to get better asap so we are both good for the big day.
Hopefully I have some better news next week.

12th March 2010

Well what a busy week. At the weekend we had the Bideford 1/2 Marathon. Liz completed a great personnel best of 1hrs 56mins and I just about managed to scrape in under 1hrs 30mins with 8 seconds to spare.
Liz currently has a annoying injury to her hamstring but hopefully with a bit of physio she will be back to full training soon. We still have 6 weeks before the big day and it's better to over come these small obstacles sooner rather than later although she is finding it frustrating.
I have just finished another 50 miles week and the legs are tired, only a couple of weeks to go and i can start to cut back a bit.
We are both booked in to do the Loch Ness Marathon in October, which by all accounts is very scenic.

Sunday 21st Feb

The end of another week, we managed a joint run in Windsor Great park on Tuesday covering 17 miles in the persistent rain, but despite the weather it made a change to run somewhere different. My mileage has increased this week to 45 miles and i even managed to fit a 9 miler in to celebrate my 44Th birthday on Thursday.
On the way to Windsor we stopped at the Bristol Hospital and met the girls at Wallace and Grommit. I was good to see where the money we are raising is going and to see how enthusiastic the girls are at the charity. We have just past the £700 and hopefully we should have a article in the local paper this week which will hopefully boost our efforts.