Mission accomplished

At approximately 11.55am on Sunday 11^th October I finished my first half-marathon!

Looking back at it three days on, I think I enjoyed it although at the time it was agony…

The alarm went off early on Sunday morning, a bowl of porridge later and we were on our way to the station with me moaning that I didn’t want to do this and saying I wished I could go back to bed. Fortunately we bumped into another Orpington Road Runner at the station and talking to them on the train distracted me from my moaning! We arrived at Charing Cross in good time and headed off to the start area of the Royal Parks Half Marathon in Hyde Park. The Mall was deserted having already been closed off for the race, but as we got closer to the start area the crowds increased.

Once in the start area the queuing began – queuing for the toilets, then the baggage and then the toilets again, in fact we spent so much time queuing that we only just got into our start area before the race start time. We needn’t have worried too much though as once the start gun had gone we were another 10 minutes walking to the actual start line before we started running. Then imagine my surprise as I went across the line and the announcer says ‘and we have Zoe running for Cancer Research’… ‘Ooh, that’s me!’ I muttered to which the announcer confirmed ‘yes, that’s you!’ How embarrassing!!

The first couple of miles weren’t too bad as the route took us out of Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, down Bird Cage Walk, past Parliament Square and onto the Embankment and Mr W confirmed that we were going at a good pace. After a loop along the Embankment we turned back towards Trafalgar Square, along the Mall and after about 5.5 miles we re-entered Hyde Park. Here there were loads of crowds cheering everyone on and I felt quite overwhelmed by it all, especially as lots of people were calling out my name that was written on my blue Cancer Research top – yes, I was continually confused by all of these people knowing my name and kept turning round expecting to see someone I knew!

We reached the half-way point in about 1h 4min, but then it started to get hard as we weaved our way around Hyde Park and my legs, lower back, feet all started to hurt at various points. I wanted to walk but knew that if I did that I’d never start running again so I kept thinking to myself I’ll have a walk break after so many miles and then when I got there I’d think well I’ve run this far it would be silly to start walking now. Mr W stuck with me the whole time and eventually we made it to the finish straight – it wasn’t exactly a sprint finish but we did cross the line together in 2h 15min 43s!

Very pleased to have done it and to have raised so much money for Cancer Research UK (over £1000 to-date – thanks to all your support) but not sure whether I’d do it again…. although I do wonder whether with more training my legs might not have hurt so much in the second half…..

What have I let myself in for?

You know those times when you think 'why, oh why, did I agree to do that?' and 'it seemed such a good idea at that time', well I am currently having one of those moments BIG TIME! It is now less than a week, 4 days 20 hours to be more precise, until I attempt my first half marathon and I am starting to panic...

Mr W keeps reminding me of all the miles of training I have put in and whilst my rational self can see his point, my irrational panicking self can't help but focus on my lack of training in the last few weeks whilst I've been recovering from not being on my thyroxine tablets. I did 2 short runs last week and then a longer 7 mile run on Sunday but still I am not satisfied and am wondering how I am going to manage almost double that in just a few short days. And should I worry about getting out for a couple of runs this week or should I just listen to my rather weary body and focus on getting plenty of sleep instead?

So many worries and no definitive answers... the only thing I do know is that I will be there on that start line on Sunday and can feel proud that to date I have raised over £850 for Cancer Research UK. Thanks to everyone who's helped me to do that!

The Ban

I feel frustrated! Just when training has been going well I have been forbidden to run - the doctor said for at least 2-3 weeks, I have agreed to rest for a week and then see how I feel.

I struggled around the Dry Hill 10 on Sunday - my calves were agonisingly tight for the first 3.5 miles until Mr W persuaded me to stop and give them a good stretch. This helped things and with much cajoling from Mr W (reminiscent of our early running days around Wimbledon Common) I finally made it round the course in a respectable time of just over 1h 40min. I even managed a sprint finish! But I didn't exactly enjoy it and was exhausted afterwards.

The problem is that I haven't been taking my thyroxine tablets for the last month in preparation for having a scan this week to review the progress of my thyroid cancer treatment. I knew a side-effect of not taking the tablets is tiredness but I thought I could beat that by keeping up the exercise. Unfortunately nobody told me that another side-effect is stiff muscles and that running in that situation is a definite no-no - the doctor nearly had a cardiac when I mentioned the 10-mile race! So I am being good and not running this week, whilst trying not to panic about missed training schedules, but am hoping to be able to get running again as soon after my scan as possible.

I promise not to let all you kind people who've sponsored me so far down though and will be on that start line on 11 October whatever! On a positive note, fundraising is going well - thanks to your help I have reached my initial target of £500 for Cancer Research and so have decided to increase it to £750. If you want to help me achieve this, here's a reminder of the link: http://www.runningsponsorme.org/zoecakes
Their work really matters.

The Charity Bit

As promised I have now set up my fundraising page and the link is as follows: http://www.runningsponsorme.org/zoecakes

Cancer is a horrid disease and affects so many people - according to the stats 1 in 3 people will get cancer at some point in their lives - so if you haven't been affected by it in some way then you should consider yourself very lucky. Having had cancer 3 times I guess I should consider myself 'unlucky' but actually I consider myself 'pretty lucky' really, as I am still here to enter running races, harass my family, friends and passing acquaintances for sponsorship money, bake cakes and enjoy all the other wonderful things that life throws at you!

Cancer Research UK is the world's leading charity dedicated to cancer research. Their groundbreaking work on all aspects of cancer is helping more and more people beat the disease - the overall death rate for cancer has fallen by 10% in the last ten years. I'm hoping to raise £500 by running the Royal Parks Half Marathon, here are some examples of what this money could buy:

£61: 500 petri dishes - sterile dishes that are used to grow cultures of cells for experiments

£125: Enable one of Cancer Research's cancer information nurses to work for one day. These nurses provide a confidential service for anyone with concerns about cancer

£210: 14 lab coats to protect scientists from harmful chemicals, and their experiments from contamination

£300: Enable one of Cancer Research's Senior Research Nurses to treat and monitor a patient on a clinical trial for around two days

£443: 40 digital timers - crucial as experiments often require precise timing

and if I manage to exceed my target, then £528 will buy 20,000 glass slides for studying cells and tumour samples in detail under a microscope.

I will be off out on my first training run tonight, all I ask of you is that you visit my fundraising page....

Thank you for your support!

How it happened

I have been thinking about entering a half-marathon for a while, but for various reasons have never quite got round to it. Then last year all reports on the first Royal Parks Half Marathon were positive and I thought maybe I could do that this year...

Fast forward a few months and I have secured a place for the event on 11th October 2009 through Cancer Research UK, Mr zoecakes has also signed up and agreed to run with me and provide suitable encouragement as I attempt my first half marathon, and now I realise that I have a little over 10 weeks to get in shape and raise my agreed sponsorship total for Cancer Research. So what do I do? I start a blog to talk about it and share my trials and tribulations with my supporters - heaven forbid I should actually do some running!

It's not all panic stations yet though - I have printed out a 10 week training schedule from the Runners World website and since I don't need to start following it until next week there are no guilty feelings yet about missing a training session. I have just survived a 10k race in Deal, although towards the end I did start to wonder how I would be able to run double the distance in just a couple of months. And I am also in the process of setting up a fundraising page, so all in all maybe things will be ok!