First half marathon! DONE!
I did it! Yesterday I took part in the BUPA Great Birmingham Run. A whole half marathon. 13.1 miles. It wasn’t easy but it was pretty amazing. It was a personal challenge of course but I also raised some money for Kerrang Radio’s Cash for Kids. You can still donate here if you’d like to top me up!
Before the run. Nervous but ready.
The streets of Birmingham closed off to make way for over 18000 runners of all abilities. The crowds were so great and hearing strangers calling my name out and cheering me on was quite overwhelming. I had a few ‘moments’ as I was running around because there was just so much support. Small children holding their hands out to be high fived, students banging on saucepans, different bands all along the course of all ages. So many people! It made me very proud of Birmingham.
My first 10K (6miles) was pretty easy, I had metal in my ears to keep me going, in fact I could’ve probably run faster but after all the scare stories about the hill at 10 miles I wanted to conserve the energy in my legs. I told myself that once I got to Cannon Hill Park at 9 miles then I would be nearly done (I was wrong on that one!). As I ran through the park I had a packet of sport’s beans I had finished and even though there was all sorts of race litter like bottles of water everywhere I couldn’t bring myself to drop it so I ran over to a woman cheering me on and asked her to get rid of it for me. I hate litterbugs! Haha. My mother and father in law were in the park waiting for me to go past so it was pretty ace to see them.
Then things got a little more difficult. I was running through residential roads in an area I wasn’t familiar with, it was a little quieter and the impending hill made it bit more ominous. As I got onto the main road I could see an incline, I ran as much as my little legs could take and it was OK for a while although my language may not have been the most ladylike. Rounding another corner at about 10.5 miles it got steeper and although I kept my arms moving as if I was running my pace slowed right down and I started to feel the burn. I had to push myself to keep going and I was relieved to see the 11 mile marker. Even though I had run 11 miles I thought to myself, ‘I can run 2 miles easy’, so I went for it, down into the dip and up onto Broad Street, kept on going, then lo and behold in the distance I could see the finish line! A beautiful finish line.
200m from the finish line and the moment I saw my awesome man and family cheering me on. Amazing feeling.
At the 200m marker I heard familar voices shouting my name and I saw my man, my Mom, stepdad, brother, sister in law, Nan, Aunt, Uncle and cousin all cheering me. Best thing ever. I ran over the finish line and my eyes started leaking. I couldn’t believe it was over and I had done it, I so was overwhelmed by the whole experience. There was quite a walk to get my medal and goodie bag before I could find everyone to get some hugs and I broke down, it was all too much! I felt so chuffed but so knackered.
Walking back to the car park near Moor Street station was a challenge. When we got home the bath was most welcome. I made the mistake of lying on the bed afterwards and then it was game over for a couple of hours. I woke up tired and still quite emotional. Then I heard the news of the runner that passed away at the finish line and I felt very sad.
So that was yesterday. I woke up this morning after a long sleep and it all seems unreal now. I had so many messages of support on Facebook and Twitter too and there have been some brilliant photos taken to remind me of my day. If you’re reading this thinking ‘I could never do that’ then think again. Look back at my first running post when I could only run for 1 minute at a time. Anything is acheivable. Literally one step at a time.
Thanks for reading and for everyone who has wished me well.
Love & hugs,
Stace x
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
Progress & deciding on a charity
It’s all going well!
I got a personal best for 5K at Brueton Park Run a couple of Saturdays ago so that’s one of my August targets done. I’ve actually weirdly enjoyed my longer runs more than the 5K’s though. It’s been a hot couple of weeks and I find myself hoping that it rains when I’m running! On Tuesday I managed to run 7.5 miles, that’s 12K. Each week I need to improve by 1k. Well, I would like to. Apparently you only NEED to be able to run about 10 miles before the day but I want to get as close as I can to the 21K 13.1 distance! Seem like a big ask at the moment but then I just have to remember that a few months ago running for 5 minutes none stop seemed like a big achievement. Just got to do my best and hope all keeps going A OK.
Targets remaining for August:
Personal best 10k
Be able to run 13K by the end of the month
Do-able? I hope so.
In other news after much umming and ahhing I finally decided which charity I’m going to run for. I called a nice lady called Kerrie at Kerrang Radio and I’m going to be raising money for their Cash for Kids charity.
Read this page all about it.
I’ve set up the Just Giving page too so start me off if you’d like : )
Stace’s Great Brum Run
Stace x
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
Keep on running – Half marathon?!
I haven’t posted about my running in a while. I have kept up my running although in the month after my first 10k race I found my motivation was affected by not having a goal and I just ran the odd 3 or 4 miles here and there.
At the end of July it was my birthday so for my present I asked my Mom to register me for the Bupa Great Birmingham Run half marathon in October!
Now I have another goal set I’m back on the case. My plan is to fit in three or four runs a week and each Sunday do a long run and up my distance 1k further every week until I can get close to the 21k distance required for the half marathon. It seems like a big task at the moment but then it seemed that way to be able to run 5K and then 10k and I did it so I may as well give it a bash.
Last week I wasn’t too well so my mileage went right down but I’m determined to make up for it. I even got up early Monday & Tuesday to run 5k. I’ve also got another sport’s bra so now I can wash one wear one rather than not running because my bra isn’t dry yet, haha. Now I have a Shock Absorber and a rather nice one from M&S which was a bargain.
I’ll try and keep my blog up to date as it’s another thing that will keep me motivated.
So here are my goals:
Personal best 5k & 10K
Increase the distance I can run to 13k by the end of August.
I’ve typed it now so I have to do it.
Fingers crossed!
Stace x
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
Twitter is a form of SOCIAL Media – A Rant
Twitter overtook my love of Facebook nearly two years ago. After being asked by lots of people for help I even run workshops and one to ones for people to get them cracking with it for their work. There are a couple of things I need to get off my chest though.
Automated tweets
Lately it has been brought to my attention that more (lazy/busy/far too important to interact) people are using automated tweets constantly. If you use Twitter youself you’ll notice the type of account. Endless repetition of the same posts, the same marketing messages over and over again. Yawn.
Now of course there are times when I will post something more than once but I don’t schedule for the same things to be repeated time and time again. I’ve seen accounts where there is hardly any interaction with anyone, just dry boring accounts that show no creativity or personality.
Followers for the sake of followers
There’s plenty of sites you can go on and add your Twitter handle so you get lots of followers (or false followers as I like to call them). Surely it’s better to have people following you because they are like-minded and interested in what you have to offer? I am much more likely to respect genuinely organic accounts based on their ability to engage, interact and provide great content. This applies for individuals, organisations, and businesses alike. Some do it really well, others not so much. Also if I tweet or follow someone, I don’t want an automated response. I don’t want a one size fits all direct message. I want a SOCIAL, friendly reply. You can’t do this if you automate all of your tweets at the beginning of a working week and just use it as tickbox marketing exercise.
Credit where credit’s due
If you see a tweet and like it, retweet and share it. Try and credit the account by using the RT facility, it’s a nice thing to do. Try not to steal other people’s ideas because that’s not very nice. If you want to make it more likely that someone will retweet you, try and keep your tweets to approximately 120 rather than the allowable 140 characters (depending on the length of your Twitter handle). You can work it out exactly if you count the characters in your Twitter handle and add 5 characters (RT plus two spaces and the colon that is added when you RT. So mine is 18).
RTspace@StaceInspire:space = 18 characters
For example for someone to RT my tweets easily I know that I would have to keep to 122 characters.
Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the interesting people (sing to the tune of yellow brick road obv).
Follow accounts that interest you and people will follow you too if you are tweeting things they are interested in and content that is relevant to them. Don’t expect everyone to follow you back and don’t feel the need to follow everyone who follows you. You may not necessarily be interested in their content or vice versa.
TASBO – Twitter Anti-Social Behaviour Order
After the success (snigger) of Anti Social Behaviour Orders or ASBOs as they affectionately known, I would like to introduce TASBOs. Twitter Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. For the bores, for the over-automated accounts, for those that create an account and never interact at all unless they want to sell us something.
Ooh, that reminds me….If your Twitter needs a spring clean use Twitcleaner, it produces a report to tell you who is worth keeping and who it may be worth clicking on that unfollow button for. Nifty.
Stace’s final thought…
Schedule a few tweets if you wish but please, constant automation, repetition, unresponsiveness and anti- social behaviour should not be tolerated. Twitter is SOCIAL media. If you can’t be bothered to be sociable go away and use something else. It’s too good an opportunity to make some great connections both personally and professionally.
Here ends this evening’s Twittery rant…
Peace out tweeple.
Stace x
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
My first 10K race – Race for Life
Well I did it! Yesterday on the 24th June 2012, I ran the Coventry and Warwickshire 10K Race for Life at Stoneleigh Park in Kenilworth. The Solihull one in July is nearer but as it is 5K I wanted to set myself the challenge to run further so I decided to sign up for a 10k.
This was my back sign.
We lost my grandad to cancer when I was little but in comparison to some of the other runners I felt lucky that I have not lost anyone since and I hope I never do. My father in law has been doing very well with his chemo and I wanted to mention him too. Whenever my mother in law Pam asks him to do anything he says ‘I’m ill you know’ to get out of it. He is, but not quite ill enough to get out of the vacuuming : ).
I wasn’t quite prepared for how sad it would make me when I was writing my sign. It hit me why I was doing a race for charity. When my Nan saw that I had put my grandad on it it made us both cry. Seeing other people’s back signs whilst queuing at the start line I had to pull myself together. I realised how lucky I am that I haven’t had to experience some of the heartache that others have.
I had run the 10K distance only once before so my aim was to complete the route without stopping. I had good support from my man Ban, my brother Rick and my Mom, Stepdad and Nan came too. It was nice to see them as I passed them on the way around.
I made it round the 10K route and bettered my previous time by ten whole minutes. I was very chuffed.
Here is me afterwards with my Race for Life medal and a chuffed face.
It’s been exactly four months since I took up the running challenge and started Couch to 5K. My journey to 10k actually felt a lot easier. My plan now is to get a bit faster and improve on my distance even further. I’ll tentatively say I’m quite keen on entering the Birmingham half marathon in October!
Now for the important bit. With the kind donations from friends and family I have so far raised £335 online for Cancer Research UK and another £40 offline taking the total to £375! Smashed my target of £250!
You can still sponsor me though! : )
Mahoosive thanks to all who supported me by being there, tweeting me, messaging me and of course sponsoring me.
Big love
Stace x
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
10K Race for Life – It’s tomorrow!
Tomorrow I am running my first 10K race! It’s a Race for Life for Cancer Research.
I began running 4 months ago and initially did the NHS Couch to 5K and have since run a few official 5K Park Runs and upped my distances with each run too. Read my previous posts about my Journey to 10K
I am excited about tomorrow but nervous too. I have my brilliant man and family coming to support me and I know this time tomorrow I’ll feel great. I just hope to complete it without walking and maybe get a time a little bit faster than the first time I actually ran the distance. If I do it in 1hr 15 I’ll be happy for my first 10K.
Watch this space for race report and pics.
Stace x
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
7 stone 6, a healthy weight?!
Since I’ve started running I have lost 1/2 stone. I’ve always been someone who when I mention eating more healthily or exercising people respond with
‘but you don’t need to’.
I’ve never been bothered about my weight or obssessive but maybe since hitting 30 and gaining a bit more bum I have been a bit more aware of keeping check on it mainly for health purposes.
With so many people experiencing difficulties and insecurities about weight I feel lucky.
Keep reading! This isn’t a smug self satisfied ‘look at me aren’t I great for being a healthy weight’ post.
At 9 stone 1 with a BMI of 22.5 I am according to the NHS website, a healthy weight.
I then stumbled on this website weightlossresources.co.uk and I input my details on their calculator…
In answer to the question ‘Do I need to lose weight?’ the advice is very different with regards to my ‘healthy’ weight.
Losing 1 stone 9lb could apparently make me feel better! That would make me 7 stone 6!
Anyone think that losing nearly TWO stone would make me look and feel better as they suggest?
Just another thought. I am a size 10. If I lost 1 stone 9lbs what dress size would it make me? Size 6? Size 4? Healthy???
There’s also a big discrepancy with the calculator. If I input 7st 6 as my weight it thankfully tells me that I would be underweight (similarly for all weights from 7st 6 to 8st 1).
BUT
When I input 8 stone 2 it tells me I could think about losing up to 10lbs! I think you can understand the danger here.
Eating disorder anyone?
Despite some other good resources on this site I can’t help wonder how dangerous caluclators like this could be to young people and those with lower self esteem, people already battling body dysmorphia and eating disorders etc.
What are your thoughts?
Stace
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
Lurgy running break did me good!
After a week of sneezing and coughing and stressing my fitness would suffer all the worry was unfounded. I had my 24 hour ECG fitted on Thursday I still felt rough but needed to give my heart something to do. The problems were that it was tipping it down outside, I couldn’t get the ECG wet and I was full of cold. What to do? Well I called my local Fitness First who very kindly gave me a free day pass. Off I went to use their treadmill. I’ve never really ran on one before and never let go whilst on one! I can’t say the experience was a good one. The staff were very lovely and the gym was nice but I was already running a temperature and it was too hot in there for my hot blood. Also a problem with a gym is people! Sweaty people. Nope, I decided I much prefer running outside. I only managed 2.5 miles for the sake of recording something on the ECG and trundled back home hotter, feeling poorly, deflated and frustrated. Reluctantly I decided that I would have to give in and leave it another couple of days.
Yesterday (Sunday) I was determined that I was going to get back to it. My previous best distance had been 5.1 miles before the lurgy set in so I was fully expecting to be able to maybe do 3. Then a weird thing happened. Although slow my legs kept running! I ran around the quiet Sunday streets deciding on my route as I went along. As I neared home I checked my Endomondo on my phone and I had done 5.5 miles! As my target to get to before my Race for Life is 6.2 miles (10k) I just thought ‘sod it’ and carried on. The result? 6.25 miles AKA 10K two weeks before my target and despite the break in training due to the lurgy! As you can imagine I am quite pleased! So now I have two weeks to keep my fitness up and maybe improve my time (with the help of @Runningonline).
If you’re reading this and have a quid, or £3.42 or whatever amount then sponsor me pleasey! It will help my motivation of course and will convince me that all this Couch to 5k and Journey to 10k has been worth it to make some money for charidee mate.
Cheers!
Stace x
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
Beat the heat, now beating a cold
My last post was about running in the heat. Surprisingly despite the heat I managed a personal best in my 3rd official Park Run. I had to wear considerably less than usual!
Park Run 3, Personal best in the heat. Whoop!
The weather cooled down for the rest of the week so I got up to 4.5 miles on Tuesday and on Thursday I was really pleased to manage my furthest run of 5.1 miles. I went to Park Run again on Saturday before the Jubilee celebrations wearing my England shorts of course although I think the longer run less than 48 hours before had slowed me down and I was about 50 seconds off my best time. Still, have to hold onto the fact I did 5.1 miles and I have three weeks left before the race.
My 4th 5K Park Run at Brueton park, Solihull
Minor buggeration this week is that I have come down with a cold, or woman flu as I like to call it. I should be running today but as I write this I am lying in bed watching Kylie on a re run of the Jubilee concert! I also found out today that on Thursday I have to go to the hospital to have a 24 hour ECG to check on my heart (for my Long QT Syndrome). Not a bad thing but it’s a mission to the new QE. Would rather know I’m safe though. Therefore I’m aiming to get rid of this lurgy and run on Thursday while I am wearing my trace.
So other than that nowt to report! *sneeezes*
Stace x
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
