Monthly Archives: June 2012
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
Lovely Jubbly Jubilee party
Yesterday, on the 2nd of June I celebrated a very special lady with my family. My Nan!
My Nan rocks.
We decided a few months ago that we would have a Jubilee party for her 77th birthday as the two coincided. She has always been a fan of the Royals and I think that has rubbed off on her grandchildren too. I’m not going to get into a pros/cons of the Royals debate, Twitter has depressed me enough with all the joyless miseries. I enjoy British traditions and I think it made it an even better excuse to celebrate a memorable occasion. Oh and of course you may know me by now, I love a theme for my nails!
Jubilee Nails.
My friend Emma solved the what to wear problem by kindly lending me a dress which I spotted her in on Facebook. This is me in it with my two ‘little’ brothers Ricky and Joe. I love this picture so much.
Me and my brothers.
I made a Spotify playlist for the occasion with one song for every year from the last 60 years. We all love music in our family and having a sing song. My cousin Charlotte filmed everyone singing ‘Two Little Boys’. I can’t post it because it’s not on YouTube but it’s probably for the best, haha. My stepdad Tom made a big box covered in Union Jacks which we used as a DJ stand i.e. something to put the iPad and speakers on.
Jubilee party Spotify playlist
We didn’t want Nan to have to faff around so we all made something to bring, her only instructions were to make a trifle.
I made Jubilee Battenburg from this recipe from Wright Little Baker
Jubilee Battenburg cake
I also made some red velvet cupcakes with buttercream and some nifty icing Union Jacks , sorry Union FLAGS I got from Icing World.
Jubilee Cupcakes.
Man being a man wanted to make something meaty so he made BBQ pulled pork from the most recent Good Food magazine. Plenty of opportunity for pork pulling jokes.
Mom made a ton of this amazing warm potato salad with blue cheese. Nom nom. Quite jealous she got to make it into bubble and squeak today with the leftovers. Other foodie mentions, my Uncle Steven’s marinated chicken, the spicy one was my fave, my cousin Emily’s sausage rolls and not forgetting my cousin Liz’s cheese and pineapple on sticks! A party isn’t a party without something on cocktail sticks!
Despite the weather not being perfect the rain stayed away for the afternoon. My Nan has a pretty massive garden so we put two gazebos up and got on with it. My Mom got too cold in the end and went and stole a blanket off Nan’s bed. She will thank me for posting this.
Mom keeping warm in the British weather.
My naughty cousins managed to get behind everyone without them noticing with flags. This is the moment they caught us.
Me and my man Ban. Naughty minxy cousins in the background!
Fran my brother’s girlfriend took all these ace photographs. We went to her exhibition on Friday night, you can see her website here.
We added candles (a ’2′ and a ’7′) to Nan’s trifle and sang her happy birthday. By then I was sporting my Mom’s hat and a leather jacket donated by Nan’s friend, even my hot blood gave in in the end!
This is a photo of the full rabble (Minus my Aunt and cousin who are on holiday).
Me (second right) and my family.
Photograph by Francesa Hancox
This says it all for me. God bless the Queen of our brilliant family.
Nan’s Facebook status. Yes she’s on Facebook!
Hope you had a lovely jubbly Jubilee too.
Stace x
Follow me on Twitter @StaceInspire
