I Can't Believe I'm Running in Blizzards...

So I was obliged to do a 'long run' today....at least 12 miles. By sheer coincidence I had promised a bunch of army lads that I would join them in their 24 hour Row/Cycle to raise funds for Glos Young Carers (as you do!). It all seemed feasible in theory. Well I wasn't going to row for 24 hours - just half an hour. Then I woke up. No, literally - I woke up to a frost covered world, -3 degrees temperature and a very heavy white sky. Still....I'm training for a marathon. I'm hard as nails innit?! So off I trotted up through Upton and on into oblivion. 20 minutes into the run I hit freezing sleet. 40 minutes into the run the ground is like glass. 50 minutes into the run the sun is shining and there's no sign of snow on the ground or in the sky and then at 1 hour and 30 minutes I was running through the arctic - snow 2 inches deep and driving into my face!. How can one small city have so many micro-climates?! But the height of fun came when I slowed to drink from my freezing water bottle and happened to take off my glove. I reached up to adjust my hat and felt something prickly near my neck. I jumped thinking I had a tree branch in my hair but then quickly realised it WAS my hair - snow white and frozen solid. Obviously my first thought at this point was 'I really must get a photo of this...' and I duly did the old 'run and snap' to reveal a photo of an 80 year old woman. No. That was me with frozen hair. OMG! I panicked for the next 10 minutes wondering if my hair would actually snap off..this thought then entertained me for a further 10 minutes especially when I remembered I had to appear in a photo with the said army boys to 'launch' their challenge. I duly succeeded in completing my 12 miles - rushed upstairs and jumped in the shower. AAAAAARGH! If anyone has gotten into a shower with freezing cold thighs and experienced that fast warm up that comes with training the hot shower on them they will understand my scream. I pulled on fresh training gear, dried my hair (which hadn't snapped off thank God) and then drove up to Tesco's where I jumped on the rowing machine for half an hour. Never has a cup of tea tasted so good that lunch-time. And never have I felt so bloody crazy.

Can't believe I haven't run today...

So what happens when you don't feel like running? I've only run once this week. I'm beginning to feel the guilt, the fear that it will thoroughly set me back. The pressure. So why doesn't all this make me go out and run? Mmmmm....mind over matter. I think it might be that after all these years I realise that women perhaps can only think of one thing at once. Oh, hear me out on this....we can juggle a conversation with a toddler, with a chat about Twighlight with our mate while cooking a curry and making a shopping list. That's a synch. But juggling big things...now that's a bit different. I found it really tough to run when I was grieving over my mate Helen's death. I've found it sooo hard to run this week while I've been trying to fit 40 hours work into 20 hours available. I remember this affliction coming on when I was at Uni - y'know how it is....you can diet for a week, lose loads of weight and be really chuffed but as soon as I had to start really working on my dissertation I found that my efforts to write as many words as possible about The Colour Purple seemed to overshadow any efforts to cut back on biscuits....
Or maybe we are just too hard on ourselves. Work, packing and a couple of crisis management jobs have just packed out my head this week.

I'll go and have a pre-holiday glass of wine and give it some thought...

Can't believe I'm going to run a Marathon!

Oh for crying out loud. How did I get here?
One minute I'm chuffing my way around the block and the next I'm looking at the greatest challenge since childbirth - the Virgin London Marathon. 26 miles of self-inflicted torture.
No. Wait. Surely childbirth was easier??? I know I was in labour for 19 hours....but I didn't have to do practice births every weekend!
The London Marathon. Not only am I already turning sick with fear at the prospect of up to 6 hours of 'labour' (yeh I know, I'm being pessimistic...) but I've also got to raise funds to go with it. I didn't have people sponsor me to give birth...although...I wish I'd thought of that. I'd have made a fortune!
So that brings me on to the subject of fundraising. I am committed to raising £1500 for WellChild as it was my darling husband who officially entered me in this darn race and it's his charity that has paid for my entry. But that left me with a quandry. WellChild is an extremely good cause - supporting all those sick children and paying for nurses to enable them to be treated and cared for at home with their families. But I have my own good cause - Gloucestershire Young Carers and never has the charity been more important to me than now - following the death of my friend and its co-founder Helen Predgen-Lay.
So I appealed to the good nature of my husband and (as anyone who knows him would expect) he agreed that anything over the £1500 I am committed to for WellChild can go to Gloucestershire Young Carers. I'm now committed and motivated, therefore, into raising at least £2,000.
If I'm going to raise that much then I need a totally different fundraising strategy than 'can you sponsor me a couple of quid to run 26 miles....'. That only raised me around £500 for the BUPA Great North Run last year.
I'm a fundraising and PR manager...I CAN do this.
So I'm starting with an appeal to all the companies I know. I'm going to ask them to provide corporate sponsorship initially and I've kicked that particular fundraising tactic off the only way I know how....by appealing to my mother and father-in-law of course. Those dear, generous in-laws have dipped into their corporate coffers (with permission from their newly appointed Director - their son Pete) and have sponsored me to the tune of £250. Wow. Now I'm really committed.
So that's my first appeal - to anyone out there who might persuade their company to sponsor me in the knowledge that their money will go to not only a national charity but a charity working locally in Gloucestershire too. I shall, of course, be promoting their company's support far and wide starting here and ending with their logo on my running shirt. More info on this to follow.....

Thank you, therefore, to my first Corporate Sponsor:

Progress Fire and Security

And so on to my next fundraising strategy....watch this space for news about how I'm going to tap up my friends and colleagues without them realising it.....




For further info on how your company can sponsor me email me on: dyersj@btinternet.com or simply invite them to sponsor me at: http://www.justgiving.com/jane-dyer2011/

NO private sponsorship yet please....hold your horses we're going to do this a fun way...

Can't Believe I Forgot My Bra

Yep. I had it all planned. My running kit was laid out for a week before I left for the North East. All I can think is that it was laid out a little too close to the washing basket and I must have scooped up my running bra with a pile of washing. The result: no running bra in my kit bag when I came to check everything in that far-flung hotel room in Yarm!! Aaaaah. Hubby not happy. Off we went in search of a late night opening of a shop that might sell running bras! I know I'm not big but I just couldn't go without and no amount of helpful suggestions from Hubby helped - 'take out the wire of another bra' 'go without' 'bandage yourself up'!!!! And so on.....
Well, needless to say a rather large supermarket that monopolises the supermarket industry came through with a two-storey unit in Yarm and plenty of bras to choose from.
Next morning, complete kit on I reached the start line of the Great North (or at least my allocated start point - a mile from the actual start!!) and realised I'd left my IPod in my kit bag. Suddenly no bra seemed preferable to no music!!!!!

Can't Believe I'm Blogging!

I have always avoided putting myself in the picture. I avoid being in photos to do with publicity. I don't write from a personal point of view. In all my years as a journalist and PR Manager I have only ever really 'stepped into the spotlight' twice - once when I tested out banger racing and the other when I was the guineapig of a rather unusual massage procedure! Both times I looked like an idiot. Both times I cared whether I looked like an idiot! I was young, I had an ego.
So why the hell am I giving blogging a go? I have stepped up to the plate to raise funds for two charities and when you commit to raising funds personally there is no avoiding the fact that you have to publicise the fact - otherwise no one knows you're doing it and no one will sponsor you.
I decided to set an example for Gloucestershire Young Carers. The charity has, since it began in 1993, had few people coming forward to raise funds from doing a personal challenge event so...I adopted and adapted the old adage of 'do as I say and as I do'.
Here I am - Facebooking my progress, sharing my experiences by email, Blogging and Tweeting. Well I never.
And as for looking a fool - well you can't make yourself look any dafter after you've published photos of yourself and the damage you caused from falling through a ceiling while searching out stuff for a car boot to boost funds.....

Great North Run. 20 September 2009. www.justgiving.com/jane-dyer