It started to Snow.....

The opportunity to have a lie in on a Saturday morning is usually as rare as rocking horse pwp, mostly because the children (because its Sat) decide to get up earlier than the week days, play the Simpsons so loud its like having Homer in bed with you and the sibling quarrelling usually starts before 8am. 

Two of the tribe have weekly piano lessons and occasionally I will make an effort to travel up to Parc Bryn Bach for the Park Run.

This week, knowing that we had a full Sunday of sport for the two tribe elders (Hockey in Whitchurch and Football in Aber), I knew that the chance for a long Sunday run had to be stashed in somewhere on Saturday morning.

The sun was peeping out, there was a tint of blue sky and a hint of ice up on Llangattock Mountain so I knew it was going to be a little chilly up on higher ground.....

Below is a little collage of my morning out - note that little puff of cloud cover coming down....

Started Sleeting.....

I did not sign up for this!

Washed daps on route

Ended up doing about 12 km but it was hard going.  I had planned on heading up to Pen Alt Mawr and heading back to the Table Mountain but my directional skills in poor weather are notorious and an afternoon without children meant a Gin and Tonic had my name on it back at The Bear!   

I am a committed athlete. 💪🏃

In Your Element - Black Mountains Trail Race 2017

Location:   Crickhowell - Llanbedr - Crickhowell

Trail Length: Out and back 9 Miles

November 19th 2017

This was a fantastic trail route which was made better as I only had to walk to the registration desk and start line from my front door, on what was probably one of the loveliest Autumnal days this month has been able to offer.

There were about 300 runners booked onto the event and it was really well organised by Element Active Ltd.   It was the first time I had used the little dongle orienteering type check chip markers otherwise known as SI-Cards and I loved the fact that my result was instantly printed at the goody bag table!

 My results!

I would thoroughly recommend this race and route to anyone who enjoys an off road experience (there were a few road sections) and whilst a little gnarly in places, with a tidy pair of fell/off-road trainers it was quite comfortable on the limbs.  This is certainly going to be one of my many weekend runs over the forthcoming winter months.

London Marathon - Gold Bond Place confirmed

I received this on the 12th October 2017......

Congratulations!

"You have secured a London Marathon Gold Bond place – and will be representing St David’s Hospice Care in April 2018.

Excited??

Be prepared – it will take over your life for the next 6 months. You will be eating, sleeping, breathing marathon training."

As you can imagine, I was a little shocked as knew the chances of getting one of the highly coveted placed was slight. In preparation for the disappointment, part of me was already thinking "well,I will try again next year and the other part of me thought "well, at least you won't have to think about all that training in the dark...."

Nearly a month on and the reality of now facing the challenge of running 26.2 miles has started to really hit home, along with the additional task of raising the pledged funding of £2000.

I recently received my confirmation letter from St David's, along with some donation boxes and ideas for raising money which I really need to start thinking about as I have only 157 days to go.  😲

I have also set up my Virgin Money Fundraising page where all early donations would be most welcome!   Sarah Jeremiah - London Marathon fundraising page

So this first post is really about setting the scene and reminding myself that I really have quite a bit to sort out before the 22nd April 2018.

The good news is that that I have the support of a wonderful family and also have a brilliant friends network to help me achieve my aims - physically, mentally and financially!  

In addition, I know I can rely on my fellow club runners from the best running club in the world Parc Bryn Bach to bolster my confidence and affirm my belief that I can do this.

Will be posting up lots of running related images soon to confirm and demonstrate my commitment to this wonderful charity.

Thanks all 

Sarah x