Well, that's been an interesting couple of weeks since my last post. We had a little bit of flooding in the area and I decided to be quiet for a couple of days or so. And I did some running too....
Water, Water everywhere, and not a drop to drink
I have to digress from running for a bit to talk about the recent flooding round me (I can hardly ignore it!) Around this time a week ago the water was at it's peak by us both front and back of the house, Our back garden was under around 2 feet of water - the picture below is from the day before, it was nearly at the level of the deck when it peaked
While this is front of the house with water coming up from underneath and threatening the airbricks etc (covered by sandbags)
Water was also covering the paths and half the road out front. All in all a stressful few days, but thankfully it never got inside, though it was probably within a few inches! Hopefully not to be repeated any time soon....
Silence is Golden
The other major excitement of the week was, of course, my long-awaited SPONSORED SILENCE which took place from Friday morning 8am to 10am Sunday. Well, it was HELL! Certainly one of the hardest things I've done, and one I'm not eager to repeat any time soon. Like in the next 50 years or so.
Funnily enough, actually stopping myself from talking wasn't quite as hard as I though it would be......though it took a lot of concentration to ensure I didn't inadvertently slip. The hardest bit was definitely being in a group with other people - at the pub after work on Friday, round my friends for drinks ect on Saturday. Due to my inability to actually interact and join in conversations, it felt like I was being ignored and almost invisible!
(BTW, that's not a dig at anyone, it's perfectly understandable - hard to keep someone involved when they can't talk, and even when they try and communicate via phone Notes it's usually way behind the conversation!)
Anyway - I went through a day at work, beers down the pub, acting as Run Director at parkrun on Saturday morning (which included having to do the run briefing in Mime and also re-arrange the finish due to flooding), group drinks round a friend's and finishing off with a guided run with my Coach Karen Weir (who I'll plug separately, but her website is www.runwithkaren.com - she's ace). The Silence actually finished midway through the run, which encompassed Richmond Park, Ham, Kingston Bridge, Teddington Twickenham and back up Richmond Hill into the park) so if you were in the area and were startled by a loud noise at 10.00 on Saturday, then I apologise.
It was a lovely run though, and here's a nice picture of me and my fellow runners about 5 minutes after I started talking again - check out the massive grin!
It's all about the Money
The best thing about the sponsored silence though was the impact it had on my fundraising efforts. As of today I am already over my target amount of £2000 - WOO-HOO! It's fantastic to have reached this already, 8 weeks before the marathon, and I like to give huge thanks to everyone who donated.
Note that the fundraising efforts will continue, as £2000 is merely a minimum target :-)
And the running?
Oh yes, the running. Delighted to say that this is going really well - even though I didn't get to do my favourite half-marathon at Wokingham as it was cancelled due to - guess what? - flooding. So instead I did 15 miles in Windsor Great Park over 2 hours and 25 minutes. This is my longest ever run and I was very pleased how it felt, especially given that Windsor Great Park is a little undulating (OK, a LOT undulating). I've also thrown in a "short" 13.5 mile run (when did 13 miles become short? Strange days...) and some intervals, parkruns and my least favourite training sessions - Kenyan Hills!
Here's to some normal days.....
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