4th Lady!

So the Duck Pond Waddle went better than imagined!
Far better conditions than last year and this resulted in me being 4th lady and another little cup :0)

Very pleased with this although the lady in 5th wasn't very happy as she got overtaken in the last mile which is never what you want. To be fair to her she did shout well done as I went past and to be fair to both of us she would've got taken a lot sooner had a stitch not manifested itself down both my sides during the easiest part of the race (downhill and on tarmac!).
What I don't think she was very happy about was my unusual aquisition of a mid race coach. This was a guy who took it upon himself to coach me home and decided it was his personal responsibility to get me my 4th place! Lots of encouraging words like "we're gonna push on now" and "we've gotta break her" were a little out of the ordinary mid-race but I was too out of breath to really care. Did make we wonder about people like this though. Now he was letting people past mid race and then finished with a real kick. So is he a good runner who had a bad race? Is he coming back from injury? Does he coach me for something to do, as a way of making him feel like his race was worthwhile? Does he really believe he's helping? Either way it kept my mind of the horrendous hill in the last mile so I'm not complaining!

Not such a good race for Andy though :(
Running on the uneven ground was not good news for his stomach so he had a very painful race and his pulled/torn muscle is now feeling very sore again. Maybe change the plan and have complete rest dear....?

Speedy Gonzales....

.....or not it would seem
Speedwork with hills not good when getting over a cold. Managed to drag myself around on Wednesday to be very relieved when the guys decided to cut it (slightly) short!! Really lucky to have a good group at work to do this with, very hard to motivate yourself to do this alone. It with a regular group it's a lot easier.
Looking forward to the Duck Pond Waddle on Sunday in Worthing. 9ish miles around the South Downs, multi-terrain. What could be more fun!! Managed 5th last year and got myself a little cup so we'll see if the really good girls stay away again and I might get another one. Probably in better shape than this time last year but have had a cold all week so we'll see. Always the case at my standard though... depends who turns up :)
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Evening With a Prince

So 3 things have happened that have finally got me round to updating the blog:
1. I was severely told off by a good friend for not updating (which is probably all the reason I need!)
2. Seemingly I did NOT make the Asics Target 26.2.I AM pretty disappointed but considering the competition its not so surprising I guess.  However I am determined to continue blogging and will move to my secondary objective of blogging my tri training instead (1st tri - Olympic distance - in June - gulp).
3. The photo's of the Windsor Half Prize giving came through so I can finally prove I DID meet the Duke of Edinburgh:

None of us could quite believe how nervous we all were before we went to get our prize. You'd have thought JLS were up there the way we got very giggly and over excited but he seems genuinely lovely although as I said before thinks runners are crazy!

Ran parkrun on Saturday with Harrison (his first time). The little man ran 5k in 35min! I was very, very impressed with that. I'm not sure how much of his running career he can maintain purely on wanting to stop the little girl behind him overtaking but it worked for Saturday. Hopefully he'll want to run it again though; its nice to experience things while you're young I think -it always easier to find time for things you're familiar with as you get older so the more things you do and activities you try while you're young the easier they are to maintain when you're old! Thats my wisdom for the day anyway.

Testing from mobile

Quick test post to check I have my settings right for posting by email. Also I can't believe I forgot to mention my evening with the Duke of Edinburgh on Wednesday in my last post!

LINC Allstars managed to win the Female Business General category at Windsor half marathon this year (fastest four finishing times combined). We were invited to attend the award ceremony and Prince Philip was there to hand out the prizes. Very exciting. He is nice but does seem to think all runners are crazy!

More Duke specific pics to follow

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Submission Done!

So the submission for Asics Target 26.2 is in!!!!
In the end it took a LOT of re-wording to try and get that perfect summary of why I wanted to be a part of something like this. Personally I think that having that level of coaching to hand shouldn't be missed - only chance I'll ever get to feel like one of of the elite anyway :)

Apparently I'll hear by November 30th if I'm long-listed so fingers crossed!

Now I was reading the parkrun newsletter today and its contained a link to the runbritain website who offer a "handicap" link. This allows you to put in your time in a race since 2010 and you get yourself a handicap which allows you to compare yourself with other runners! Starting to sound like I'm advertising this now so will stop but mine is apparently 10.7. Mo Farah = -5 (yes that's negative handicap!) and a 6 hour marathon would be 36 (just to give an idea of scale).

Asics Target 26.2 - Its begins......

So it begins....... I am trying to get one of 5 coveted places in the Asics Target 26.2 team for 2012.
Read about the "SuperSix" event last year on RunnersWorld and thought it sounded very exciting but unfortunately missed the entry date so the date for this years entries has been on my calendar for about 11 months!
So the email is here - applications are OPEN and I am busily writing draft answers in word. With only 150 words and 1 picture allowed its going to take all my creative prowess to write something that coveys how much I want to do this and why I want it more than other people.

I decided to start this blog to follow my progress in the Target 26.2 selection process (should I get through the initial application form of course!). I convinced a friend to start a blog about her weight loss over a year ago and reading it has been one of the most entertaining parts of my week ever since. Therefore, I decided to take my own advice and "document" what I hope will be a massive part of my life for the next 7-8 months. It will be great to look back on this and see where I was, where I got to and what I learned along the way.

Asics aside; I've also often thought how much of human life I see as I'm trotting around my runs (best, worst, funny and sad) so it might also be entertaining to blog a little piece of that.

So fingers crossed for the application process - may the creative gods shine down while I'm writing (or failing that let the selectors just have run a PB and be in the best mood of their life when they pick up my form!).