It’s The Final Countdown

Well it is two days to the marathon and the nerves are really setting in. Whilst this past months training has been extremely disappointing I am still looking forward to getting out there on Sunday and completing the distance, no matter what!
I have been referred to the Physio and after our first consultation she has said that the cartilage surrounding the floating ribs is inflamed and that the two are rubbing together which is causing the pain. She is hopeful that it will burn itself out eventually and that I can continue to train without causing further damage. I do however need to concentrate on keeping myself healthy as the coughing is exacerbating the pain and stopping it from healing. So hopefully with a bit of rest and recuperation after the marathon I will be ready for my next race.
As well as this blog, I was asked by Dementia UK to write a Guest Blog for their website about why I was doing this challenge. I got to write about my Grandma and her experience with dementia and how it affected me and my family. Please follow the link below to read the article:

https://www.dementiauk.org/running-300km-for-dementia-uk/

A massive thank you to all my supporters from the last week. I am now 40% of the way to my target which is a great place to be at this point in the challenge. I would love to get close to 50% of the way by the time I finish the marathon though! Thank you to:
Laura Doyle, Emma Jessup, Daniel Ryan, Lisa Lane, Trevor Francis, Val Storey, Marina Elstob, Stephen Pattinson and my Anonymous Donor!

If you haven’t donated yet and would like to then please visit my fundraising page at:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/HelenFrancis10

Thank you for all the support. I’ll see you on the other side!

Comments

For Grandma

Running 21km with my big sister This race, the Sunderland City Half Marathon was probably the most important race of this challenge. I got to run in my hometown with my big sister by my side and the majority of Grandma’s family were there to cheer us on- 10 adults, 6 children and 2 dogs to be exact! It was the first time we had all been together since her funeral and I like to think that it was a happy and proud occasion to remember my Grandma and support the fundraising for Dementia UK. The race itself was ok, the massive amount of hills was not! I definitely do not remember there being so many long hills in Sunderland and the looping nature of the course was a bit demoralis...

Running Down Dementia in the South Atlantic

At the finish of the Stanley Half Marathon (the medals are stuck on a container ship somewhere in the Atlantic) The past few weeks have seen me back racing again for the first time since I arrived in the Falkland Islands in July. It wasn't that I didn't want to race, only that there weren't any races to enter. So with that in mind I decide to create my own running event based on the Parkrun format I have enjoyed in the UK all year. The cost and time of trying to set up an actual Parkrun here is currently prohibitive so I instead created the MPC Run (Mount Pleasant Complex) which entails a 5k run at 0800hrs on a Saturday morning. After snow, sleet and gale force winds, I was praying that the first event on the 6th of October wouldn't be a wash out and I was so happy to wake up in the morning to sunshine and low winds. The race went well with 17 runners and 1 dog completing the course which turned out to be .5km longer than I was expecting (I probably should have...

Park and Cakes

A sunny Bedford Parkrun Another Saturday meant another Parkrun for me to add another 5k to my total, and what a lovely Saturday it was too. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The race went well and I managed to finish in 26:42 which is another PB for me and knocked 1:10 off my previous PB. I finished very red faced and sweaty but happy that my fitness seems to be getting back to where it was in February before I had all the illness and injury. It has given me a bit more confidence going into the Sunderland Half Marathon on Sunday that I will hopefully be able to get a decent time and not get left behind by my sister who is running it with me. This week also saw me host a coffee morning at RAF Henlow where we had lots and lots of cake available and a guess the name of the teddy bear and guess the amount of sweets in the jar competition. The morning was a great success and we raised £217 for Dementia UK which will help fund Admiral Nurses to support familie...

300km for Dementia UK

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