amazing...

I've just donated to the just giving page for Claire Squires who died running the London Marathon, can't believe its getting on for a million, so sad reading all the messages on her page, what an amazing response to such a tragedy.  Her family should be so proud,
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/claire-squires-justgiving-she-would-808530

If you can spare just a few quid heres the link to her just giving page...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article803642.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Claire+Squires

x

This is getting hard

Today I ran 11 miles in around 2 hours, for some reason I found it really really hard this week, I don't know why, the weather was great, I'd gotten up early and was feeling pretty up for it. Its really hard to keep up motivation to do something like this - especially when you have to train for such a long time because its just not something I (or my muscles) are used to doing.

I've been training now for about 3 months, and its been 9 months since the event that inspired me to do this... and the memory is starting to fade.

When I first signed up and decided to run a marathon I still had a very fresh memory in my head of not just the stranding but of the physical and mental pain it left me with the following few days, and I thought nothing could be as hard as that day. I was so exhausted and achy all over that a cup of tea felt like it weighed about 50lbs.

Now the memory of that has faded its hard to compare to the aches and pains of training and its really impacting on my motivation... I'm pretty sure my toe is broken and most of the time when I'm out running I'm just thinking about what I'd rather be doing.

To a certain extent I do find my weekend training runs enjoyable, but equally unenjoyable, I would definitely rather be at home with a cup of tea watching the Hollyoaks omnibus, and as the runs are getting longer I think its only going to get worse.

I need to keep reminding myself of the good cause I'm doing this for.

I'm hoping that I will be able to attend one of the training courses run by the BDMLR soon, to become an official Marine Mammal Medic and I do think that will help spur me on.

I'll be watching the London Marathon tomorrow imagining myself in 6 months time, hoping that I'll have made it to the start line.

I'll leave this post with a link to the blog of a fellow artist and past colleague from Sheffield Paul Evans who has been exploring cetations in his work for some time now and eloquently comments on human interaction with these mammals
http://origin011.wordpress.com/category/away-from-the-pod/
and an image of his which is currently on display at the Millennium Gallery in Sheffield until June 10th

10 miles in 1hr46 BOSH!

Considering I have a cold, this is exceptionally fast for me, obviously eating a massive pie the night before a run is the key to speed and success!
I'm looking forward to payday this month, I think I'll buy myself some nice new running shoes, any reccomendations running friends??
Its been a little quite on the sponsorship front recently, but just wanted to say thanks to Aunty Mags for her cheque the other day, spurred me on this morning :)
I know the marathon is still ages away but I'd be truly grateful (if you're considering sponsoring me) for some sponsorship over the next few weeks to help motivate me in my training. 
http://www.justgiving.com/RunShelleyRun
To be honest, its starting to get a little boring...

past 2 weeks

Took a bit of a shortcut last week, went for a run in the countryside and only did about 7 miles as I had a very important birthday party to attend and didn't want to end up running miles and miles by accident and being late.  Got back up to standard last Sunday though, I've decided, or rather my left hip has decided, that I'm upping my mileage too quickly.  So I'm going to stick to 10 mile runs through April rather than pushing up to 12.  10 milers are starting to feel ok now, but I'll admit there is a bit of walking involved (only up some pretty steep hills mind) but there are a fair few in Sheffield!  Got a pretty nice route now- multi tasking by house hunting on my way round the nicest areas of the city :)