It's week eight for our two Kenilworth mums getting fit to run the London Marathon this year. The Weekly News is following their training regime closely. Jane Poulter, who manages Time Jugglers, and Susanne Jackson-Mayne, a teacher, will run the marathon in aid of Guide Dogs for the Blind.
We would like to start by thanking everyone who supported our quiz night last Saturday.
We have raised nearly £700 which is fantastic, and takes our total to about £1,200, nearly half our fundraising target.
We would also like to thank the loca
l businesses who donated raffle prizes; Costa Coffee, Threshers and Sainsburys.
Susanne:
Faith Can Move Mountains….. and I am that mountain!
Another 16 miles this week but 'by eck' (as we say up north) 'I'm flaggin'.
The 12.9-mile mark is just near my house and the will power and determination it takes to keep on running and finish the route is staggering and quite honestly draining. By this stage, I am alone and have only my thoughts – half of which are unrepeatable – to keep me company.
I thought of the 'Footprints' story where a man asks God at the end of his life where he was in the most difficult stages of his life, as he can only see one set of footprints and the answer was that he was being carried.
Well, I asked to be carried. I did not feel any divine intervention at 13 or 14 miles – while staggering near Crackley Tennis Club - and was wishing I had an energy drink or an infamous jelly baby but then, on my last mile, it happened. My brother had obviously put in a good word and finding renewed strength I was carried home smiling!.
I could make excuses about parents' evenings and a colleague's hen night, which I could write a whole column on, but I think I have reached a plateau and have to up the training to raise my speed and fitness.
Friends of mine, who have a few marathons under their belts, have advised that my weekly training now needs to include a threshold run, which is a speedy tempo run of a mile or two, as well as between four and six miles at a slightly faster pace than normal. It will also include my long one which, incidentally, is 18 miles this week!
The competitive part of me wanted to keep this knowledge to myself as Jane is so ahead of me. I dream of surprising her by actually keeping up!
Monday, the start of the week, and I wanted to put my plan into action. I waited for the hailstones to subside as I am the true definition of a 'fair weather runner'. Then, off I zoomed at a sprint that my old PE teacher would have been proud of.
I continued at this pace all the way to the … post box. Pathetic!
I felt like crying. It was like starting again. Embarrassed, I looked furtively around to see if anyone had noticed. A running fraud.
I tried again and managed the end of the road – each distance was about 200 metres at the most.
Twenty minutes later I collapsed on the sofa, disheartened and grumpy.
After picking up the children and doing the ballet run, we walked home through Abbey Fields. The sky was beautiful and I felt more positive.
The full article contains 572 words and appears in Kenilworth Weekly News newspaper.
