Whew!

Hooray – did it!  Sunday was, surprisingly, a beautiful day up in Newcastle and I completed the run in a grand time of 2 hours and 20 minutes!!  My legs don’t feel TOO bad now and I’m pretty happy to have survived. I can’t imagine how those people in fancy dress do it – big respect to all you pink panthers and scooby doos.  Thanks a million to all you generous people who sponsored me – it’ll be a real boost to our bursary fund at Tiratanaloka.  What next…? Mmm that remains to be seen…  I still have to find out what to wear when running outdoors in cold weather!

ok this is serious now…

… 4 days to go and I’m not feeling hugely confident I have to say.  I’ve been wheezing like some leaky bellows for the last week or so, thanks to an allergy that’s triggered a bit of asthma.  I trundled round about 4 miles today (well, you’re not supposed to overdo it in the last week, are you?) at a rather leisurely pace, alarming innocent tourists with a noise like one of those film scenes where someone is inside a diving suit – remember that bit from The Graduate?  Luckily I couldn’t hear it myself as I was firmly plugged into my iPod listening to The Who (it was on shuffle – I had no control).  Hopefully all will be well on the day.  I’ve been talking to veterans (survivors?) of these sorts of races about what to wear if it’s wet and windy.  Apparently the done thing is to wear something to stop you getting soaked/frozen while you wait at the start which you then jettison at the side of the road as you go.  Imagine what this scene would look like to someone from another planet; hordes of people running along roads (slowly) for no apparent reason and flinging their clothes off as they go……  Anyway, I’m confident the wheeze will abate soon and I’ll be back to my old jogging pace.  Fingers crossed.  Hey, I’ve just found out I can have my finishing time texted to 3 mobile numbers automatically as the race ends!!  Leave a comment here if you’d like to be one!!