So, running nude...and (almost) alone then...?

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. I ordered my badger tops weeks ago but they seem to have gone awol in the post...everyone else who ordered them has them already...so basically I think that means I'm running naked.

Oh, and when I bumped into Andy yesterday I found out that he and his good lady didn't actually get places for the GNR as I had previously thought. So basically Bruce...no pressure or owt...but it's me and thee...!

2 weeks to go...I've done some swimming and some cycling. (When I say some I mean I've cycled the equivalent of the course twice...so it's not "nothing" although it's only a small "something"). Unfortunately the groin strain I got the last time I embarked upon this adventure has shown some signs of making little twinges during training. So I don't even know if I'm going to make it round the course. And I KNOW it's quite stupid to actually try with an injury or two but hey...in for a penny, in for a pound and all that. And the number of people who are now promising to be at the end with cheesecake is quite a lot of incentive.

So basically it's all going pretty much as expected then.

Training

It's now less than three weeks to go and that includes a holiday during which I need to somehow include exercise as well as moderate food and alcohol intake. Gulp !

Training - I have done some, honest. In fact I was in a pretty good routine before I signed up for the GNR which was probably part of the reason it seemed such a good idea. I was using a cross trainer and weights most days and the thought of taking part in a half marathon in six months time didn't seem a big deal. The key to training like that though is having a good routine and it wasn't long before mine was well and truly disrupted by work and various other interruptions. Even now with the added motivation that the run is just a few weeks away it's difficult to fit training into my day. There's absolutely no way I'm able to go for a 'run' after a 12 hour shift so I've been getting up at 3.30am some days to fit it in before work.

I've also been reading the mail from the GNR. I love the way they point out how far we should now be able to run comfortably in order to be able to complete the course. I'm sure that kind of motivation works well for the serious runners but it's not helping me with my confidence. On a more amusing note one of the other handy tips is that we should now be running in whatever clothing we are planning on wearing on the day. I have a bizarre vision of random pantomime horses, darleks and various other fancy dress folk training in full costume. I'm rather glad there's no badger fur or silly hats this time ! My madasbadgers T Shirt did arrive in the post today though so maybe I'll train in it tomorrow. I have also taken to trying to tie my hair back when I run in the vain effort to keep it out of my face, it's not really working very well though and I may yet resort to shaving it off before the big day !

There's still time to sponsor us, you know what to do !

Slightly less pain than a chainsaw to the head ?

It's just over a month to go before the Great North Walk Run, a fact punctuated today by the arrival of my race number in the post. This reminded me that there were a couple of things I'd meant to do regularly before the big day a) Blog and b) Train. Hmmm

I'll try and address a) with a little of the background I actually intended to write back in February when I signed up for this badgery madness.

Last year I put helped put together 'Their Hearts Caught Fire', an album of Dogs D'Amour songs recorded 'by the fans, for the fans' (but for one fan in particular) All the proceeds from that and the related fund raising activities (to date close to £1500) have gone to Cancer Research UK in memory of Trace. 'Hearts' was fun, and whilst it was sometimes repetitive (emailing folk, copying and pasting hundreds of myspace messages and filling out those annoying 'captcha' boxes) it wasn't what I could really call 'hard work'. When Taz mentioned the GNR I though it sounded like a good opportunity to counter all the drunken fun we'd had recording and promoting our CD. I asked around to see if any of the other 'hearts' folk were interested in joining me but the majority of responses went along the lines of "I'd rather chainsaw my own head off". Now, call me an optimist but I reckon the pain of shuffling around 13 + miles of the Great North Run course will be slightly less than that, so here or I am, or rather there I will be, in just over a month !

Sponsor us for Marie Curie Cancer Care or Cancer Research UK

Bruce

Motivational money making!

Hey y'all

I KNOW this is a training blog, but lets be honest, it's a month to the event...you didn't seriously expect that I would have done some training did you? Ok, even I did by this point - but lets consider my previous track record of non-training and then examine if we're surprised I've completely failed to get motivated to get off my backside yet...

BUT what we have done is set up our fundraising pages and THIS is the bit, if anything, that will motivate me. ALREADY people have been generously sponsoring us, which is just completely awesome, because it makes all of this pontificating, worrying, training (if we did any ;) ) and the pain of the day itself worthwhile.

We've expanded out fundraising this year to include Marie Curie Cancer Care - which was a charity Trace was fond of, and subsequently was a group we always wanted to raise money for in addition to our money-raising for Cancer Research. Therefore if you would like to sponsor us then you can choose which of these great causes you'd like to donate to - perhaps you've had experience of one or the other and want to give something back.

Our Marie Curie fundraising page can be found at: www.justgiving.com/madasbadgers08

And the Cancer Research page at: www.justgiving.com/madasbadgers

Thank you so much for your support - to everyone who has already sponsored us and to all of those intending to...massive badgery hugs!

Taz.x