Life is a journey, not a race !

I guess now is a good time to write about the run itself, the pain has (mostly) faded but the happy thoughts are still fresh in my mind.

After a pretty sleepless night at a hotel in Sunderland I arrived at the start line in good time, despite a last minute panic when I had to dash back and retrieve my bag as I'd forgotten my timing chip. Taz and I hadn't really planned to meet anywhere specific, probably quite silly considering there were a record 52,000 participants this year but as I stood in the allotted 'pink zone' I caught a glimpse of some purple hair in the crowd and so started to work my way forwards, squeezing between the other runners who were for the most part involved in pre race stretching and warming up. A little closer and I could see the purple hair was attached to a Taz shaped person wearing a Team Badger 08 shirt. My shout of 'Oi Taz' got a laugh from the people I was squeezing past. The conversation with Taz went something like 'This is weird', 'Yeah, it is, how are you?' Me: 'I'm fine. Actually, no I'm not fine, I'm about to run a half marathon !' and pretty much as that realisation started to sink in the crowd started to edge forward. It took half an hour to reach the start and for me it was quite a surreal experience. All of a sudden we were crossing the line and I noticed a bloke I vaguely recognised waving us off...it took me a second to realise it was Tony Blair. I crossed the start line at a jog and wondered if I'd have the energy to cross the finish line in the same way.

The first mile was superb, pretty early on I was glad I'd made the last minute decision to stick my name on the madasbadgers T shirt. Once you get used to complete strangers shouting your name in encouragement it's a pretty good feeling. Taz and I had started together but I could tell our pace was different - her fast walk was only a little slower than my jogging speed so as a gap opened up when we hit the Tyne bridge I settled to the most comfortable pace I could find and watched the purple hair disappear into the crowd. Any disappointment at that point faded when I heard more shouts of encouragement including 'Go on Brucie Badger' as someone who obviously read my T shirt as I passed. I was pretty comfortable for the first few miles, no sign of blisters and none of the dreaded chaffing (Vaseline on standby...eeeww) As expected my hair was in my face but I managed keep enough of it tied out of the way to be able see where I was going. The water points where pretty well spaced out and I took a bottle every time, unlike the guy in the kilt who overtook me at one, waving his bottle of cider in the air...I last saw him diverting off the route towards a pub and I'm still wondering if he ever finished the race !

Somewhere along the way I missed a couple of mile markers so when I hit the halfway point it came as a pleasant surprise. I was also surprised at how good I felt but decided to slow my pace long enough to send a text telling people I'd made it halfway, silly, yes but the replies were good motivation when things got harder later on. I was definitely walking for much longer periods by now but I was still able to run a little when I wanted - rarely up hill though!

The ten mile marker was one I didn't miss, nor did the guy running in St Johns ambulance colours who commented 'most deaths occur between the 10 and 12 mile point, take care folks' Charming ! I resolved not to die, told myself I was nearly there and pushed on, noticeably slower than I had before but by now convinced I could do it. I was walking even more now and everything was starting to hurt...I could feel the friction of blisters on the balls of both my feet and my ankles and knees were starting to ache. I reasoned that as everything ached pretty evenly I had nothing to worry about, I hadn't damaged anything excessively and my body was just objecting to doing so much exercise. I walked slower at this point, determined to keep something back so I could run or jog across the finishing line but I was feeling pretty tired.

Now, I've seen the red arrows so many times at airshows since I was a kid that I don't tend to pay attention their display any more - but as I shuffled along the road and those nine red aircraft came out of nowhere streaming coloured smoke I suddenly felt very emotional, I think after spending the last hour or so plodding along deep in my own thoughts I was suddenly aware again that I was part of something really huge and I knew if I could keep moving I would succeed.

Before I knew it I was plodding downhill towards the sea and then turning left onto the long final straight. 12 miles was so close but I knew the last mile and a bit would hurt. I waddled past the Cancer Research UK cheering point - a open double decker bus, the bloke on the top deck with a megaphone just told me I was doing great - nearly there. 800m, I remember this was two laps of the old school athletics track which always seemed such a long way when I was a kid. At 400m I noticed some of the people with space blankets and medals who'd long since finished the race were cheering, lending support and some were calling my name. At 200m I thought I'd try my legs again. I could still run, in fact somehow it was easier than it should have been. It’s funny but as I was filtered towards the finish line it felt like I could run as fast and for as I long as I wanted. I tried to smile for the cameras but god knows what I'll look like in the final photo... then I was over the line…I did it. Three hours, nine minutes and fourteen seconds ! Walking suddenly seemed difficult again and the meeting area seemed a bloody long way away. I found the letter T and Taz and the gang were waiting with cheesecake. Then it was time to find the baggage bus and join the hour and a half queue for the metro to get back to the car.

Would I do it again ? Yes ! Next year ? I don't know. Once it's all stopped hurting I'm intending to go for a run again and if I'm still running occasionally when the GNR '09 is open for entry who knows what will happen ? In the meantime though we’re still accepting donations for this year on the sponsorship pages.

Thanks to everyone who supported me and gave me the confidence to give it a go. Thanks also to the people who said I couldn’t do it (yeah, there were a couple) - You motivated me in a whole different way !

They did it!!!!

I'm sure Taz and Bruce will be back here when they've got their breath back to give you the gory details, but I just wanted to say congratulations to them here! (now that I've fixed the ftp and the blog is working again *cough*).
It's a great achievement and I hope they are as proud of themselves as I am of them!

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

Good lord, a new blog!

See, I claimed to be dedicated to blogging and then didn't blog for months on end. My commitment is clearly completely and utterly rubbish. Not to the cause though...as you know, myself and the other badgers take that bit *very* seriously, and we once again would like to thank all those sending us good luck messages and donating their own time or money for badgery goodness.

A special mention goes to Jen Walpole who was raising money this month in memory of her Dad by doing the Race For Life. So many people are affected by this thing that it really makes you glad that there are so many other people trying to raise money to help fight and cure it.

Training news...well, I joined a gym. I've been. Twice. I've run at least 4KM in those two training sessions. And I've been swimming about 5 times. This feels like an achievement until I write it down, and then it doesn't sound like very much at all. Bu**er. I'm not sure if sheer will and gritting my teeth can get me through a second GNR. But let's jolly well hope it does, eh?!

taz.x

p.s...we're just in the process of designing some Team Badger t-shirts. News of these here soon, we promise!