To the cabbage patch and beyond...

The thought of running through a cabbage patch perhaps brings to mind something along the lines of the Nuts Challenge (as per my recent experience: http://jhr190764.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/small-steps-big-steps.html ) but thankfully the “Cabbage Patch 10” is a ten mile event on terrain as solid as could be wished for and I don’t think I could have found a more suitable event to mark the fifth and final part of my autumn challenge. 

The most particular reason for this is that, while not organised by the Bearcat Running Club, the CP10 is considered by the Bearcats to be something of a “home run” and of such importance in our calendar that it is one of only two or three events that bring the club’s normal Sunday routine to a temporary halt.  This meant that not only was I able to enjoy meeting up with about 50 club mates at The Fox in advance of the race but there was also a Bearcat celebration lunch to look forward to afterwards, back at base… The Turk’s Head.

On the morning of the event I was also in the happy state of mind of absolute optimism that my legs (particularly my right leg) would carry me to the end.  This was a far better place to be mentally compared to the pre-race uncertainty I’d had the previous two weeks.  Even so, while two months earlier I’d had fair reason to consider the prospect of challenging a time of 1h18m, as I headed to the start, mindful of how my body had faired over the four previous weeks and the fact that I had remained in no condition to do training between events, I set myself the realistic target of 1h22m (based on an average pace of 8m15s per mile).

As well as the pre and post race Bearcat meetings, a fair number of Bearcats ran for much of the race in close formation…

 

As is evident in the look of growing discomfort apparent from the photos, I did hit a bit of a sticky patch (no cabbages) in the latter stages…

 

Nevertheless, by the time of reaching the final straight of about 30-50 metres, I felt in good enough shape to do a bit of posing, holding my hand high, fingers spread to mark the completion of 5 events! 

 

However, raw instinct instantly took over as I suddenly became aware of being overtaken and, while I might only have been in 805^th place, there was no way I was giving up a further place without a fight!

 

I’m pretty sure that I met or at worst came within a minute of my target but I’m uncertain about the accurate finish time.  The official timing of the event only provides a “gun time” (and due to being someway back in the field, it took possibly more than a minute for me to reach the start line after the race began) and my watch (along with a considerable number of other Garmin devices at the event) didn’t start working until I’d passed the 1 mile mark.

My reaction to completing five distance events in five weeks?  Certainly the feeling that I had good cause to celebrate!  A lot of thankfulness for: having the capacity to complete the events; having the time to take part in the events and fit in the training; and having the support and encouragement of friends and family, particularly Lesley.  Also, I’ll be honest and admit to feeling pretty proud of myself for what in the context of “my own bubble” is a notable achievement.  Balancing the pride in myself, I believe the preparation for and completion of my autumn challenge has increased my appreciation of truly mega endurance accomplishments.  It leaves me with an open mouthed reaction (a mixture of amazement, awe and bewilderment) in considering how my challenge compares with, for example, those of: Rob Young, who has passed half way towards completing 367 marathons in a year (having never run a marathon before he started this venture in April 2014!) http://www.marathonmanuk.com/ ; Steve Way whose marathon journey started at the age of 33 when he weighed more than 16 stones and had a 20 a day smoking habit and has reached the point where he represented England at the Commonwealth Games earlier this year at the age of 40, finishing in 10^th place!  http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/28418596  ; closer to home, my friend Nick Rowe who earlier this year ran 80 miles within a 24 hour period (knowing how I feel after I’ve completed 20 miles, Nick’s accomplishment completely blows my mind!); and yet what about the 24 hour accomplishments of Fiona Ross (144 miles!!!) and 81 year old Geoff Oliver (99 miles!) - not just eye watering mileage but done through repetitive lapping of a 400 metre track!  http://ultrarunningworld.co.uk/scottish-women-pillage-self-transcendence-24-hour-race-2014/  and http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/real-life/scots-runner-fionna-ross-crowned-4457586

 

The memories that stick out for me?

-        Running in the Visit Richmond Half Marathon at the Richmond Running Festival while my daughter Carmella was also at the Festival, competing in her first running event, the Kew Gardens 10K.

-        Starting the Visit Richmond event like a cork out of a champagne bottle (I sense this was the unleashing of a lot of anticipation after the weeks of training and release of a certain amount of frustration that followed from my London Marathon injury)

 

-        The pain through all but the first couple of miles of the Windsor Half Marathon and the colourful expletive from a fellow runner as yet another hill came into view at mile 10

-        The relief I felt in the early miles of the River Thames Half Marathon to find that my right leg was working a lot better than I had feared it would

-        Dealing with some “unfinished business” at London as I ran (rather than hobbled) passed Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament during the Royal Parks Half Marathon

-        The pre and post run companionship of many Bearcat runners and most memorably running the whole of the Royal Parks event with Gareth and Phil

-        If not finishing in style, at least finishing with a final gurn at the Cabbage Patch 10

So, having made my way through the “cabbage patch” what is my next running challenge on the horizon?

As I drafted this post I reflected that it was fitting that I was on route to Rome (a great place to spend my first weekend in a long time that hasn’t involved a 10 mile plus run or Nuts Challenge!).  This is because the next series of Run Reece Run will have an international dimension to it and possibly a re-launch under the heading Allez Reece… Plus Vite!  This arises as I have been given an entry to run in the Paris Marathon on 12^th April 2015 and I look forward to kicking off a new training regime around Christmas time.

And finally…  My motivation for running and writing is fuelled by a number of key ingredients and fundraising is very significant among these.  I am very grateful to Shooting Star Chase for giving me the opportunity to take part in the Royal Parks Half Marathon, which for me was the pinnacle event of my autumn challenge.  Most of all I am thankful to the generosity of the contributors to my fundraising, many donating anonymously at the 200 Year Spectacular party I shared with Lesley and Joan (and many having also generously supported my separate fundraising earlier in the year).  There have been times when the motivation coming from this support has made a defining difference – goodness knows I needed something extra to get me to the finish at Windsor! 

Having worked for children’s services organisations for over half of my lifetime (increasingly significant now I’ve turned 50!) I am particularly pleased to support Shooting Star Chase, a leading children’s hospice charity.  I am in the fortunate position that my close family have never needed the direct support of Shooting Star Chase or similar organisations – my direct appreciation of the valuable work they do comes in particular from time I spent some years ago doing voluntary work at a school where a considerable number of the children had life expectation that in terms of time was horribly short.  I strongly believe that what we do in our time is most often more important than the amount of time we have, and this is why the following description of the work of Shooting Star Chase resonates so much for me, “Whether lives are measured in days, weeks, months or years, we are here to make every moment count.” 

It means a lot to me to make a contribution that enables more moments to count for the children and families supported by Shooting Star Chase and I am immensely grateful for donations made through my fundraising site https://www.justgiving.com/John-Reece/ 

To all who have reached an end to their own endurance event of reading the autumn 2014 series of Run Reece Run! I offer my thanks and best wishes and, with Paris in mind, felicitations…

John

Grin and gurn it...

My last post closed with the completion of the first two events in my autumn challenge.  In the last two weeks as I’ve taken on two further half marathon events it’s been not so much “grin and bear it” as “grin and gurn it”!

Sunday 5^th October saw me lining up for event three of the challenge – the inaugural River Thames Half Marathon, a course starting and finishing adjacent to Walton on Thames Bridge.

With the memory of the previous week’s 1pm start at Windsor in a temperature of 20˚C plus, it was with unusual lightness of heart that I left the warmth of home in the early hours of a Sunday morning and found a heavy dew, not far from being a frost, covering my car. 

In fact, the event could hardly have been held in better conditions, an autumnal chill to the air combined with the brightness of morning sunshine in a near cloudless sky.  The scene along the Thames was a picture being enjoyed by numerous anglers who were soon probably not too amused by the pounding of a thousand runners scaring the fish!

 

Nevertheless the scenery was a side scene as I tried to work out my race plan.  The on-going problem in my right leg had left me abandoning plans of training runs between events and after the struggle at Windsor I had little idea what I would be capable of. 

It was with some relief that, on setting off, my leg didn’t feel too bad and I found myself settling into an ambitious but (unlike Richmond two weeks previously) not near suicidal pace of about 8 minute miles.  I was well satisfied as I kept this pace consistently for 7 miles and even started doing that dangerous thing of working out the possibility of a PB.  Mile eight put that thought firmly to bed as I found myself slowing and, I have to admit, I found myself drifting into a 5 mile spell of negativity.  This was initially kindled from frustration about my leg but then compounded by the loop in the final couple of miles of the course.  This took the course almost within arm’s reach of the finish line only to carry on by the river for a further mile and then loop back for the final mile along the road.  For good measure, there were even a couple of spiteful hills thrown in at this point! 

I just about found it in me to raise my pace for the last 50 metres, just on the off chance that it would make the difference between going over or under 1 hour 50 mins (I’d avoided checking my watch for most of the last mile so genuinely wasn’t sure). 

As it happens it didn’t have such a significant consequence on my chip time (1h51m28s) but the flurry at the end certainly would have helped me if I’d been in a gurning competition!

Overall, I had no complaints about the time but was disappointed with the manner of the run – I might even have been happier to have had a slightly slower time but run at an even pace throughout.  Nevertheless, such disappointments are totally inconsequential in the overall scheme of things, and there was no negativity in the mood of the numerous Bearcat Running Club team mates who began to find one another in the after race melee, particularly as there were some truly outstanding PBs to celebrate (especially for the legend that is Gareth Coombs, coming in at 1h36m!) and a pub not too far along the river bank with a table reserved for lunch!

 

With no improvement in my leg over the following week there was a certain sense of déjà vu as Sunday 12^th October drew closer - the day of the Royal Parks Half Marathon.  Things probably weren’t helped when a few kicks of a football while at the park on Saturday with grandson Harry left a throbbing pain for much of the rest of the afternoon! However, an evening of carb loading with Bearcat chums, never fails to lift the spirits and, on the back of that, even getting up at 5am on Sunday was less of a challenge than I’d expected.

 

It’s great when everything goes to plan and Sunday morning couldn’t have gone better.  The car park I had to use near a train station was pleasingly free on Sundays (I’d expected to pay £12) and despite engineering works closing off my originally planned route, the reserve route worked perfectly.  I therefore arrived in plenty of time to have no problem exchanging the ill-fitting souvenir Royal Parks shirt I’d been sent (somehow my original race entry had me down as a large female and there was no way I wanted to be considered a “big girl’s blouse”!). Once more there were no complaints about the weather  – cool with more than a few glimpses of sunshine (we were so lucky the torrential rain held off until the late afternoon!).  Of biggest importance, most of the Bearcat contingent found one another and my race plan fell firmly into place – start out with Gareth and Phil D (on his first half marathon aiming for sub 2hours) and hope my leg would allow me to keep up.

This turned out to be the run I’d been disappointed not to have at the River Thames event the previous week.  After a first mile at just over 8 minute mile pace we settled into a groove of 8m20 to 8m45 up to mile six and then marginally increased the pace from there until the final mile which we blew away in under 8 minutes.  I was more than happy with a chip time finish of 1h52m07s on the longest half marathon course I’d ever done (the amount of weaving necessary in a field of 15,000 probably contributed to the distance registering 13.35miles on my watch).

 Of course, the last mile had its gurning moments, as Gareth pushed Phil and me to our limits, but I’ve no doubt I was grinning ear to ear just moments after the finish line!  

 

So, that leaves me with just one more event to complete my autumn challenge – the Cabbage Patch 10.  Right now, the leg may be on ice but the spirit is on fire and I sense a steely look will be in my eye as race day approaches (even if it wasn't when I was in the cold bath)!

I close again with a note of great appreciation for the donations made to my fundraising for Shooting Star Chase, now over 80% of the way towards my target of £750.

Shooting Star Chase say about their work, “Whether lives are measured in days, weeks, months or years, we are here to make every moment count."  When I started planning my running schedule for the autumn the thought was very much in my mind of making as many as possible of my own moments count.  I very much hope the autumn running challenge I have set myself will inspire donations for Shooting Star Chase and help them to make more moments count for more children and young people.

To find out more about Shooting Star Chase and help me reach my fundraising target please visit my Just Giving page:  https://www.justgiving.com/John-Reece/

With very best wishes...

John

Quick, quick, slow...

My last couple of posts have focussed on the steps I’ve taken in preparing for my autumn challenge, taking things up to the completion of the Nuts Challenge at the end of August.  So, how have I shaped up in September and part one of the autumn challenge?

A week before the first of my half marathons, I somewhat naïvely got carried away with the conviction that, as I felt in pretty good shape, I should absolutely “go for broke” to achieve a personal best at Parkrun. 

For those not in the know, Parkrun has become something of a cult activity for the running fraternity.  In much the same way as congregations have come together on Sunday mornings for centuries across the land for the undertaking of religious worship, in recent years across the land on Saturdays mornings, runners head to their local parks to participate in the ritual challenge of a timed 5KM run. 

While not in their “Sunday best”, appearance is not unimportant at Parkrun…

 

… and though there is no direct equivalent to clerical robes there is certainly extra respect due to those who have earned the right to wear a specially presented top to confirm their completion of 50 or even 100 Parkrun events.

I am only a sporadic attender at Parkrun having participated in my local event at Crane Park just 10 times since my inaugural run about a year ago.  5KM is not a distance that I feel entirely at home with as I generally prefer a longer run at less frenetic pace.  Nevertheless, every now and again I sense a call to attend and, for whatever reason, I sensed such a calling on 13^th September.  I even restricted my alcohol intake to one glass of red wine on the evening before with a view to being in a good state to run (very restrained for me on a Friday night)!  Arriving at the start line and seeing a few BRC club mates waiting there, perhaps unwisely I announced to them my intention of going all out for a PB.   It’s difficult to go back on such a statement of intent and so, disregarding the subsequent discomfort, I pushed myself hard through the run and with encouragement from “Sir Alun” of the BRC who tracked me throughout (with relative ease on his part), I made it round the course in an official time of 22m17s, a whopping 35 seconds inside my previous best.

Achieving a PB is a pretty joyous occasion, however, there often seems to be a cost and on this occasion pay back came the next morning in the form of an annoying strain to my right calf and Achilles’ tendon.  Despite this, with the wish to do one more long training session, I pushed myself to complete a 10 mile run as part of the BRC’s second anniversary celebration (the 10 hour challenge).  With little improvement to the strain over the next few days, I took up the recommendation to try acupuncture for the first time and, whether or not this made the difference, by Sunday 21^st September I was pleased to wake up feeling in reasonable shape and raring to get my first HM of the autumn challenge underway. 

This was the “Visit Richmond” HM, part of the Richmond Running Festival.  Making this event all the more special for me was that my eldest daughter Carmella was competing in the Kew 10KM event at the Festival.

 

 

How did the run go?  On reflection, I think I did everything possible to screw it up, but thankfully managed to hold out and complete the course in 1h48m02s (pleasingly inside the 1h50m target time I’d originally set myself).  How did things nearly go wrong?  Partly I have the excuse that my watch didn’t start functioning until I was well over half a mile into the race.  A pretty poor excuse, as I knew only too well that I had set out far too fast, but even I was surprised to work out later that I must have set out at pretty much the same pace I’d run at Parkrun (which is less than quarter of the distance).  No surprise that by the 5 miles mark I was feeling a lot less comfortable than I would have liked and my pace began to seriously stall by mile 9.  However, it was a wonderful feeling when I crossed the finish line and great to have photos with Carmella of a double Reece triumph.

However, Monday morning wasn’t so good as I found the problems of my right leg were significantly aggravated, to the point where walking was not at all straight forward, let alone running!  Through the rest of the week I stuck to a regime of strict avoidance of running, a foam roller workout at least twice a day, regular application of ice packs and a good few ibuprofen pills. 

Consequently I reached Sunday 28^th September, the day of the Windsor HM, just about ready to run!

Having said that, I have to say I felt a bit lousy as I headed off to Windsor and in other circumstances would have been very happy to have been heading back to bed!  My mood didn’t improve as my train journey was disrupted due to engineering works and I found myself on a standing room only journey followed by a walk from the station that turned out to be about 2 miles (twice the distance I’d anticipated).  A start time of 1pm and unseasonal heat (20 ͦ C plus) did not bode well.  Nevertheless, as I set off, I was pleased to note that the calf strain wasn’t a particular issue and I congratulated myself on keeping to a sensibly restrained starting pace of 8m30s/mile. 

Unfortunately, my confidence took a severe knock as I came to the first of a long succession of morale sapping hills!  This left me with the very strange sensation so early in the run (about mile two) of feeling like I’d “hit the wall”!  At this point, if my right leg could have been described as a coiled spring then sadly it was a “slinky” that had sloped off to the bottom of the stairs and run out of momentum!

From there on it felt to me that, rather than a half marathon, the event was more like the second half of a full marathon!  Thankfully the event was well served with water points and for most of these I slowed to a walk (not much slower than the pace I was running!) so I could take my time in drinking 2 or 3 cups rather than trying to gulp 1 cup on the run as per my usual practice.  This made each water point a blissful relief but I was pleased to retain sufficient resolve to overcome the immense temptation to slow to a walk on the seemingly ceaseless uphill sections of the course.  One hill at around the ten mile mark drew a particularly colourful expletive from a fellow runner which at least brought a smile to my face.

I sometimes ponder on what is the hardest part of a half marathon, the beginning, the middle or the end?  On this occasion I think it was a dead heat! Even the downhill section in the last mile, with a straight sight line to the finish, was pretty agonising until the last 20 metres.  To add to the sensation of being under the cosh, in the last two miles of the course I saw a couple of runners being put in the recovery position and a couple of ambulances also went by with sirens blaring. 

With a sense of huge relief, I finally made it to the end in a time of 2h07m40s which is by a significant margin the slowest half marathon I’ve run, even in training sessions! 

I don’t want to put too much of a downer on the event which was generally well organised and well attended (and in its 32^nd year) and I’m sure on another day I’d be able to complete the course in sub 2 hours.  Overall, I don’t think the course was more challenging than the Bacchus Half Marathon I did last year in 1h51m (I think Bacchus was no less hilly but was a more visually interesting course and with a wider range of running surfaces – Windsor was almost entirely on solid tarmac).

Despite feeling utterly spent in the immediate aftermath, I am pleased to say that a cold bath and a good refuelling session were very restorative and by the next day I was in better condition than I had been the week before, following the Visit Richmond Half.

 

I remain in contention to complete my autumn challenge!

I close with a note of appreciation for the donations made to my fundraising for Shooting Star Chase, now 70% of the way towards my target of £750.

Shooting Star Chase say about their work, “Whether lives are measured in days, weeks, months or years, we are here to make every moment count."  When I started planning my running schedule for the autumn the thought was very much in my mind of making as many as possible of my own moments count.  I very much hope the autumn running challenge I have set myself will inspire donations for Shooting Star Chase and help them to make more moments count for more children and young people.

To find out more about Shooting Star Chase and help me reach my fundraising target please visit my Just Giving page:

https://www.justgiving.com/John-Reece/

Small steps.... big steps....

My last post on Run Reece Run reported on the measures taken in my post London Marathon recovery programme, not least my Pilates initiation.

Since then I am pleased to say that a number of very noteworthy steps have been taken which feature in this latest post.

Perhaps the most important steps of all are first steps and I am thrilled to report that within the last month Evie (grandchild 3, in chronological order) has raised interest among those seeking to identify running stars of the future by literally taking her first steps! 

 

First steps of a different order with Lila-Rose (grandchild 2) starting Reception class at school within the last week – and with a smile on her face!





Delighted to find inspiration from all my grandchildren, Harry hasn’t been outshone by his two sisters as he put aside his football interests in order to show off his running prowess, joining me last weekend at the Bearcat Running Club.  He remains insistent that he beat me in the run we did together!

In my endeavour to remain at least one pace ahead of the chasing pack of grandchildren, I have stepped up my own training on the back of all the stretching, Pilates and chiro that has been a significant feature of my life over the last couple of months.  While my right leg still feels some way short of firing on all cylinders I seem recently to have received fewer comments about lopsided running and my pace is definitely heading in the right direction.

Bearing in mind my objective of running four half marathons in successive weeks beginning on 21^st September to be followed in week five by the Cabbage Patch 10 mile race, the focus of my training has been on increasing distance.  Once or twice as I’ve got ready for my longer training runs I’ve felt genuinely nervous with the underlying worry that one or other of my old injuries would flare up again.  In particular, four weeks ago, during the course of my first ten mile run since the London Marathon, I went through a whole range of emotions which thankfully ended in elation as I maintained a pace at comfortably sub 9 minute miles throughout.  Since then I even managed to cover the full half marathon distance in a time of just under 1h56m so I feel I’m ready to take on my autumn challenge, though I’m not planning on trying to push for a PB (1h44m for HM and 1h19m for 10 miles).

One other achievement in the last month has been to complete the Nuts Challenge again, taking part with friends from the Bearcat Running Club.  To have taken part in the event once this year was pretty nuts (check out the March post of Run Reece Run) – I’m not sure what the description is for someone who goes back for more, six months later!  Having said that, while I remain happy at one 7KM lap of the course, there are many who do two laps and some do as many as four laps – truly breath-taking nuts!

 

I’m looking forward to my next post, by which time I hope to be reporting on a couple of completed half marathons and looking forward to the main focus of my autumn challenge – the Royal Parks Half Marathon on 12^th October (I feel I have some unfinished business in London!).

I close with a note of appreciation for the donations made to my fundraising for Shooting Star Chase, now getting close to £500.

Shooting Star Chase say about their work, “Whether lives are measured in days, weeks, months or years, we are here to make every moment count."  When I started planning my running schedule for the autumn the thought was very much in my mind of making as many as possible of my own moments count.  I very much hope the autumn running challenge I have set myself will inspire donations for Shooting Star Chase and help them to make even more moments count for children and young people.

To find out more about Shooting Star Chase and help me reach my fundraising target please visit my Just Giving page: 

https://www.justgiving.com/John-Reece/

With very best wishes...

John

Let the running resume...

It’s been a while since Run Reece Run signed off after the London Marathon as I limped over the proverbial horizon with the newly acquired bling hung proudly round my neck.

So what’s been going on over the last three months?  One thing for sure is there hasn’t been that much running!

After London, it took only a day or two before I was able to return the walking stick my 90 year old neighbour lent me and as I headed to my first physiotherapy
appointment I was secretly still holding onto the possibility of being OK to take up my entry in the Edinburgh Marathon (six weeks after London).  My reckoning was that if I could get back running after two or three weeks I’d be able to do a couple of longish training runs and be ready.  [I kept these thoughts to myself as I knew only too well what Lesley would have to say…!]

I started the beginning of week three after the marathon still walking with a limp but I set myself the goal of running 3 miles on  the Friday of that week, 5 miles on the Saturday and 10 miles on the Monday.  Friday came and I enthusiastically kitted up,
went through my warm up routine and impatiently waited for my watch to “catch
a satellite”.  Off I went but within 10 paces I had a strong sense the dream was over!
I just about completed two miles.  No sharp, intense pain but an ache from start to finish and the disconcerting sensation that my right leg had no spring in it.  The rest of the evening I was limping around with a pretty long face!

So much for my 5 and 10 mile plans that weekend!  Instead I took grandson Harry to the Bearcat Running Club on the Sunday (and found myself aching in just trying to keep up with him!).

Meanwhile my physio appointments were continuing.  With the multitude of body parts that were prodded and described as “very stiff”, you’d have thought rigor mortis had set in!

On 9^th May, exactly one week after my first 2 mile effort I set out once more.  Again, it took about 30 seconds before I recognised the dull pain in my right leg each time my right foot struck the ground and pushed off.  I managed the two miles again and tried to take a little comfort that there was a less obvious reaction immediately after
the run.  However, in further efforts made through the rest of May, there was no noticeable improvement.

Nevertheless, I remained determined to run in the Turks Head 10KM race on 8^th June.  Things didn’t look good on Monday 2^nd June when I found myself having to
walk at half way into a planned 3 mile run.  However, I did manage to resume running for the last half mile of my route and didn’t suffer a significant reaction afterwards.  The following day I tried again and made it right through to 3 miles.  On the Thursday I really felt I’d made a breakthrough when I completed a 5 mile run with only moderate discomfort.  For my final warm up on Saturday I did a 27½ minute Parkrun (5KM) and on the Sunday I was thrilled to hit my target of completing the Turks Head race.

A couple of weeks later (21^st June) and my 5KM Parkrun time was heading in the right direction at 26 minutes and over the next couple of weeks things progressed sufficiently that by 12^th July my Parkrun time was back down to 23½ minutes, within 30 seconds of the PB I’d set during my marathon training in February.

One of the issues noted in my physiotherapy treatment has been that my running posture has been unbalanced.  I’ve been recommended to take up Pilates to help address this.  My first beginner class was a bit of an ordeal - a real struggle to take on board all the instructions.  I found it difficult enough  to keep up with when I was supposed to inhale and when to exhale, let alone the physical manoeuvres!  Nevertheless, I have been sufficiently motivated to buy the “Pilates for Dummies” DVD (or Pilates for Idiots as I inadvertently
referred to it in a recent conversation!) and since then my living room has regularly been converted to an exercise studio! I was pleased that my next visit to the class was considerably less embarrassing than the first.

So I’m feeling just about back to normal except that there’s a fair amount of work to do to get my distance running back to scratch.  This is something I’m going to have to put my mind to over the next month as I’ve only gone and set myself the goal of
completing four half marathons in successive weeks from 21^st September followed by the Cabbage Patch 10 mile race on the fifth week!  The four HMs are Richmond Running Festival, Windsor, Thames (starting/finishing at Walton on Thames) and The Royal Parks.  My entry for The Royal Parks Half Marathon is as part of the fundraising team for Shooting Star Chase which is a leading children’s hospice charity. 

Shooting Star Chase say about their work, “Whether lives are measured in days, weeks, months or years, we are here to make every moment count."  When I started planning my running schedule for the autumn the thought was very much in my mind of making as many of my moments count.  When Shooting Star Chase gave me the chance for the fourth half marathon in my programme it provided that extra focus - I very much hope my autumn running challenge will inspire donations for Shooting Star Chase and help them to make more moments count for more children and young people.

To find out more about Shooting Star Chase and help me reach my fundraising target please visit my Just Giving page: 

https://www.justgiving.com/John-Reece/

Finally for this month, a big thank you to all who helped get my fundraising for Shooting Star Chase underway with contributions totalling
£355 at or associated with the “200 Year Spectacular” event held to celebrate
the birthdays of Lesley, her mum and me.

Very best wishes!

John