Well, I only bloody did it!!

Wow. That is the only way I can describe Sunday. It truly was an incredible day that will stay with me forever.

Where to start? My thoughts of the day are so scrambled it's difficult to put in to words the most satisfying, emotional, difficult, rewarding, unbelievable, knackering, awe-inspiring day.

The day started early with a 6am alarm call. After forcing some porridge and water down I headed down to Charing Cross to meet Sarah, one of the other runners running for Iain Rennie Hospice at Home. We had only met at the photo shoot for the local paper a couple of weeks earlier but having both been suffering from injuries and realised we were both very nervous about the day, had arrange to meet and start the race together.

The nerves truly kicked in on the train journey to Greenwich Park and by the time we saw the start line, I think we were both in a bit of a state. A last minute toilet dash meant I heard the start gun go off whilst holding my breath in a porta-loo. Typical!! As we joined the back of the starting line it was absolutely amazing to see the swarms of people all about to start this ridiculous challenge. We crossed the start line 26 minutes after the start of the race and headed off amongst the other 36,998 other runners.

The first 5 miles were pretty smooth at a nice steady pace but by 7 miles I was really struggling and even uttered the words 'I don't think I can do this'!! I was gutted to be feeling like that by 7 miles but it was so much warmer than I'd thought and with the crowds making the heat even more intense I was finding it really difficult. Thankfully I spotted Liz and Lana in the crowd at 11 miles and with them shaking their pimped up banner it was a massive boost.

At 12 miles Sarah and I split as I was worried about slowing her down and by half way I was absolutely melting and beginning to realise the enormity of the challenge. Around 14 miles I heard a massive 'Alice Oiseau' shout and knew that had to be for me (my old name in French class at school!!) and turned round to see Lou and Steve - again perfectly placed to give me the encouragement to carry on.

By 16 miles I knew I was behind my pace target but was really enjoying it and at 18 miles got to run past the Iain Rennie cheering squad and then have a sweaty hug with Mum, who had a whole bag of goodies for me! Running round Canary Wharf was one of my favourite parts - the atmosphere and crowds were amazing and there were some brilliant bands playing that really lifted the mood. Running past the office door at 19 miles was slightly odd but another spotting of Liz, Lou and Steve and a big group hug sent me on my way for the last 7 miles.

I hit my 'wall' at about 21.5 miles. The knees and ankles had starting hurting at 14 miles and I'd taken painkillers at 20 miles but I was running on empty by 21.5. I had my last carbohydrate gel and then spotted Lucy and Roland in the crowd at 22 miles. Knowing I (only!) had 4 miles left felt like a huge achievement and that's when I really believed I'd make it.

The last few miles are a bit of a blur and the only thing that got me to the end were the crowds and their encouragement. Every single person who cheered me on made the next few steps possible. My cheering squad were in fine voice at 25 and as I started running by St. James Park and then up on to The Mall, emotion completely overtook me. Crossing the line is simply one of my greatest achievements.

The day itself was incredible and I can honestly say that the only way I got through the day was from the endless encouragement from friends, family, strangers, runners and anyone and everyone else. It really is inspiring and humbling to hear people’s stories about why they are doing the race and see their individual struggles and triumphs. The best thing about the day has to be the kindness of people. On a normal day most Londoners normally don't even look at each other, let alone talk to each other, which seems so strange when you've spent the day having your name chanted, shouted and sung by hundreds of people you've never met, and never will.

I really do believe that the last 5 months have been life-changing. To think that I've gone from the girl who became very proficient at forging Mum and Dad's signatures to get out of P.E for 5 years to having completed a marathon - I'm not sure I'll ever be quite the same. I've even brought 'Women’s Running' magazine over 'Glamour' recently for a train journey - times have definitely changed!!

There will be plenty who think I should have gone quicker than my 5hours 41 minutes, but all I'd say now, is I genuinely don't care and you give it a go, and then I'll listen!!

The confidence that achieving this goal has given me is immeasurable and I have really learned that exercise can be a good thing. I’ve even had to talk myself out of going for a run tonight!

So basically, at the end of this rambling, I want to say a massive thank you to everyone for your endless encouragement and titbits of marathon wisdom. A special thanks to my family friends who came to cheer me on and finally to everyone who donated their hard earned cash. Today, my total is £3,247.12 which is absolutely incredible. More than double what I was hoping for so I am absolutely over the moon. It will make a huge difference and makes it worth every bit of the blood, sweat and tears (quite literally!!).

What can I say, it's been emotional!!

xxx

The tears, trials and tribulations of my London Marathon journey!

Wow, the rollercoaster of my marathon training has kicked in something special in the last month!

At the start of March I joined 9,999 other runners at the Silverstone Half Marathon hoping the experience of running at a big event, with crowds and even a free goodie bag at the end, would be positive and something on which I would be able to take the training in March on to the next level. It most definitely wasn't to be like that!

I had been having sore knees for a couple of weeks but had been pushing through the pain thinking that that was what everybody would be doing and that it was just my body being completely unused to what I was asking it to do. The Silverstone race proved to be the race that broke the camel's back and I was absolutely gutted to finish much slower than I would have hoped and in tears with the pain (the photos taken on the day are hideous and must never see the light of day!) The following day I went for my first physiotherapy session and was told that my knee caps were both about an inch out of position and my knees were close to dislocation. Not the kind of news I wanted to hear six weeks before my first ever marathon attempt.

To say I was gutted would be an understatement and it suddenly became very clear how much completing this challenge meant to me. The thought that I wouldn't be able to start, let alone finish, was absolutely crushing. Who would have thought that being told not to do any exercise would be greeted with such disgust - times have certainly changed! All I could think was that I was letting everybody down and just wasn't trying hard enough but I had no choice but to follow the physio's advice, so a week of no exercise it was. I am pretty sure I was an absolute nightmare to be around that week and need to say a massive thank you to everyone who kept up my motivation and to Mum and Lana who put up with my tears.

Not only did I have to put up with no exercise, I had to suffer the ultimate indignity of having to wear my trainers in to work. Yep, big white trainers on the end of black tights and a pencil skirt - nice!! Embarrassing trainers and then daily work with a new torture device - a foam roller. If anyone heard any of the noises coming out of me in the gym or from my bedroom, this thing is evil!!

But anyhow, 3 weeks on and the physio is my new hero. Somehow she has taped me back together and I rattle from the truck loads of ibuprofen I have been taking but yesterday I completed my longest run of 18 miles, and quite bizarrely, I enjoyed every second. I've had to rethink my plans for the race and now it's about getting round in one piece rather than in any particular time but get round I will, even if I cross that line on my hands and knees! Although a couple of weeks behind schedule and having had to abandon hopes of making it to 20 miles in training, I have now entered the 'taper' where I get the pleasure of combining cutting down on the running with carb loading - the part of training that I seem to have taken to most easily!!

So with 20 days to go, my Iain Rennie running vest has arrived in the post and my sponsorship has exceeded all my hopes, it's genuinely overwhelming. I'm so excited about it and can't wait to get going now. I have a feeling that the next 3 weeks are going to be a bit weird with the anticipation of it all but roll on the 17th!!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AliceHarveylondonmarathon
Thank you,
Alice xx

When the going gets tough .....

... the not so tough have to take a break!!

The last couple of weeks have been my worst yet so with a complete lack of motivation and a body that ached in places I didn't even know existed, I haven't felt much like updating this! But with a new week comes a renewed sense of impetus and I'm pleased to report I am back on track.

A couple of weeks ago I made it to 13 miles. Having initially seen this as a big milestone in reaching half way the initial elation slowly disintegrated in to complete terror at the thought that this was only half way. My 30th birthday celebrations followed the 13 mile run and as the hangover wore off it became clear that half way was exactly that: only half the distance I would be needing to finish in a matter of weeks. As the realisation of the task ahead of me dawned, the 26.2 miles became, for the first time, utterly daunting and felt completely unachievable. Training seemed to ground to a halt with everything seeming impossible, even walking down the stairs meant a series of ever so unattractive grunts in pain!! (sorry for anyone who may have witnessed this, it really wasn't pretty!)

So, I did what all the books tell you to do, and 'listened to my body'! For the most part I haven't really done this as my body mostly tells me to eat chips and sit on the sofa but on this occasion I did what it was pleading for and took a whole three days off running. A session in the gym on the bike and cross-trainer actually became exciting at the thought of it not being running, and by Friday morning my legs finally ceased to feel like they were made of lead.

As the weekend loomed, I became increasingly nervous about attempting 15 miles but set off on Saturday lunchtime with the thought that I'd make it as far as I could, after all, 15 miles is utterly ridiculous. But I only bloody made it and finished all 15 miles!!! I am most definitely not quick and it certainly isn't a natural runners gait that I have, but finishing on Saturday really has made me think that this is possible, and by hook or crook, I will make it round that 26.2 mile course in 7 weeks and 6 days time (gulp!).

My sponsorship has taken a leap too so a massive thank you to you all, not only for your sponsorship, but for your encouragement and belief that I can do it. It really does mean a lot. I can only apologise for my moments of being able to talk about nothing else but running and my moaning, but I can say that this experience has only given me more admiration for the way in which people dealing with illnesses of any kind, deal with their day to day struggles with nothing but courage and dignity. To think I have been moaning about a sore knee puts it all into perspective.

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AliceHarveylondonmarathon

Lots of love,
Alice
x

And so in to double figures ....

The last few weeks have seen the intensity of my training head up an notch and my long runs have now headed in to double figures - a milestone I was more than happy to have made it to!

I've also been lucky enough to be able to go to a couple of marathon related events, the first of which was an evening hosted by the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home for all those running for the charity. On Thursday I headed up to Tring to meet the 18 others who have undertaken this ridiculous challenge. It was really lovely to meet everyone else and hearing their reasons for running for this amazing charity only serves as reminder as to why we are all putting ourselves through this; although there may be 19 emotional wrecks running that course in 11 weeks time!

And yesterday I went to 'Meet the Experts' - a day of talks put on by the London Marathon organisers to give first time charity marathon runners all the information we need on the course, where our spectators can hang out, injuries, nutrition and hydration and then got a presentation from Liz Yelling, a UK Olympic Marathon runner, whose pace is about double the speed I manage to plod along at!! By the end of the day my brain was fairly numb with all the information and the realisation that I've only got 76 days to go!

Today saw me join the Gade Valley Harriers to complete my first run in public and with other people. And by other people, that would be those who actually spend a frosty Sunday morning running around hilly Hemel Hempstead for fun! To say I was nervous would be an understatement and hanging around at the back of the pack listening to people talking about their pace times only served to make me paranoid that I would be about a week behind everyone and keep all the volunteer marshalls standing in the freezing cold for way longer than they are used to! For those that went to Hemel School, it was pretty much the (not so) fun run route with an added 2 miles so it felt most strange not to have a very homemade note excusing myself because I had a sore toe or something equally serious!

Thankfully I made it all the way round and was lucky enough to be able to head straight back to Mum's for a HUGE plate of Sunday roast and a snooze on the sofa - the best after race wind down!

I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored me so far, it really is amazing how generous you all are. And now on to the begging part ...

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AliceHarveylondonmarathon
xxx

107 miles and counting

So it's official, running has now taken over my life. Well, maybe not so much the running, but the thinking about it, the time spent arguing in my head trying to make myself go out running and then there’s the time spent worrying about what the hell I have agreed to do! Seriously, apart from the odd thought of Justin Timberlake and chocolate, there isn’t much room for anything else!

Thanks to my complete square-ness (resulting in all runs being logged on an iPhone app!) I have realised that I have now passed the 100 mile mark and after completing a nine mile run yesterday, I have now run a total of 107 miles. Having thought that seemed like quite a lot, it was only when I worked out that in total I will be doing 505 miles that it really has dawned on me that this is quite some undertaking!!

I was pretty sure by now that I would have lost at least two stone and have a washboard stomach, but alas, that has not transpired just quite yet! That being said, I am starting to enjoy it more and more, and although at times it is more the finishing I enjoy, with each week seeing me pass a new personal record, it is already feeling like quite an achievement!

To add to the nervousness, I have entered some actual training runs and races as practice – I mean, really, what kind of a way is that to spend a Sunday morning?! So if anyone is near Hemel on 30^th Jan and fancies a 12 mile canter let me know and there’ll be more dates to follow soon.

And should any of you want to part with some hard earned pennies (although maybe January isn’t the best month to ask!) here is my sponsorship page:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AliceHarveylondonmarathon


Anyhow, I hope you are all surviving the January blues. Just think of the sight of me running along the canal in Paddington, unsurprisingly completely lost, to cheer yourselves up!

104 days to go and I'm a little bit scared!!!

So as we start 2011, I thought I'd start a blog in an attempt to keep everyone up to date with my training efforts and as a record of what I am attempting to put myself through in the next 104 days! It all seems a lot more real now we have started the year that I will be doing the marathon. Up until now it has just been 'something I will be doing next year' but now it's this year and it's much more daunting!

I am just finishing week 8 of training which means that I am more than a third of the way through my training schedule. So far, touch wood, everything has gone to plan and I have completed all the runs I had planned, reaching a (massive, for me!) 7 miles on Christams Eve!! January seems to see everything go up a notch and I will be training 5 times a week, with mileage steadily increasing culminating in my longest run of 20 miles in March.

This week has been pretty tough as my legs are utterly surprised at what I am doing to them and are much more used to me having abandoned any well intentioned plan after only a few weeks, so to say my body is slightly confused is an understatement! While my running style might not be anywhere near professional, with my new Christmas gifts of all running related paraphernalia and my fancy new trainers (purchased after a somewhat embarrassing experience of being filmed on a treadmill), I at least look more like the part and am now a vision of lycra puffing and panting around North West London!

So as I attempt to motivate myself to get off the sofa and go and do a 'short' 5 mile run today, I would like to say a massive thank you to all of you, my friends and family, who are putting up with me and as I know I become even more dull banging on about this running malarkey, you are my encouragement and motivation, and wish you all a very Happy 2011, hoping that it brings you all health, happiness, laughter and good times.

And finally, a 'shout out' to the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home, the work they do, the support they are giving their team of runners and just a thought as to what my Dad would think of this ridiculous idea I had some time last year!!!

xxx