Kendle's Marathon Challenge by Kendlef

hello people,

how are you all recovering from the vlm? im not doing too badly, yesterday i managed a bit of gardening and today was the scheduled first run, however due to a forgotten hair appointment, this didn't happen - doh! but will definatly be back into asap.

So have decided this is going to be my last vlm post. as you know im always up to my neck into being busy and i need to concentrate on uni work next. although got my assignment back today and had somehow managed 81% - shocked is not a strong enoug word :D

a few have asked what is next for me. well the answer is no more marathons for a while, i know it sounds weird but i don't want to diminish how special this one was to me by doing the same thing next year. im goin to leave it for a while and maybe do it againa few years down the line.

apart from that iv managed to agree to a half marathon in october - i wont be running for charity, im running to help my friend as i really could have done with someone to talk to on marathon day.

as for my next charity challenge, iv decided im gonna leave it a few years in order to save lots and lots of money and then im gonna climb kilimanjaro. ave already been looking into it and need to save £2000. This way all my fundraising goes straight to my charity and none to running costs, i prefer to fund these things myself.

so here are the scary photos of the day, i look horrendous but they are a fantastic momentum of our weekend away

So there we go people, i's the end of an era.

I would like to say a massive thank you to all of my readers for all your support and advice of these past 6 months or so. i could never have done it without you. Realbuzz has been a great resource for me especially as i was running alone and knew nothing about it.

You've all got me through some ups and downs and ave inspired me to do more and to push myself. i've also enjoyed reading all of your posts and keeping up with your running antics - it's nice to know im not the only crazy one out there.

Have a few of you added on fb and will definatly be staying in touch and you never know i may meet some of you in future races. i know i said i wouldnt do anymore after VLM but the occasional one as commpany for friends will be good for keeping up my fitness. it seems a shame to waste it when im fitter than i have been for a long time.

Thanks for putting up with my drama queen moaning blogs and for pulling me up by the scruff of the neck when i had a bad day. i only hope i am as useful to some of you as you have been to me.

god am gonna cry now

signing off guys, will miss you

k xx

oh my days, i am one tired little teddy!!!

lets go back a few days, friday...

had a mega meltdown, alexs leg got worse and it turned out that e couldnt come to london at all and spent all of saturday afternoon at hospital having it checked over :( was absolutly gutted and felt like i couldnt do it without him and didnt want to go anymore. luckily he talked me out of this and passed me te phone and told me to ring my mum.

and good old patty stepped into the breach and came along for the ride!!! very last minute for her and really appreciate that she dropped all of her plans for me.

so saturday morning and up at 4 and setting off for london at 5. got doris (the satnav) on the job and she did quite well - until we got to london.

rather than sending me the easy way, she decided it would be funny to send me through the middle of london - it was horrific and caused a lot of swearing at poor doris. ten we drove straight past the hotel, asked a man for directions who sent us on another tour of london, which caused much more swearing :) but eventually we got there and got parked up and ready fo rthe expo.

was still quite early so it wasnt too busy, didnt stay too long, just enough time to catch up with the cancer research people and have our photo taken with some strange green lizard lady. We then managed to get caught up with some geek convention on the way out and so had our picture taken with darth vader and some storm troopers :D

had a lovely day with a bit of shopping and a few cheeky pints - i know i know its naughty te day before a marathon!!! then it was a meal out - £14.95 for tomato basil pasta - DISGUSTING!!!! and ten me and mum went back to the room early and mum drank rose wine out of a mug whilst we watched crap tv.

Could not sleep at all, was up every hour and eventually gave up at 6 and got up to get ready. felt sick as a dog so no breakfast at all :( not a good start!! had to get to te start line on my own and was a bit worried about it, but as i left my hotel room i looked down the corridor and saw a guy leaving his room in a cancer research vest with blue number, so i collared him and told him i was going to follow him :)

took forever to get there and unfortunately had no time to meet up with fellow real buzzers, im sooo sorry, i really wanted to meet you all. So onto the race...

felt a little strange to be stood all on my own at the start but soon forgot all about that and off we went. started off a little too fast as i was far too excited but realised early on that i was going too fast and managed to pull it back.

nearly fell  over when a man tripped over the back of my shoe and then realised the guy was blind and felt really bad for bein in the way. but as alex pointed out maybe his guide should have been paying a bit more attention

desperately needed a wee at mile 4, but was not prepared to wait in the queue, so i carried on to mile 6, was really bursting by this point! waiting inthe queue for all of 10 seconds, before i got all impatient and leapt across the car park and into a bush to have a wee in full view of several weeing men, sorry if you guys are now having nightmares :) and then i was back into the race.

Feeling good and strong until about mile 10 and then i started to feel a bit weird, got lots more water down my neck and turned on my ipod. i didnt want to use it but took it with me just in case and boy am i glad i did. i got my usual running music on and turned it down low. i oculd still hear all the crowd and soak up the atmosphere but i had the comforting thud thud in the background to help my pace.

got to 13 miles and couldnt see my mum and friends - was gutted!!! but i had managed to do a half marathon in just over 2 and a half hours which is pretty good going for me! so just kept plodding on.

Really started to struggle at about mile 17ish and carried on walk/run/walk/running for a couple of miles and really slowed myself down. then i had what must have been the second wind and started to go for it again. took full advantage of the showers and lucozade and thought to myself that i wasnt going to let this beat me after all my hard work.

at mile 22 i passed my mum which meant a small stop for a cry and a big hug, which apparantly made the random woman behind my mum cry too :) i definatly could not give up now, i was sooooo close.

just after i managed to finally overtake great uncle bulgaria, there was no way i was letting a womble beat me. what a great costume - that poor guy must have been so hot.  was also overtaken by a helicopter and an old man dressed as a belly dancer - oh the shame of it!!!

really started to hurt from about mile 24 but i was determined not to walk those last couple of miles, so i plodded on and by this point had put the ipod away and took full advantage of the crowd shouting my name. and shouting te guy called big nose who was right next to me.

Oh my god that feeling when you round that last corner and you can see the finish line - its crazy - i started balling my eyes out and then realised the cameras were there and pulled it together for one final push to get me over that line.

Then my phone went nuts with messages of 'we've just seen you on the tv!!' unfortuantely i've been unable to watch it back and check for looking troutlike as it was on the red button and not on the normal marathon coverage. does anyone know if we can watch that back? iv looked on iplayer but cant find it!

took me 3 hours to get back to derbyshire once we'd got back to the hotel and then it was straight to the pub for a few bevvies :)

oh boy did i ache this morning and i have a horrendous collection of blisters (which i am trying to resist popping) so no recovery run, but i did manage a 40 minute walk to matlock followed by lunch and cake and ten an hour long walk with my friend jenny and my godson Rohan (4).

Rohan said i was very good and gave me a sticker for doing the marathon and then informed me that he is goin to do te marathon when he is 10, he says he needs to do it before he is 12 cos that's when he is going to go to work and won't ave any days off - Bless him!!

got a visit from my aunty and cousin tonigt complete with bottles of stella and a congratulations balloon - even more blubbing followed. so lasagne in the oven, donuts ready for consumption and stella in the fridge - woop!

will put my photos on tomorrow, too tired to do that now.

WELL DONE EVERYONE!!! its all over now.

Apologies for the super long post - got a little carried away

k xx

Hello all

after a very positive post last night im feelin on a bit less of a high today.

Alex came back from work last night in a lot of pain, his knee was killin him. he iced it and took some tablets and went to bed early but he was  in agony all night, he was tossing and turning and moaning - never seen him in so much pain before :(

So he had the day off today and went to the drs. he has burst a sac in his knee (i didnt even know there were any in your knees!!) and has tendonitis (surely i havent passed this on to him :D)

So lots of rest for him over the next few days and worst of all - NO DRIVING!!

which means that i have to drive all the way to the hotel on saturday - am terrified of driivng in London and have to drive all the way home again after the race on sunday. am a little bit worried as if my tendonits flares up in the race, we will be stranded!

after having him added to my car insurance i've had to have him taken back off again and have managed to scrounge a pair of crutches for him to use for the weekend too. as he is determined that he is still coming with me even though the amount of people is going to be crazy and he's goin to be jostled and crushed quite  alot.

hopefully if it all gets too much for him they can find a pub and get themselves sat down until i finish.

unfortunately i can't ask my other passengers to drive as one has only just passed his test and the other doesnt like driving in big scary places.

So after a rather depressing morning of feeling stressed and making lots of phone calls to get stuff sorted out. i have come to a decision...

I need to stop bloody moaning and moping, grit my teeth and get on with it. yes im goin to hate driving in london and yes it will probably hurt to drive home but i'v not come through all this training to let something so stupid get me down.

last day at work today and am severely bored. gotta stay til 5 and i know i shouldnt be on here doing my blog but it's so quiet its the only thing stopping me from faling asleep in boredom.

busy day planned for tomorrow and a lot of stuff to do tonight so gym plans and running plans are more than likely scuppered. but if im not ready now, i never will be!!!

hopefully will have time for one more blog tomorrow once im all packed and ready to go.

k xx

hello everyone,

been a while since iv blogged again, but busy busy in the run up to the big day. so goin back to monday. the plan was a gym session to test everything out after a week off.

however this didnt happen due to the fact that alex had left the house in a complete pigsty/tramps nest whilst i was away on the hen do. and so being me cleaning was far more important - to me a tidy house is a tidy mind and i dont need it cluttering up at this point in the prooceedings.

So onto yesterday, in the knowledge that my house was spick and span i set off on my 5 mile run, nice hilly route as per usual and it was sooooo windy, thinking a headband may needed to be added to race kit as i ran half way round looking like cousin it!! not a good look.

Once i got to the very top of tansley it was running into the wind so at least it was longer flapping in my face and making me look a bit like i had a moustache :) and it was AMAZIN!!! the wind blowing through my hair (and getting it all tangled up into one massive lug!) and trotting along feeling like i was being blown backwards.

So after all the hair in face removal and using my body as a kite i was expecting a longer time - how wrong was i?? normally i check my time when i get to the village - i seem to remember this is just before 5 miles. the last best time i managed was 55mins. well yesterday it was 51.46 and 56 if you count running through the village and up to my front door. so well pleased with that and felt on a high.

and you know i didnt even feel all that tired, a quick change and me and alex took Eric on a 2 mile (or something like that) walk :)

Right so onto today and i must say im struggling with the carbo loading - i feel like i have to eat constantly and normally i want to eat all te time but rigt now i just dont feel like it!! it's sods law isnt it?

but iv been stuffing down jaffa cakes and rice cakes and bananas and all kinds of weird and wonderful things in an attempt to get my carb levels up. made macaroni cheese for tonight, trying not to eat too much pasta due to my IBS but its such a good way to get those carbs in, so having it for tea  afew nights this week and thats it.

bless, my friend danni has had a tshirt made up for when she comes to london to support me - apparantly it says GO KENDLE! on the front of it :) she's a little star!! :D

so todays training i decided on a 3 mile run round the village as it was just too nice to go to the gym. went out without long sleeves today - this is almost unheard of as i am completely nesh and such a wimp! but it was nice to get the arms out and meant i could try the vest over just a tshirt as Sunday looks like its gonna be a hot one.

Didn't feel llike i was going spectacularly fast tonight, just normal really and thought i would be happy if i got around the same as my best time, but oh no I smashed it!!! knocked 2 minutes off and finally got my hilly 3 miler under 30 mins. got it down to 28.55 :D YAY!!

Feel like im on fire - just hope the feeling lasts until sundays race. Gym work planned for tomorrow - nothing too strenusous just something to keep me ticking over and to get rid of some of this excess energy, and then last run on friday - probably just a 4 miler down to the pub :D

Then its off to the expo on saturday to do battle with the crowds - soooooooo excited!

oh and so excited cos tomorrow is my last day at work before the big day. i booked friday off so i could pack everyting and double and triple check it, get petrol and sweets for the journey and all stuff like that or i would be running round like a headless chicken and getting all stressy on friday evening!

WWWOOOOOOOOPPPPPP WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOPPPPPP - WE'RE NEARLY THERE!! :D

k xx