Challenge Update: Speedwork, Runner's World and Spa Francorchamps.

It's official, the more I run, the quicker and fitter I am becoming. My heart rate is becoming less while my speed and endurance are improving. I can also put this down to taking three spinning classes a week and two body pump classes.

I did a 5.38km circular run yesterday evening at Cookham in Berkshire. The route follows the River Thames for a while, and then goes into fields and woodland. Cookham was recorded as Britain's second richest village by the Daily Telegraph in 2011. 

This running route is around a 15 minute drive from where I live, house prices in the South Bucks area are on average £529,184...not that my one bedroom house in Wycombe matches up to anywhere near this price of course. In and around the home counties, there are some really wealthy people. I must find these people and ask them to sponsor me....

Back to my run round Cookham. The whole run I pushed myself, there was not a moment when my breathing settled. Even though at the end I felt sick and that I couldn't push my body anymore, I was able to manage a sprint finish. Apart from stopping to open and close various gates while running I would definitely have run my quickest ever 5km, of which this route is slightly over. I was quite proud of myself and congratulated myself later that evening with 3 large scoops of Ben and Jerry's ice cream at the cinema :-)

In this past week I have two bits of very good news!!!

National magazine 'Runners World' will be including a feature on me and Challenge 1000 in the July edition of their magazine. This will be out in shops in June. I will be featured in the Real Runners section for inspirational runners. It is so nice of them to support me by doing this.
AND

I have confirmed with the lovely Event Manager, Chantal, at Spa Francorchamps that I will be able to run their circuit on Wednesday 2nd May. I am very excited!!! It is my favourite motor racing circuit, and it is in such a beautiful location. I am looking forward to blogging about my run there!

As you can see I have lots going on and Challenge 1000 is taking me to many places. I am experiencing some great runs and meeting new people. However in terms of fundraising things are going quite slowly.

When I first started this Challenge I was a little naive and I thought people would be happy to sponsor me. However to get sponsorship from those you don't know you really have to push people, and pushing people does not come naturally to me. It's hard work to run all these km's and encourage people to sponsor you, on top of working full time. I am working my bum off to put it bluntly. I am happy to do so for two charities I care lots about - Child Bereavement Charity and Cancer Research UK.

So if you are a family member or a friend of mine who hasn't sponsored me yet please do. It will really help to keep my motivation up more than you know.

Also, please SPREAD THE WORD to your own friends and family members and see if they will sponsor me. I would be so grateful for your support.

To sponsor me go to www.virginmoneygiving.com/challenge1000

Thank you to all of my sponsors so far. You are all amazing! xx