Monday, April 8, 2013

An exciting announcement!



The lovely people at deramores.com


have very generously provided the yarn for my latest knitting adventure at the London marathon.  

Here's the beautiful yarn they've sent me.


Thank you so much deramores!


I think that news serves as an excellent introduction to my challenge for this year, supporting Alzheimer's Research UK, which is about to start, so here it is:
Having now completed 29 marathons & 2 ultra marathons, running 7 marathons in one year and marathons on consecutive weekends I needed a new challenge so that you don't all think it's getting too easy for me!
So, as well as running 2 marathons, I shall be doing a streak.  "WHAT?!"  I hear you cry!  Don't panic, it's not that sort of streak (which would completely inappropriate for a woman of my advancing years!!!) - it's a running streak which means I will be running every day for a specified period of time.
As always there's a link to what's going on in my life (usually my age!) so here's what I'm planning to do:

The Start:

- On 14th April I will run the Brighton marathon and I want to beat my previous time set there of 4:55.

The Running Streak:

- On 21st April my running streak begins with the Virgin London Marathon where I will be knitting my way round again.  For those of you who don't know me, I hold a Guinness World Record for the longest scarf knitted whilst running a marathon - I do like to multi-task!  
- At the beginning of 2013 I will still be 55 years old and so from Sunday 21st April I will run at least 5.5 miles each day on the 55 days prior to my birthday.
- On 16th June I will be 56 and so from that day on I will run at least 5.6 mies each day for 56 days.
So that will be a total streak of 111 days (oooh, I like all those 1's!).  The other link is that 2013 is my 11th year of running.

Why is this such a challenge for me?  

Firstly, although I'm used to running marathons and training hard I always take 2 days of rest each week to let my body recover from the rigours of my training schedule.  So I have no idea how my body will react to the extra pressure.  Plus I have a touch of arthritis in my feet (oh the joys of getting older!) so I have to make sure that my shoes are very well cushioned.
Secondly, I have Asthma which caused me untold problems in 2012.  I am determined not to let it stop me running well in 2013.  Please excuse my coughing and wheezing if you see me out training on the hills!
I know many people reading this will have sponsored me many times already, for which I am very grateful.  But all donations will be most welcome and will go to fund vital research into this devastating disease.

As soon as the Press release went out we started getting media enquiries which is fantastic!  We got a mention on the BBC Sussex website this morning and I've got an interview with Arrow fm this afternoon.

Exciting times - let's hope we raise lots of money for ARUK!




6 comments:

Tracy Gayton said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Susie Hewer said...

Hi Tracy,

Thank you for leaving a comment and for your interest in what I do to raise awareness about dementia and the need for research.

I have sent you an email so we can discuss it in more detail.

Susie

DianaD said...

Very good luck with your 111day challenge, Susie. I successfully managed a 'run every day in March' challenge, and am now 14 days in to the 5 x 50 challenge (run, walk or cycle 5k every day for 50 days) so not running as far of for as many days as you, but certainly appreciate your challenge! I found that I had difficult days when I did a 5 x 50 last year, but then became accustomed, and it got easier, and my running seemed to improve too, which was a bonus. Good luck!

Susie Hewer said...

Thanks Diana. I was originally going to do kilometres but for some reason I changed it to miles. I hope I don't regret that!

Anonymous said...
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Susie Hewer said...
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