Plans Afoot

Plans are starting to come together for the big event. I've been worrying terribly about leaving Izzy for two days. Her dad would be brilliant with her for the two days but she's still breastfed and won't take a bottle. I was just fretting so much about whether she'd be able to sleep and whether she'd be upset the whole time. I knew we would sort out a strategy in April (she eats plenty of solids and at a push she'll drink milk from a cup) but I realised today there was a simple solution - they should come too!

Izzy's dad is on holiday the week after the marathon anyway, so this makes it a proper holiday. The flights are booked, and by tomorrow the hotel should be sorted too, and instead of being away from Izzy for 40 hours, it'll be more like 8. Yes, I'm probably being terribly 'precious-first-born' about it all, but I feel so much happier now. It'll be fun taking Izzy on her first flight and taking her to see some of the sights of London, and while she won't remember being at the finish line to meet her mum after her first marathon, we'll have the pictures to show her when she's bigger.

Training is going well. We ran 10 miles on Saturday and I barely felt it until the last mile. I'm enjoying the long runs at the weekends, because they really do blow the cobwebs away. I'd had terrible insomnia on Friday night and worried that I wouldn't be fit for a run the next day, but it was just fine.

This week is a recovery week, with three 5 mile runs. It's amazing that 5 miles (about an hour) feels like a short run now. The prospect of running for nearly 6 hours doesn't seem that scary anymore either. The focus for now isn't so much the running (which is coming along nicely) but the fundraising. We've now got £100 of our £1600 total - not bad considering we've not event started canvassing for sponsors yet. We've got our fundraising night at the start of March so this week I'm going to start planning in earnest. All offers of raffle prizes gratefully received! I've also got the germ of an idea for some online fundraising, so watch this space...

My Barnardo's running vest came on Saturday. It's a little on the snug side right now, but I'm getting smaller every week so with a bit of luck it'll be a perfect fit by April 22nd.