Hitting the Big Miles

Friday was our fundraising night out. It was a brilliant night and I'm so grateful to everyone who came and everyone who helped make it work (by buying tickets, taking part in the bingo, quizzes and raffle, donating prizes and helping with the organisation.) We made an amazing £559.03 which puts our total over the £1000 mark! A big thank you to everyone who has sponsored us so far too - I can't believe how generous people are being, and I'm very, very thankful.

The night was really great fun. I'd been worried about numbers, but we had over 50 people there which was perfect. I'd also been worried abut what to do with Izzy. In the end, we decided to bring her and play it by ear, since her dad could always take her home early if need be. As it turned out, she was an absolute star, making the rounds of the tables, laughing and chatting and doing her new trick of clapping her hands and generally having a lovely time. She fell asleep in. the car on the way home and there's been no major fallout from the late night - so relieved!

Jennifer and I went on our first 18 mile run today. We left at 8AM, running into a drizzly, dreich morning, but by mile 4 the clouds were dissipating and the rest of the distance was covered in beautiful sunshine. We ran 16 miles two weeks ago, and at the end of that run my legs were in agony and I struggled over the last two miles. Skip forward to today, however, and by mile 16 I was still going strong. After the run I felt brilliant and there's no major pain or niggles. I always hear people say that if you can do 18 miles, you can do the marathon. I don't know how true that is, but today's performance certainly bodes well. It took about half an hour less than I had guessed it would, and while the 16 miler a fortnight ago was at an average pace of 13:20 per mile, this run was 11:58 per mile, and barely slowed towards the end. Last week was a rest week (well, I say rest, it was 17 miles compared to this week's 27) and I think that the rest has made all the difference to my overall fitness and stamina.

I feel quite justified now in sitting on the couch, eating my bacon rolls and drinking tea. I might even stretch to a couple of Quality Street - I think I've earned it!

One final note - Congratulations to Caroline Breyley in Shetland, who was the winner of the Twaffle. The voucher is on its way to you! Thanks to everyone who donated in February :-)

Twaffle!

So, as I  mentioned in the last post,  I came up with a fundraising idea when we were out on a run. Introducing....the Twaffle! It's a social-media fuelled raffle, where everything is done online. I'm going to run one a month, starting on the 1st of February, and draw the winner on the 20th of each month (I thought I'd give people a break from it for the last third of the month!).

The prize will be a £20 Amazon voucher, to be emailed to the winner, and entries cost £1.

To enter, go to our Virgin Money Giving page and donate £1 per entry. In the message area, make sure you say that it is for the Twaffle entry, and leave a note of your name and/or Twitter username so I can get back to you if you win! All donations from 30.01.12 are eligible for Twaffle entry.

All entrants and their e-ticket number will be listed on the Twaffle page of the blog.

Good luck - hope you win!