729.92 - 748.08KM: The Art of 'Forrest Gumping' (Sandringham 10K & Hunstanton Beach Run 10K)

Yep I've done it again. Not content with running two races in a day once, or even twice this year, yesterday I decided to push myself close to burning out a week before the Nottingham Marathon by running two 10K races a matter of hours apart. That wasn't all though, as the weekend also featured lots and lots of cake as I held my second Bake Sale of the year as part of National Eczema Week.

First and foremost though the weekend started with a Bake Sale at ASDA Living in Lincoln as the culmination of my National Eczema Week celebrations. I had planned to publish either a new post or republish an existing post every day of the week, but after starting well I ultimately ran out of steam and time. I am close to finishing two of these posts, including one on the topic of my life as a Caregiver and how I basically don't have time to do anything (including finishing the post on the subject) and will share them both in due course this week.

Back to the subject of cake, it was the second Bake Sale I've hosted this year, and ever, after one back in May. This time round it was just Jenny and myself running, after our friend Hannah wasn't well enough to make the trip down, meaning that we both had a lot of baking to do. Much of our weekday evenings were spent baking things in preparation, on Friday we were both slaving away in the Kitchen until gone midnight and then up again at 7am icing the cakes. At 10:30, with our eyes barely propped open we were set up and ready to sell, and try not to eat, all the cake.

Tired, but ready for the cake frenzy

When I said that Jenny and myself baked all of the cakes that wasn't quite true, one of Jenny's colleagues donated some cupcakes and scones and after the initial rush had died down I rushed across to Bunty's Tea Rooms to pick up a massive Gluten Free Carrot Cake they donated. In total we raised a fantastic £136.79, once again well above our expectations, so if you bought a cake and are reading this 'Thank You'.

After getting home from the bake sale I had enough time to quickly wash up a small fraction of the mess we had made in the past couple of days before grabbing my running stuff and heading back home to Norfolk for this week's races. As of Friday morning I had no race lined up for the weekend, instead I left it until the last minute to make the decision, waiting to see which plans fell into place, having a backup plan of entering a race in Lincolnshire if I wasn't able to make it back to Norfolk. Thankfully my Dad responded to the bat-signal and picked me up on Saturday evening so I could run the localist of local races.

729.92 - 739.92KM: Sandringham 10K

Having secured transport back to Norfolk I signed up for the first race, the Sandringham 10K, in advance but in trying to register online for the second I found out that the online registration had closed and that the on the day registration would open at the same time the first race started. This then left me with a bit of a dilemma for a few hours as I wondered whether or not I would be able to sign up for both races. Though thankfully I managed to get in touch with the race organiser and after explaining the situation he said that even if there was only 5 minutes to spare I should be able to enter the race. Panic over.

Creatures in the Queen's Back Garden

With this worry over, I lined up at the start of the race relaxed and ready for a relatively comfortable 10K run. Having ran the race the year before I was mildly familiar with the route, so knew it would be two laps, but I had forgotten the finer details so it almost felt like a new race. The majority of the race took place through woodland, either on a concrete or dirt path, with a small uphill section on the road. Last year when I ran this race that uphill section stuck out as particularly tough, in hindsight this year it was a breeze and was barely an incline compared to some of my races this year.

Even when I'm taking it steady I still try and run 10Ks in around 45 minutes, so when I crossed the line 10 seconds over this I was happy enough. I pushed it a little harder than I should have done bearing in mind the second race barely an hour later on sand and this weekend's marathon, but I wasn't feeling too bad afterwards.

After crossing the line I waited a few minutes for my dad to finish before we then both jumped in the car and headed up to Hunstanton for my second race of the day, the Hunstanton Beach Run 10K. After Jenny suffered a suspected mini stroke last month it was a race I was desperate to do as it raised money for the Stroke Association.

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Distance: 10.00km | 6.2 miles
Time: 00:45:10
Official Time: N/A
Average Pace: 04:31 min/km | 07:16 min/mi
Playlist: N/A
Goody Bag: Bottle of Water & Banana

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View my run:

739.92 - 748.08KM: Hunstanton Beach Run 10K

A wet start

When I got to the race and saw the start line pointing in the direction of the sea I began to regret not packing my armbands. Any fears I had about the course were soon allayed as I overheard someone who had run the race last year explain the route to another runner. It began with a sharp right turn towards Hunstanton's iconic Red & White cliffs for about half a kilometer before then turning round and heading towards Heacham. At the beginning of the year I never anticipated running a race in my hometown village, so I was glad to take this challenge as close to home as I possibly could. I've ran across the beach a few times before, admittedly not as often as I might of if I still lived there now, so it was a route I knew very well.

The tide had not long gone out by the time the race started so it was to be a very wet and messy race. Being my second race of the day and just under a week before the Nottingham Marathon I was not in the mood to run at any kind of reckless pace. At the same time I never feel comfortable taking it too steady in races, and found myself in the front three briefly without realising. There was two distinct routes to take, either round or over the groynes. I chose to vary my route opting to jump over the groynes when the sand on the outside of them was too soft and wet, or round them when the groynes were too high to vault. This led to some consistent zig-zagging between both options as I opted for the safest route.

As I reached the second turnaround point at Heacham I soon realised that the route seemed to be measuring a little short. When the finish line came into sight my watched had barely ticked over 5 miles, so I was expecting the marshals to tell us to continue on to the first turnaround point, instead they were waving us across to the finish. With an almost dead straight out and back course it would have been difficult to run a shorter route if I tried, let alone by accident, so I'm fairly certain that we were supposed to continue on to the cliffs again.

Very dirty

When I began planning the year out I worked out roughly which number of races (and distances) I would need to run to reach the 1000km target. I always expect there to be a little discrepancy between the advertised distance of the race and the distance measured on my watch, due to (not) taking the racing line, nipping across to the side of the road for a sneaky pee or simple old-fashioned inaccurate measuring. Yet numerous times this year there has been races where I've crossed the line short of the supposed distance, forcing me to coin the term 'Forrest Gumping', where I continue running once I've crossed the finish line to get my watch to measure the full distance, much to some people's bemusement.

Most of the time I've only needed to run an extra 100 of metres or so, but the second race on Sunday measured over a mile short, making it a slightly long 5 mile race, rather than a short 10K. As it was over a mile short, I opted against adding that distance on myself and just took the 5 miles as my total. Annoying, but it was a bonus run in sorts anyway, so it all adds up.

Finally, this week I began thinking about next year and what I'll be putting my body through. Common sense would probably say that I should put my feet up for a little bit as I'll have earned the rest, at the same time I vowed to keep running until Jenny was 'cured' and I have some plans fermenting in the back of my mind. All I can say is watch this space as common sense very rarely wins out with me.

As always, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/shanes1000km and donate what you can and please share news of what I am doing with others.

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Distance: 8.16km | 5.07 miles
Time: 00:41:49
Official Time: 00:41:44
Average Pace: 05:07 min/km | 08:15 min/mi
Playlist: N/A
Goody Bag: Medal, Bottle of Water & McVitie's Medley Bar

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View my run:

698.64 - 708.64KM: The Lone Runner (Solo Run)

Today a run of 11 consecutive races, dating back July 14th, was ended as I ran a solo run to break the 700km mark. It wasn't my intention not to run a race this weekend, there were two I could have entered on the day, but after spending most of Saturday either asleep or in bed it felt like my body was trying to tell me something. After not getting to sleep till gone 2am last night because I couldn't breathe, the decision was made for me.

So instead at 11am I left my house to run a solo 10k. The night before I knew that I was stubborn enough to run my 35th race of the year today, but having already spent the past couple of days flirting with a cold, doing so on 4 hours sleep would have been a terrible idea. With a big few months of races coming up, it made sense to just sit today out and run at my own pace and adapt if need be. It could be argued, mainly by Jenny, that I shouldn't have even be going for the gentle run I did, but I vowed at the beginning of the year to run every weekend, rain, shine, illness or injury.

No other runners in sight...

Next year, after I have recovered from the physical toll of this one, I intend to take my up running up a level or two, focussing on the marathon distance. It is no secret that the incredible exploits of Julie Weiss, Eddie Izzard and Richard Whitehead have inspired me this year, and will continue to in the future. I always thought that the 1000km challenge this year had the potential to be the start of something and I'm more than interested in the idea of doing something massive, such as the 52 marathons in 52 weeks or Lands End to John o'Groats run. Not next year though, next year I imagine I'll be sleeping a lot more and enjoying spending my weekends with Jenny.

Today's run was all about exploring, if the intended serious marathon training and the aforementioned challenges are to be anything other than crazy dreams, a lot of running will need to take place. So I thought it was time to start finding new running routes, so to keep things fresh I headed South, rather than North, and through some nearby villages. I've always felt that the best way to explore somewhere is in a pair of running trainers, today I got a head start on next year, when I intend to cover most of Lincolnshire in my trusty Asics.

It always frustrates me when I miss a race, regardless of the reason why, as ideally I would run every single km of this 1000km challenge in a race as I feel it legitimises the challenge, but sometimes I'm forced on a solo run instead. Today I added another 10km to my target, to make up for not making it to the East Coast Classic 10k in Mablethorpe this morning. With the 'World's Biggest (and Greatest)' Half Marathon, the Great North Run, next Sunday I knew I couldn't push things too hard as I was still suffering from whatever bug had affected me for the past couple of days. The longer the run went on, the better I began to feel, after I finished the 6.2 miles I carried on and ran another 4, taking the long way home. Turns out running can cure anything.

There was also one other reason as to why it made sense to sit out this weekend's race and that was financial. Whilst truthfully there is little money can do to directly improve Jenny's condition, I still view this year as an investment into Jenny's health. There has been a couple of times this year where I have had to make a decision on which race to enter based on the cost of entry (and travel etc.) rather than my own personal preference.

With Jenny unable to work a full time job because of her health and more often than not even unable to work her part time one, the financial onus is very much on me. So sometimes, such as this week, I have to make the tough decision not to enter a race, when it means saving for another one later in the year. I was reminded of this after booking accommodation yesterday for the Great South Run in Portsmouth, a race that will involve 400+ mile round trip.

Without going into too much detail this year I'm guaranteed to enter a minimum of 40 races, likely to be somewhere between 40 and 50, and whilst entry into some of these have been subsidised by the charity, the vast majority of these have been paid for by myself. If you then factor in travel costs and occasional accommodation, it's easy to see how a lot of my spare money each month goes into this challenge. That is why I set myself the fundraising target of £6,000 this year, a figure I felt was significant but also achievable. Many people said that I was being optimistic with this target, but given the effort I would be putting in, I felt that such a figure matched it.

There is also one other financial reason behind missing the race today, the small matter of Jenny's birthday on Thursday. After the year(s) that she's had, she deserves to be spoilt a little, so if not entering the race means an extra present for her, then good. It goes without saying that top of Jenny's list would be better health (I'm certainly doing what I can to help that), quickly followed I'm sure by kittens and cake, and yes that was a non-too subtle a hint to take a visit to my JustGiving page.

Finally, next week is the start of National Eczema Week (14th - 22nd September) and I plan to be very busy, so keep your eyes peeled for some special posts. The big feature of this week though will be the Bake Sale I'm hosting on the 21st at ASDA Living in Lincoln, where I plan to have dairy and gluten free bakes, alongside what people would consider the 'normal' stuff. So if you're in and around Lincoln in a couple of Saturday's time, please pay us a visit.

As always, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/shanes1000km and donate what you can and please share news of what I am doing with others.

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Distance: 10.00km | 6.21 miles
Time: 00:48:21
Official Time: N/A
Average Pace: 04:50 min/km | 7:47 min/mi

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August Review (616.32 - 698.64KM)

I'll be honest, these monthly reviews are all starting to fall into a similar pattern now; I give a quick recap on each race I ran in the month, before talking about how Jenny's health took another unexpected turn for the worse and then rounding it off talking about how physically, mentally and emotionally it is taking it's toll on me. With 7 races, including two in one day, August was a very eventful month and that's not even including a Charity Raffle, a festival and a midnight ride to A&E in an ambulance.

The month would get off to a rolling start on the 4th with the York 10K. I'm still unsure why, but the week leading up to the Sunday was a massive drain on me physically and emotionally. Nothing in particular happened, but in hindsight it was probably because of this and the fact that I was able to just soak what had happened so far this year with Jenny that it took it's toll. The race itself was a struggle. I've set myself the target of running a sub 40 minute 10K this year, but at times I felt far closer to collapsing than finishing. I eventually crossed the line just under 44 minutes and was forced to reassess my approach to races in order to make it through the year.

We made it....just!

Every year in August Jenny and myself (along with 1000s of other metalheads) head to a field in Derbyshire for the weekend for Bloodstock Open Air Festival. We've both been every year for the past 6/7 years, but this year our attendance was put in doubt as the week before Jenny had been suffering with a very stubborn suspected eighth case of Eczema Herpeticum. As if by some miracle Jenny's health had cleared up enough that on Thursday we were both happy enough for her to be leaving the house and head to the festival. 

On the Sunday I ran my 29th race of the year, the Hermitage 10K, missing one of my favourite bands at the festival in the process, much to many people's bemusement. As I explained at the time though, this year is about doing what I can to raise awareness of the suffering that Jenny has to go through on a daily basis and the sacrifices that she regularly makes, so anything I have to give up along the way is insignificant. 

It wasn't all good news though, as when we returned back from the festival we learnt that Jenny wasn't suffering from Eczema Herpeticum, but rather MRSA.

Next up was the Sleaford Summer 10K, which had the honour of being my 30th race of the year. Despite doing my best to have to cancel my attendance at the race due to injury, I lined up at 7pm ready to enjoy a race for the first time in a while. After the relatively disastrous York 10K, I approached the Sleaford Summer 10K with a fresh approach of enjoyment first, performance second. There has been too many races so far this year where I have become focussed on running it in the fastest time possible, that I stopped enjoying them and plunged myself towards physical and emotional failure. The change of approach was needed ahead of a challenging rest of the month and year to come.

All smiles...for now

Just four days later, on Tuesday 20th, I would have my next race, the Bolingbroke Breaker. Little did we know as I was lining up for my 31st race that later that night we would find ourselves in the back of an ambulance waiting to be taken to hospital after Jenny suffered a mini stroke. It was one of the most terrifying thing either of us have had to deal with, as at times in my mind there was no distinction between whether this was the real thing or not. The first signs began at 10pm, and it wouldn't be until 5am that we would be on our way home in the taxi. Despite only getting about half an hours sleep, I made the poor decision to go to work, but I was soon sent home the emotional and physical stress of the past 12 hours was there for all to see. 

I would have to wait until Bank Holiday Monday for my next race, the Grimsthorpe Castle 10K. The events of the previous Tuesday were still very much playing on me and it could be argued as to whether or not I was in the right frame of mind for another race. The challenging, mostly offroad, undulating course didn't help matters but it some ways I guess it was therapeutic as for a brief 50 or so minutes it allowed me to forget about everything else that has happened this year and just focus on the race. The course didn't allow for a fast time, nor did my cautious approach to it, but I was still happy enough with the time I crossed the line in. After the race I overhead another runner say "There's a Grimsthorpe PB, and then your normal PB." and that sums it up better than I could.

Race #1, the 'tough' one

After one of the most eventful and toughest months of the year how else would I finish it off other than two 10 mile races on the last day off the month? Despite running almost every day, with three marathons coming up in less than two months I knew I had to run 20 miles between now and then. I also knew that with races almost every weekend and little time or energy to run that distance during the week I would have to come up with a tricky solution, one which meant running two 10 mile races in one day in two different counties.

The strategy for these races would be interesting, as I would have to save enough energy for the second race but also try and treat them as one complete run at marathon pace. So, at 11am on Saturday 31st I was in Lincolnshire for the Wold's Tough 10 mile race knowing that I should be aiming to keep my pace around 7:30 minute miles and try not to get carried away with the race. Fortunately the race was easier than I expected, given that it called itself 'tough', there were a few significant hills but nothing too troubling and I came in a little over target at 7:36 minute miles, but after stretching thoroughly I felt fresh enough to do it all again.

Race #2, the 'tougher' one

For the second race I would be travelling across to Derbyshire, for the Double or Quit (10 mile) race, which started at 5pm. Due to a fair bit of travelling, drawing my raffle and generally being me I wasn't organised enough to refuel sufficiently before the second race and lining up at the start I knew it would be a lot tougher than it ought to have been. Being mostly off road and undulating, the course for my second race also felt tougher, maybe because it was my second race of the day or maybe it just simply was. Somehow though I was able to keep my pace at a reasonable level, crossing the line just 6 minutes slower than the morning's race, and a little outside my 8:00 minute mile average target. 

...and done!

Finally as I briefly mentioned in the previous section this month I drew my the prizes for my charity raffle. If you're a fan of awkward videos be sure to check out the recording of the draw below.

Next month (September) promises to be a big one as marathon season starts up again with the Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham at the end of the month as well as the small matter of the 'world's biggest half marathon', the Great North Run. September is also host to National Eczema Week (14th - 22nd) where I plan to be very busy making a nuisance of myself and generally trying to get people's attention. If you're in Lincoln and like cake, or know someone that does, please check out the Bake Sale on the 21st at ASDA Living on Tritton Road. The one we hosted earlier in the year was a big success and we want this one to be an even bigger one. 

As always, please visit my JustGiving page and donate what you can. If you can't donate then please share my JustGiving page and news of what I'm doing with others, in case they can. The only way we can end the suffering that Jenny and millions of others go through on a daily basis is with your help.

August Stats:

1000KM Challenge Distance: 82.41KM
Time Running Total: 06:29:26
Total Running Distance: 187.59KM
Bananas Eaten: 34
Races: 7
T-Shirts: 4
Medals: 2
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1000km Challenge Stats:

1000KM Challenge Distance: 698.64KM
Time Running Total: 59:25:20
Total Running Distance: 1500.33KM
Bananas Eaten: 346
Races: 34
T-Shirts: 14
Medals: 13

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A look ahead to September

Confirmed Races
15/09 - Great North Run
29/09 - Robin Hood Marathon

Unconfirmed Races
22/09 - Sandringham 10K
22/09 - Hunstanton Beach Run 10K

437.82 - 458.94KM: The Sweet Toothed Reverse Viking (Solo Run)

This weekend was my first 'race free' weekend in around a month and a half, yet it proved to be one of my busiest and most exhausting weekend so far this year. Yesterday I hosted a very successful Bake Sale at Asda Living in Lincoln and managed to raise over £150 for the National Eczema Society. Whilst today I added another 21km+ towards my 1000km target with a run in the midday sun.

I had this weekend marked in my calender for a while as the potential time to host a bake sale. Most weekends I am able to find several races to pick from to enter, but this weekend always remained empty in my calender as I was unable to find a close enough race. Whether or not this was down to today being the date of two major races in the Great Manchester Run and Edinburgh Marathon I'm not sure, but I had to unfortunately give those two races a miss as I couldn't justify (or afford) to pay the entry fee, travel and potential accommodation costs for one of these two alongside the 40+ other races I am running this year.

We were very gratefully joined this weekend by our friend Hannah, who had offered to help with the Bake Sale. If you've reached this blog through any eczema or chronic illness related means, or actually especially if you haven't, I ask you to check out her blog, The Retired Bridgeburner, where she offers support and aims to raise awareness of all kinds of chronic illnesses.

 

Many of Jenny's colleagues and my boss from work had offered to help bake for the sale, although we made sure to bake plenty of our own cakes too. With it being our first bake sale we had no idea what to expect or how many cakes we would need. We had advertised that we would be selling Dairy and Gluten free cakes, so on Thursday we grabbed some Gluten Free Flour and Vitalite Dairy Free butter, with little idea of what we were going to do with them.

I had taken the Friday off work as I had a day's worth of baking to do, although by 4pm I hadn't baked a single thing. I wasn't aware of what would or wouldn't sell and no idea of what others would be baking so I was very indecisive about what to bake. In the end I decided on Dairy Free Flapjacks, Dairy Free Banana & Raisin Muffins, Rocky Road and a Lemon Drizzle, whilst Jenny made some Chocolate Cornflake Cakes and some Marble Cupcakes. I woke up at half 6 on the Saturday to start making the Lemon Drizzle cake, and for some strange reason by the time we had to leave for the bake sale it still hadn't set so we had to leave it behind.

Throughout the day I was overwhelmed by people's generosity. We hadn't set a price for any of the cakes, opting instead to ask for any donations, with a suggested donation of 50p per cake. What we found was that many were willing to donate a lot more than that, and some were even donating without wanting any cake, a bizarre concept for this trio of cake fiends. 

Around October last year I made the decision to run for the National Eczema Society and do what I could to raise money for the charity. Jenny's health was spiralling downwards and we were both struggling to cope with it emotionally. I knew that there was little I could do on top of what I was already doing to make her any better, so I felt that I had to do what I could to raise as much money as possible in the hope that it will help towards the research for a cure. So whilst my reasons for all my fundraising this year are very much personal, it is heart warming to hear other sufferers personally thank me for helping raise awareness of their condition and helping to raise money.

By the end of the day we had just a handful of cakes left to sell, but with the numbers of customers coming through the shop dropping we were unable to convince anyone to buy these few remaining cakes. So instead, unfortunately they came home with us, well some did, a couple may have been eaten on the car on the way back. Before we returned home however we made a much promised visit to Bunty's, for some tea and cake. After a torturous day sat in front of cake we felt we very much deserved some of our own, and in doing so I think we made them a new customer for life in Hannah.

Today was all about the run and getting that little bit closer to my 1000km target. For the first time in around a month and a half I didn't have a race lined up, so instead I had another solo run. I was dressed and all ready to leave for my run when I realised that the Great Manchester Run was on TV, so I delayed it slightly to watch the majority of that. Once it had reached 12 O'Clock I decided I couldn't delay my run much longer, so stepped out to go for my run in the hottest part of the day. Which quite obviously would prove the be a big mistake. 

 

As for today's route, I opted to run along several parts of the Viking Way trail, a 147-mile footpath which starts at the Humber Bridge and ends at Oakham, Rutland. The route had come to my attention when I stumbled across the Viking Way Ultra, an ultra marathon which covers the entire 147 miles and just so happens to cut through my village. The run has since found it's way on my runner's Bucket List, a very very optimistic inclusion, but for me it currently represents the pinnacle of all races.

It didn't take long for my body to let me know that it has far from recovered from last weekend's Marathon, and in all likelihood it is still recovering from the London Marathon last month. My left quadricep was feeling very tight, and no amount of stretching or trying to 'run it off' seemed to work. I followed the 'Yellow Viking Way signs' for around three miles before breaking off and going my own separate way, running as wide a loop of Lincoln as I could.

With around a couple of miles to ago I began to realise that once again I had ran a route that would leave the climb up Cross O'Cliff hill in the last mile of my run, and by the time I reached it it was a very slow climb. I was very grateful for opting to run with my hydration pack on, but even sipping from it regularly struggled to keep me hydrated. At various points I was convinced that the bag/pipe was leaking as I kept seeing water dripping on the ground in front of me, but it was instead coming from my sweaty, sweaty face.

Leaving aside the difficulty I had in today's run, it was a great and very successful weekend that made me appreciate the power of cake. This year National Eczema Week takes place between the 14th - 22nd September and following the success of yesterday's bake sale I have the intention of running another Bake Sale, and maybe this time being a little bit more organised.

Once again please visit http://www.justgiving.com/shanes1000km and donate what you can, whilst I'm in the baking mood, generous donations may well be the recipient of cake.

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Distance: 21.12 km | 13.12 miles
Time: 01:56:27
Average Pace: 05:30 min/km | 08:52 min/mi

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View my run: