Simon: Assemble

                             

                                            
                                                        Nobody wants to be Hawkeye




I decided to push myself last weekend to see just what I was capable of and how much of a struggle the next 8 weeks are going to be. I was very pleasantly surprised.

I manged to push myself to complete half of the marathon distance and spend most of the rest of the day in shock. Not that I was able to complete it, but that I was still (to the best of my knowledge) alive. I manged to be able to walk around for most of the rest of the day and was relatively pain free the next day. My plan for the day was to run several laps around Wimbledon Park, instead I decided to run there first, which was 10km. Following that I then lapped the park 7 times. 


                                         
                                                    

                                                     A little screen grab from Strava 


One quite wonderful thing that I would love to share with you occurred in Wimbledon Park. As I completed circuit after circuit, I became aware of an elderly gentleman who was sat on a bench and every time I went past him he clapped me. It sounds like such a small thing, but that made such a difference in me completing the rest of the laps to take me to the 21.1km mark. It also meant I kept my mood positive whilst dealing with the inevitable chafing.

                                                   
                                    My weary face after my run (I was looking towards the sun)

Support, however small, means the world to me and will help me complete this quite frankly mad task of running the Virgin London Marathon.

Bottom line is this, to some, me running this marathon is a joke - something to use as banter and scoff at. The truth is that i'm out training and taking this seriously and working damn hard to try and prepare myself for. I'm eating properly, taking more care of myself and planning each and every phase. Support is now more important than anything, please share these posts, send positive message and if you'd like to, sponsor me (or get raffle tickets)

In a slightly more cheery tone I am trying to sort out a date where I can walk the marathon course in order to plan out the day as a whole. I may well do this by incorporating a few pubs into the day so suggestions are welcome on nice places.

Prizes for my raffle have increased in both number and quality. I now have the follow items that are being raffled to help increase the money I raise for Young Minds.

• Discovery holdall/backpack (this is seriously beautiful) 
• Bottle of Malt Whiskey
• Bottle of Whisky 
• Bottle of Brandy
• Bottle of Prosecco
• Bottle of French red wine
• Bottle of Spanish red wine
• Bottle of white wine 
• Box of chocolates
• box of cosmetics ( I can't remember exactly what they are off the top of my head)
• Bottle holder

Tickets are £1 each and will be drawn before race day. You can do this over Paypal (sbath14@googlemail.com) or using the Virgin Money link below and I will issue you with your ticket number. If you're feeling really social, you can also get them in person.

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SimondoRuns

If you wish to donate and support me in my cause, you can do so here:

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SimondoRuns

And in case you couldn't find the link, it's here

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SimondoRuns



I've been invited to Young minds next week where I get to see first hand the great work that they do for children with mental health conditions. I'm really looking forward to this because I think it'll really start to ramp up my motivation in building to the big day. Look out for next week's instalment of the blog (with of course another film related pun that's something to do with the number seven)
                                       
                                          





Current mood: Overly positive

P.S
https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/SimondoRuns

Simon V: Even Rocky had a montage

                     Simon V: Even Rocky had a montage

                                   
Say what you want, Tommy Gun was the worst film character ever invented. This was fundamentally terrible. I mean seriously he fought Drago then lost his money and all that terrible shit happened then he had to make this terrible, terrible film. 



So the big day is a little under ten weeks away and it's all starting to get to me a little bit. The enormity of trying to survive twenty six miles is extremely daunting mentally. Looking at other people who are training and quite honestly doing a lot better that me can be especially hard to swallow. I appreciate that I am only racing myself, but the competitive side of me finds it all very hard to deal with.

Now we've begun the finishing stretch and I'm concerned that I might be left wanting in terms of the final distance. One thing has become very clear - I need a montage. Every great fictional hero has an unlikely montage which takes them from zero to hero and I can't explain how much I need that boost. I always wonder what my montage theme song would be, thoughts?

 It's worth mentioning I was kept down for over two weeks by a lingering cold meaning more importantly that my training went very backwards. Whatever i tried to do, it just wouldn't shift. I finally managed to get back out with a run round Richmond Park where I encountered rather cold temperatures :


                                     The thoughts of a Hyundai I20



I don't really think it was minus 6 but there was frozen snow on the ground. It was cold as balls, thats the main thing but I got round a good amount.

Since then I have had a couple of positive runs around Nonsuch and Wimbledon Park respectively and i'm really starting to hit my stride. I wouldn't quite go as far to to say that I'm enjoying it but the sense of achievement is certainly a good feeling.

I am now ready to launch my raffle, which currently includes 8 things (one not pictured) and it will grow with more prizes being added.


Currently the prize haul includes, 3 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of brandy, one unique Discovery backpack/holdall (seriously that is an amazing prize) chocolates, a box of cosmetics and a bottle holder. To buy raffle tickets either Paypal sbath14@googlemail.com or add it to my official sponsorship page and I will get back to you with the number(s) that you have drawn. Tickets are only £1 each and every penny counts so please buy a ticket because you're helping Young minds and making sure that I don't have to drink any of those things.







Please don't make me suffer this for nothing. Every penny helps my motivation but more importantly whether it it's only a few pence or a few pounds, it goes to help Young Minds and that is the most important thing.

This raffle will run close until marathon day but there will also be a something that you can sponsor race day to either help me or hinder me (I'm not saying it's a £1 per song playlist that I listen to on my way round, but it probably is, so stay tuned for that)

That's it for now. Please grab raffle tickets, people who have already sponsored me will be issued raffle tickets as a thank you.


until next time, thank you for listening.

Simon

Currnet Mood: Terrified


P.S - tweet me where the reference is from.