16 Mar - A much better day and hopefully a few problems solved

Lots to say and catch up on.  We didn't get back from Leeds on Thursday til later in the evening and by that time it was dark and as much as I tried to persuade myself, I really didn't feel like spending over an hour running - it'd been a long day.  Feeling incredibly guilty about wussing out, especially with being behind the schedule.  But it's been a really useful trip though.  Sarah had been really down on Leeds Uni for making her sit a test (said it was elitism, lol)  and had a poor tour when she went to the open day last year.  She'd also pretty much fallen in love with York when we went there, so Leeds was never really going to have a chance of beating it, so was only really going to Leeds just to say she'd done it.  But it was a really useful day and what struck me most was the enthusiasm within the Physics Department and the option for a year of paid work experience.  The campus, halls and city centre were great too, so she was pleased to come away there with yet another offer, even if it was exactly the same as Sheffield and York's.  Anyone would think that it was me that was off to Uni again ;o)


So when I finally went running and did my 7 miles with 5 of Fartleks, it was Friday and what a beautiful day it was too.  I felt so much better after being so rough on the last couple of runs and unwell the last few days  -  very reassuring :) .  Granted I did get some belly ache for about 1/2 mile close to the end, but nothing like I'd had before.  I'm really going to have to sort this diet out or work some sort of strategy.  I've always been susceptible for a dodgy belly on the long runs and almost always take a couple of tablets of codeine or loperamide which enables me to run all the way around toilet stop free.  I only took one tablet last weekend, so will cross my fingers that taking 2 again will keep me stop free on Sunday.


Another good thing about Friday's run was that it gave me a good chance to clear my head and think.  I've been worrying a bit about the fund raising which is the whole point of this training and the run.  I want to raise as much money as possible, but find it really difficult to push the fundraising side too hard as I think people can find it a little annoying when having the charity raising pushed in their face all the time and so have deliberately not mentioned it too frequently to make the times I do promote it more special.  But obviously if I don't get the word out there then there's no chance of raising funds.  Sometimes it can be quite disheartening, I recently sent an e-mail out to my work colleagues probably over 200, the majority of whom I work with on a fairly regular basis and know fairly well.  I only got 2 responses, one of whom (an absolute angel, because I've never even met her).  Every little bit of sponsorship I get really does mean so much to me and makes so much difference to my mentality when I go out and do a training run.  I suppose it may well be that people are actually waiting for me to do the run, which makes lots of sense and hopefully donations will increase as 22nd April approaches and after I've completed the run.  I am leaving a lot of the push till closer to the marathon date as 16 weeks is a long way down the line from the start of training.  Anyway the result of my pondering on this run, was a silly thought went through my head of using my birthday next week to promote the charity.  I'm going to be changing my Facebook name to Alli "running for Epilepsy" Armstrong.  It's only a little thing, but hopefully will have the benefit of getting my name out there to all those who 'hopefully' wish me Happy Birthday.  Fingers crossed it works   :D