Saturday, 1 June 2013

316 days to go

Hi everyone,

As most of you will know by now, I will be running the London Marathon in 2014. It has taken me two years of umming and ahhing (which judging by the last few years, now seems to be the standard time it takes for me to mull over and do things) but I finally decided that I was going to take the plunge this year.

So...

Why the London Marathon? 

I started running just after I got back from traveling as I wanted to do some form of exercise but couldn't afford the gym...running is free and you can chose when you do it. I've dipped in and out of it since then and decided to challenge myself by entering the Standalone 10k in 2012. I absolutely loved the buzz I got out of it and decided that this year my next challenge would be the Bupa Great North Run with a look to doing the London Marathon next year. After managing to miss the ballot as it was closed after just eleven hours, I applied for a place through Leonard Cheshire Disability and have thankfully been accepted. Its difficult to put into words what running does for me, but hopefully it will become clearer as I write this blog.

Why blog about it?

The last time I wrote a blog was back in 2011 to document and update people on my happenings whilst traveling in Asia. I found Hollys.Lost.Again not only a great way to update everyone with the edited highlights of my goings on (without having to bore people about what I ate for breakfast), but also a really good outlet to vent how I was feeling right at that moment (without waking someone up at ridiculous o'clock back home). I really enjoyed writing it and always got good feedback from friends and family so I hope everyone will enjoy this one. It may not be quite as exciting as teaching a nursery class in India, being woken up by Hindu prayer rituals in Nepal or sailing down Halong Bay in Vietnam, but I hope it provides the same sort of thing. I'm also doing to it raise awareness of the charity I will be running for and to hopefully help me out with getting you lovely people to sponsor me!

Why Leonard Cheshire?

I started volunteering for Symonds House in September 2012 as I'd enjoyed volunteering so much in India and didn't want to lose what I gained from it. I go once a week in the evening and do various activities such as crafts and games with a few of the residents. I was accepted into the fold pretty much as soon as I turned up to my first evening and now feel very much part of the furniture. All the staff and volunteers are passionate about what they do and are dedicated to giving the residents the best care and quality of life. Leonard Cheshire have also kindly agreed to direct all my monies raised to Symonds House so I will get to see the benefit that all those lovely pennies will provide to this amazing local service.

I've waffled on for long enough now, if you're still reading then thank you and I hope you'll join me on my journey to the London Marathon and raising £1800 for Leonard Cheshire Disability...6 miles down, 20 and 365 yards to go.

The most important bit...


Thanks for reading, I hope you'll stay with me :)

Holly

xx

P.S The name is a naff play on 3 Non Blondes and the fact that I am by no means an experienced runner. I tried to come up with something witty (sadly this actually kept me awake for a bit the other night) and this was the result...apologies! Another thing thats a bit sad...the background of this blog matches my running shoes *loser*.

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