Last post of the year !! Las vegas & Christmas

Well I thought I best writing my next blog as Ive been quiet for a few weeks with the busy time of Christmas & running.
So hear it goes since my last post I have been busy with running, more running & a holiday thrown in too.
Race wise I have competed in the Rock n roll Las vegas half marathon & had a holiday at the same time, This race is amazing & I recommend it to anyone, its a great well organised event & where else can you run with show girls, elvis, & even get married on the course!!!
The whole of the strip is shut down to traffic & you run the race at night which is a amazing sight.
I love this event & we were really lucky to have got the chance to meet u with two of our american running friends too :) & we had a lovely meal with them the next day so a big thank you to Robin & Hope & we look forward to seeing you both soon.
Race wise I was pleased with my time, I was hoping for a P.B but the very windy conditions put pay to this as it literally lifted me of the ground at one point on the course, I was still pleased to finish in 1:42 in 499 position out of 22,000.
My dad also ran in the half & he finished in 2:22, well done dad.
If any of my friends fancying doing this race in the future just send me a message & I will let you know the best places to stay & gamble at ;)

Since vegas I have been busy sorting more gear out for the Ocean floor race & sorting out my ECG as we have to send this to the organisers before they let you run.
This was becoming a problem for me as for some reason my doctors were not the most helpful & in the end luckily i have some good ultra running friends & one just happened to be a doctor & arranged one for me ( thank you so Much ) you know who you are.

Christmas time is also the perfect time to get some miles in & this year has been great especially as I got to run in the Sunrise to Sunset race organised by one of my running Denzil Martin.
The idea of this race is to just keep going from 8:30 in the morning to Sunset 4 ish.
The course is off road round a nature reserve in Lightmoor Telford & each lap is less than a mile & its hilly, muddy & wet!!!
I have been told since that this year was the wettest but the friendliest & the most fun.
I was lucky to have my brilliant hubby as my support & he had brought his camera with him (its great been married to a sports photographer) & soon enough he became the official photographer for the day & he stood for 8 hours + with all the other partners & helpers in the rain!!! u were all a great support & I'm sure we kept you all entertained.
I was using this race as a good training run for the Ocean floor race & set off at a nice steady pace & just kept going.
In the end I completed in 49 laps which worked out to 41.6 miles & yes looking back maybe I should of done 1 more lap to of evened it out to 50claps (thanks Ben & Dad for calling me a wimp lol) but I was happy with how I felt & I had no injuries to finish in 7 hours 21 mins in 3rd place overall (2nd female) a massive well done to Nivette Mullan who did 46.2 miles in her first ultra!! & I look forward to seeing you at the tr24.
The race was won by Justin Montague who had a amazing run to do 53.76 miles & a new course record.
Well done to my dad for doing the marathon in a time of 5:35 & helping Kate around.
A great event once again & me & my dad look forward to competing in some more of your races Denzil.

So as the end of 2012 gets nearer I must firstly say a massive thank you to Buff for all your support you have given me in 2012 & I'm sure all your help pushed me on to having one of my best running years to date & I'm hoping to have a even better 2013.

As for 2013 a massive thank you goes out to Amanda Boldy for giving me the chance to compete in the Ocean Floor Race with her , its going to be a epic adventure !!!

Aka Ninja 1 & Ninja 2

A busy few weeks !! Running & meeting friends.

Well what can I say, What a brilliant few weeks we have had !! Since I have been asked to compete in the Ocean floor race with Amanda I have been none stop with running, racing & planning
& literally driving everbody mad regarding this race & not had a moment to think or even get any Christmas shopping done! ( dont worry I will sort this ).

So where do I start well firstly I ran the Valencia Marathon on the weekend of the 18th November. Without a doubt this marathon has become one of my favourites, With a amazing friendly atmosphere brilliant location & the best finish to a race I have ever had the pleasure to run.
I completed it in 3:33 & I loved every minute of it especially running with the 3:30 pacers for the first half ( rather good looking spanish chaps too). What made it good for me as well was that my hubby was working at the event taking photos for marathon photos & my mom & dad were at the finish line to support me.
My dad ran in the 10k & he had a good run too but he wasnt to amused to only get a bag of oranges at the end lol !! no medal.  But he did get a dri fit tshirt beforehand & as it was only 10 euros to enter you cant really moan.
I highly recommend this race if anyone ever fancies doing this race let me know & I can point you in the right direction for a great hotel.

The following weekend we were away again, this time me & Ben travelled down to Amanda's & Karl's house for a weekend of raising funds for Macmillan/Ocean floor race, running & a little job of me doing a V02 test.
So where do I start on the Friday night we both finished work early to get down to the Macmillan fund raising pamper evening that Amanda had organised to help out.  As she had done all the planning arranging etc etc herself and I thought it was only fair to help out after all the hard work Amanda had put into organising this event. I was really impressed to see some lovely stalls there & lots of therapists offering treatments at great prices!!. I also got to meet some of Amanda's family which was nice & Im sure they all think im completey mad too!!
The evening went well & we raised £180 for Macmillan it wasnt as busy as we expected & I could see Amanda was a bit stressed about it been quiet, but hey we all had a good night & thats the main thing.
Saturday was a really nice day & I'm sure my hubby & Amanda enjoyed my V02 testing more than I did lol.  The V02 testing had been offered to me & Amanda free of charge by Advanced Performance
Cambridge & us been down for the weekend had given me a perfect opportunity to get mine done.
So a massive thank you to Advanced Performance for offering us this, even if I did look a sight in the mask in the middle of the store with people shopping lol.  Thanks to Ben & Amanda for taking photos of me doing this & videoing me too, I will get my own back on you both in the near future.
I was pleased with my end result & I was classed as exceptional which I was chuffed to bits with.  It will be interesting to see how Amanda gets on with hers in a few weeks time.
The rest of the day was made up of us visiting Cambridge which is a lovely place & somewhere that me & Ben had never visited before.
While wondering around we got a phone call informing us the Hereward way ultra relay that we had planned on running on Sunday had been cancelled due to flooding.  Which was a shame as we were both looking forward to it !! But hey you cant control the weather. 
When we got back to Amanda's I was asked if I wanted to have a go at INSANITY now if you dont know what this is check out youtube !! 
Amanda has been doing this for a while & I have been driving her mad about having a go at it and my god its hard work !! Give me long distance hard hilly muddy courses anyday compared to this!! But its really good & you can feel the benifits & hopefully in a few months I will see the benefits. I was so impressed with how good Amanda was at it & she put me to shame & I'm sure by doing this it will help us both with our core fitness & this must be good for carrying our backpacks for the ocean floor race in Feb.
After all the insanity madness we all went out for a lovely meal & a good old chat.  It was nice not to have to worry about getting up early the following morning now the race was cancelled.
Sunday now was going to be just a training run & we headed out early (not as early as I'm used too but early enough) one thing I have found out is Amanda is not a morning person & I am soo glad to have found this out now & not in the desert as she can be quite stroppy as we call it in the Midlands lol.  She snaps quite easily (she wont mind me putting this hopefully) where as im quite lively in the morning & chatty.  I reckon I need not worry about the snakes & foxes in the desert but I need to worry about Amanda strangling me instead to shut me up!!
So I have learned a early warning keep quiet first thing in the morning while in the desert!! lol
We ran a nice 13 mile run & had a good old chat.  I think this may have put both our minds at rest about some aspects of the desert race, it was a very enjoyable morning's run.
The rest of the day was then made up of more planning & making lists.
A really good weekend was had by us & once again me & Ben can't thank Amanda & Karl for the hospitality & welcoming us into there home again.  We look forward to seeing them both at our house for a weekend in January.

We have also picked up some more sponsors/supporters this week & I thank you all for helping us.

Firstly Chris Crabtree from Hope has arranged for us both to use there Hope head torches in the desert & Im sure Chris doesn't realise how brilliant this is for the both of us , but even more so for Amanda with her fear of the dark. ( I will do a full review on these amazing head torches a.s.a.p)

Another new sponsor it that of Bloc Sunglasses. Amanda wrote to them a few weeks ago in the hope that they may be able to help us with a pair of sunglasses each for the run to help protect our eyes from the sand & the sun.  Luckily for us Colin Pickering from the head office kindly sent us 3 pairs each which is amazing & really wasn't expected we are both extremely thankful.

New sponsor News Feetures socks

A couple of months ago I Contacted Feetures socks regarding maybe helping Amanda & I with some socks for the Ocean floor race as I had been lucky enough to have been given a pair to try at the Buff Lightning run this year.
To my surprise they were very interested & I had to forward some information to them & quickly they came back to me saying how interested they were.
So how did I manage to sweet talk a American company into helping us ??
My English cheekiness & charm obviously won them over & they loved the fact that I was running in the Rock n Roll Las Vegas Half marathon in December which fitted in perfect to meet up with them & collect the socks.
So this is how it started & yesterday I met up with Joe Gaither from Feetures at the race expo & he couldn't have been nicer & loved the fact we were 2 girls mad enough to take on the a ocean floor race challenge.
Check out www.feeturesbrand.com to look at the amazing socks & you can purchase them in the uk from Sweatshop.
Look out for my reviews on these socks soon .

New Sponsor News.

Well where do i start, I still can't believe how generous & helpful people are been with regards to the Ocean floor race 2013 this week alone we have picked up three more sponsors who will be helping with some finance towards the remaining costs.

Firstly my Dad's company Halco Products (where I work) so a massive thank you Dad for agreeing to help, your support as always is brilliant.
Secondly a massive thank to Don Gemmell from Fleetwood Building Services (one of my favourite customers) for also helping.
Thirdly Music Box nightclub St Ives where Amanda works for also agreeing to help in exchange for there logo on our tops. Thanks Guys.

Also this week we have had some interesting emails/parcels from company's offering us some product support, 

Trion Z have supplied us both with one of the bracelets, I absolutely love these & I find they really do help & I have been a big fan for years. Amanda was a bit sceptical at first as she had never worn one before but she has seen a vast improvement in her sleep alone since wearing one.
Look out for our full reviews soon.

Rocktape has also been brilliant & they have sent us 3 rolls to keep us going in training & in the desert. Full details & reviews to follow.

Shewee are going to be supplying us with there products & I feel these will become one of the most useful piece of kit to have in the desert (Guys u don't know how easy u have it)

Clothing wise this week we had some great news the company Striders Edge will be sponsoring Amanda with some kit for the race.

Where as I will be running across the desert in my Buff sponsored kit. 
Please look out for my reviews on Buffs in my next Blog.

Another parcel arrived at both of our houses this week from Steve from Ultra Running ltd, 
He kindly sent us both a couple of fleeces to keep us warm at night, So a massive thank u from us both for these.

So as you can see everything seems to be coming together nicely, Amanda is getting to grips with her fear of the dark & she is really doing great with that, also this week she has found some new runners to train with near where she lives which is excellent news.
I'm having quite a easy weekend due to racing in the Valencia Marathon next weekend 18th Nov & I am really looking forward to that & I can't wait to run up the amazing finish line across the water.

Hereward Ultra 2012

Thursday 1st Nov 2012.

We got to the race at 7 am to be told that 5 entries had dropped out overnight !! ( I honestly didn't think I was that scary to meet ) & by 730 no one else had turned up, so there it was just me & Amanda, Steve the race organiser from Ultra Running Ltd, Ben my hubby, our brilliant support crew & Matt & Ellie from Summit Fever our race photographers. I have never been in a race where we have had more photographers than runners ( now I know what it feels like to be famous lol).
So off we went. I had really been looking forward to doing this event with Amanda & also to see how we would get on running together, this was going to be a perfect opportunity & ideal pre ocean floor race training.

To all my friends reading this please remember Amanda has only been running for 3 years !! Not years & years like me & before this event her longest race was 35miles, So I was hoping with some of my experience we would make a good team.

Amanda was very nervous which is understandable & It didn't make it any easier when we found out we were the only entrants in the race!!!
So with backpacks on, maps in hand GPS & our iPhones ( which became indispensable as u will see later on in the race ) we headed off down a muddy track.
Stage 1 not too bad at all it was a mixture of trail & road & we didn't have too many issues.
I was feeling good at this point as our map & GPS system were working well & we finished the first stage. It honestly felt like we had our own paparazzi following us, we had flashes everywhere as we came to our first stop.

After refuelling we were off again, off road & into more mud & fields. The race instructions we were given for this stage were useless & it didn't help that the heavens had opened & it had started to rain!!!! it was bitterly cold, we were both getting a little frustrated to say the least !!! Also Amanda had a little issue with her knees which was worrying so early on in the race, I had to reassure her that at the next checkpoint I whould put some Rocktape on them to sort them out.(I really can sound convincing when I need to be)

We were both getting colder & colder & we decided to get Amanda's iPhone out to double check the route as we knew something didn't seem right about the instructions !! Luckily we were proven right & we were about 2miles off course !!! Grrrr I don't think that was the exact word we both said!! I think the air turned blue for a few mins & then we calmed down got back on track & carried on. The next few miles we were both quite quiet (which I know some of u will find hard to believe from me )but we were both so pissed off from going wrong. Me been a big kid I would jump into the puddles every so often to try & lighten the mood & I'm surprised that at one point Amanda didn't want to push me in the river !! Lol or strangle me.  Eventually we got to the checkpoint refuelled & strapped up Amanda's knee, off we went again.

Stage 3 was great, we were both so much happier on this stage as the maps & instructions were bang on & we had no problems at all, Amanda ran brilliant on this stage & my magic Rocktape was working, we were both very positive about everything & we were running well together.
We must have ran a lot better than expected as when we got to the checkpoint my hubby Ben, Steve the race organiser, Matt & Ellie the event photographers were no where to be seen & nothing was set up!! Thanks guys ;). luckily they all sprang into action when they saw us & it was really was like having our own personal slaves looking after us ! I'm sure we will never do a race where we were so well looked after.

At this stage it was now starting to get dark & it was time to start thinking about getting our headtorches ready, now this could of been a disaster if I hadn't been prepared ( good job I was a venture scout when I was younger ;) ) Amanda was trying her new raid lite backpack out & somewhere along the course her bag had opened & her Headtorch had fallen out!! ( This was a brand new headtorch which hadnt even been worn yet !!!! doh Gutted, Along with her biscuits !!!  Luckily I had won a Headtorch earlier in the year at the Buff lightning run & it was in the car, so luckily we could continue.

This stage I knew was going to be a problem, I honestly think if more runners had of been in this race this stage wouldn't of been as bad as it was. As we may of been able to follow or at least see someone else around us. So this is how our final stage went.

Well where do I start, I am aware that Amanda has a fear of the dark & she won't mind me telling u all this. We were two women on our own in the pitch black no lights to be seen anywhere & I mean anywhere over farmers fields. We were meant to be on a track keeping the river to our right, I could not see a track & there was no god damn river in sight.

So what do u do ?

I don't scare easier but this wasn't nice & what made it worse was because I knew Amanda didn't like the dark I had to put a brave face on & act as if I knew what to do!!!
So once again the iPhone saved the day if Amanda hadn't downloaded the o.s map of the route onto it god knows where we would of ended up.  Please remember we are both bitterly cold & have over 40+ miles in our legs at this stage, I'm not feeling too bad but I could see Amanda was getting more anxious as we went on & I was getting very concerned about this. I could see that I needed to calm her down.
The worst thing was all She was concerned about was the fact that it would look bad for me if we didn't finish!! this was the furthest thing from my mind, as the whole idea Of me doing this event with Her was to see how we worked as a team for the ocean floor race In Feb.  We then stopped for a min or so while we got ourselves together & got our bearings. Luckily we found our way to our last checkpoint. Where Karl Amanda's hubby was now also waiting to see us, this would be where our race would finish after 47 miles, we both made the decision as it was just too dark & dangerous to carry on. Ok we didn't finish the whole 54 miles & I know Amanda was absolutely gutted about this but I was really impressed at how we got along running together & how when the going got tough we pulled together as a team to sort it out I honestly think if this race had of been started earlier maybe 6 am I feel we would have had no problems getting to that finish line.
One good thing that has come out of this I feel we will make a great team in the desert & we will have a great adventure & a good few laughs along the way & honestly we won't get lost lol.

I must say a massive thank u once again to my hubby Ben for been a great support team on the day & for ferrying us about. Also a massive thank u to Karl Amanda 's Hubby for letting us stay over at there house for 2 nights & showing us some lovely hospitality it was much appreciated.

So that's how our first race prep for the ocean floor race went & I'm looking forward to our next training session in a few weeks on some sand.

I also think this sums us both up !!

Any Idiot can run a marathon .. It takes a special kind of idiot to run a ultra.

Please keep a eye out for some more very important sponsor news in the next day or so !!!