UPDATE 01/05/2012

Whew, as I sit here its a week or so after the marathon, I think I'm just about recovered from the whole process. I completed it in 5hrs 22min, which was a bit outside my target time of 4 and a half hours but you can never plan for everything that happens on the day! What it does mean is that much to Hannah's disgust I'm probably going to have to do another marathon in the future to try to get that time down below 5 hours!

It was a brilliant day irrelevant of the time it took me and I want to say a huge thank you to my support team on the day. Hannah, Mum, Dad, Auntie, Mel, Barbara,Wendy & the girls, Amy, Debs and Rach - thank you soooo much for being there, and especially for getting around London to see me multiple times which I imagine was probably more stressful than I had it running the thing!

A final huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, or if you're reading this about to sponsor me then thanks in advance. The amount I've raised is absolutely brilliant and I've completely smashed not only my original target of £1,600, but also my stretch target of £1,900. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Steph x

UPDATE 20/04/2012

Well it's finally here! Just two days to go and I'll actually be running my first ever marathon for Whizz-Kidz. I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who has already donated, my total raised is going up every day which is amazing. However, the more money I can raise the more kids that can be helped. So please dig deep and donate and you never know it could be your donation that pushes me over my target.

I had the opportunity last week to go down to the Birmingham Ambassador Club to meet some of the kids and they made me feel very welcome so a massive thanks to the kids who let me tag along with their campaigning session and get them together for a group photo. And thanks to Catherine for allowing me to come along to her session, Amy for accommodating me in the afternoon group, Jess for taking photos and giving me a bit of general Whizz-Kidz background and Charli for putting me in contact with Catherine in the first place.  It was amazing to see what a difference the money I'm raising can make, and I hope to go back to their next session to give them a final total from my sponsorship and show them my medal and any photos that I've got.

Well that's it from me for now, please continue to donate what you can. I'm off to Italy with Hannah for a week following the race to rest and recover so I might not be able to update post-race, but I'll be back soon with pictures and my finishing time.

Cheers,

Stephanie

UPDATE 19/03/2012

Second (and last) pre-marathon race completed yesterday down in Surrey. A nice little 20 mile race starting at the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold and then going out into the countryside for a 10 mile lap and then repeating the same again. The weather forecast beforehand was for biblical levels of rain, actual weather on the day - glorious sunshine! I should know better as Water Resources Manager to never expect rain at the moment what with the current drought conditions.

It was a challenging day certainly, my first run at that distance, fairly warm weather as I said, and also a few hills in there to make it interesting. Highlight of the day has to be running round the track whilst a massive helicopter landed in the middle!

So all completed in 3hrs 26 minutes which leaves me bang on track to complete the marathon in 4 and a half hours. Please, please, please keep donating though, every little really does help and with just over a month to go I'm just over half way to my target amount

Cheers

Stephanie

UPDATE 05/03/2012

Well the training appears to be going well, I ran the Eastbourne Half Marathon yesterday in 2hrs 10 minutes which knocked a massive 27 minutes off my personal best from last summer!

All donations are gratefully received and will make a massive difference to my total so please give whatever you can afford. Please trust me that I'm doing all that I can to get ready for this huge challenge and your money will go to a great cause.

Stephanie