Tne end in sight

On 1 October, two months after setting off for the rain soaked mountains of Iceland, three final donations brought my total up to the £3100 target I'd set out to reach a year ago.

Two big events, sponsorship from countless generous friends, relatives and colleagues, a beauty sale and a gruelling 100km slog through Iceland; it's been a brilliant experience, particularly reaching that final goal and realising just how well Macmillan would spend that money.

I can say no more than a huge, huge thank you to everyone who sponsored me, came to an event or bothered to read about my Icecapades.

1 week to go

The passport has finally arrived, my ridiculously pricey travel insurance is booked and my lovely parents have sent the last of my trekking stuff from home so it looks as though I'm good to go a week tomorrow. There's the small matter of a huge lack of training, but I'm bound to get a few good walks in this weekend and the boots are as worn in as they will ever be. I have bought Superdrug out of blister plasters.  I'm starting to get very nervous; about the walking, lack of showers and most of all 6 nights in a tent with a stranger, but it's a excited nervous.

When it comes to fundraising, things are also moving along nicely. I took my friend Ana, a fabulous graphic designer, for coffee today to discuss the posters and leaflets that she has generously offered to make up for my music gig. The date is set - 25 August 2009 and I am just finalising the details with the venue before I head off to Iceland. I'll pop the poster on here as soon as it's done so you can take a look. Lots to do, lots to do. 

PS: Just a quick thank you to everyone that's helped me raise almost £2000 already... it's an amazing amount and amazingly generous of you all. I know I work at Macmillan so you might thing there's a tiny bit of bias, but working there really does give me an opportunity to see everything that they do and they really are a fantastic charity, that are doing amazing work to support the two million people living with cancer in the UK  and their families. So, if you've actually managed to keep reading this blog for this long and haven't died of boredom yet, and you're feeling like doing your annual charitable goodness, the sponsorship link is on the right!

Ouch

Celebrated the beautiful weather by dragging myself out of bed at the crack of dawn on Saturday (well 8am... but that's super-early for most 25 year olds with nothing better to do on the weekend), and heading off for a run in my new local park. Yes, to add to my training, fundraising and gig organising I decided moving flats would also be a good way to use up a bit more of that spare time I have!

But it is lovely, a sunny beautiful place... unfortunately I also discovered it has a big fat hill. The first lap was fine, with a steady incline at the beginning to get the heart pumping and a nice gentle slope down to lull me into a false sense of security (and smugness)... but after the first lap of the park, I was back to the hill, and twenty minutes in with the sun beating down, I struggled up the second time, gasping for oxygen and water. I can only describe the pain in my hips that afternoon as worse than childbirth.

BUT.... I did make it around and managed my longest run to date- 39 minutes and 4 miles (well just under, but it sounds better). I'm still a little concerned that my 10k is only three weeks away and I've got to up my running time by at least half an hour but everyone keeps promising me that in race conditions it'll be easier... I'm just praying that Regent's Park is flatter than Brockwell and that it's raining.