Sweepstake!

I had an idea!  As I certainly don’t expect anybody to double-sponsor me by sponsoring me for my upcoming Adidas Women’s 5K Challenge on September 6th (just over 2 weeks away!!) I needed to think of a way that I could still do this race for the Miscarriage Association somehow.  Then it hit me..

.. A sweepstake based upon my finishing time!

This weekend I will see how fast I can run a 5K, and let you all know.  That will be my starting point for time slots.  There will obviously be smaller time slots closer to that 5K time and larger ones the further away it gets.  I will be “selling” each time slot for the princely sum of £2.50.  Whoever has the time slot closest to my finish time wins the prize!  Note: Paula Radcliffe holds the record in under 15 minutes.  It is not advisable to select this time slot.  She won the New York Marathon 9 months after giving birth but this does not mean *I* will win even a 5K 9 months after giving birth.

I’ll be wearing my GPS, and will press the “Start” as I go over the start line and obviously “Stop” when I pass the finish line (I suspect this race isn’t officially recorded) and will upload the maps/split times as evidence it’s fair.  And as I’ll be trying my best to do my best ever 5K time, and I’ll be exhausted when I cross the finish line, you can bet I’ll be paying little attention as to whose time slot I am in as I finish!

As for the prize, well, I am hoping that lots of my non-UK friends (or strangers!) will enter too, so the prize will have to be something that can either be shipped abroad or used abroad.  I am thinking I might offer a multiple choice prize.. luxury chocolates or an Amazon gift voucher or similar.  I’ll be stumping up the prize.. no money from the entries will go toward it.   However, the more entries I get, the bigger I’ll make the prize!  If anyone has any ideas on prizes, do let me know.

The entry system will probably be via Paypal and/or JustGiving, and when the race is over I’ll add it all to the target on my JustGiving page.  The time slots will be allocated on a first come, first served basis based on the time of payment.  I’ll have a copy of the slots still available on this blog, but I won’t be able to update it in realtime.  If you miss out on your slot, I’ll allocate the one nearest instead!   I will be running a poll to see how many people are likely to take part in this so I know how small (or big!) to make the time slots.  Obviously if I “sell” 100, some likely ones would only be a few seconds wide, but if only 10 are sold, they could be as big as a minute.

I’ll post up the list of slots and full instructions and open the sweepstake a week Sunday – 31st August!  One week before the race.  I’ll do it in the evening UK time, so keep an eye open!

In other news, I swam a 2K this week in an hour and didn’t feel nearly so rough as I did the week before, and took the children out in the double pushchair for a 3.5 mile walk/run over hills and rough terrain.  Ankle seems to be improving again too, which is great.. although it does still hurt sometimes.  Crucially, running does not seem to make it any worse, so I’m not doing it any more damage by training.

2.5K Without Stopping

Alas, today I only managed 2.5K (1.55 miles) without stopping, compared to last Thursday’s 5K (3.11 miles) without stopping. Not only that, but it took me 90 minutes to do it. However, I am utterly delighted! Why?

Because I did it in the swimming pool!

When I was little, I went to swimming lessons most terms with school, and for a while mum took me to swimming lessons after school as well. I always loved swimming, but life and lack of time and opportunity got in the way, and I left school with only 1000m badge to my name. I did have a whole bunch of other badges (lifesaving as well as “skill” ones) but the distance ones seemed to mean more somehow. You could only get distance ones through school, and as the school time at the swimming pool was limited to an hour, it’s how far can a junior school kid swim in an hour really. Turns out to be around 1000m, especially as the next badge up was 1500m. I always wanted that 1500m, or even better, the 1 mile badge. It was not to be.

Anyone else remember these badges? The ones I got were without the TSB bit on, but they looked essentially like this:

1000m swimming badge, from back in the 80s

I think the ones below 800m were more square and of a thinner fabric.

Anyway, I digress.  My ankle was still sore today so I didn’t want to make it even worse.  I thought I would try the local swimming pool to get in my workout – I don’t want to lose this hard earned fitness and frankly I need to find something to do to “cross train” (something that isn’t impact-based to give my joints a rest) once or twice a week in the end anyway.

I hadn’t been swimming properly since I was at primary school, and aside from the odd trip to the pool in the last 20 years (including one stint in a small pool on holiday where I swam for an hour) I’d not done anything serious.  Until today.

I was intending to only do 40 laps (1,000 metres at 25m/lap) at most if I could handle it.  I was very upset when around 30 laps in I got bad cramp in various limbs.  This was to haunt me for the rest of my swim as new places started cramping on and off and I very nearly called a halt several times.  The swim was not boring simply because of the stupid cramp, ugh!  Oh, and the annoying woman who despite having an empty lane next to me, watched me do 4 or 5 laps then got in right in front of me and pushed off in front of me, kicking me as she went past and then swimming a lot slower than I had been.  That went beyond ignorance into downright trying to start a fight, so having no interest in getting into a fight with a ridiculously slim with curves in all the right places 20 year old bint, I just moved into the empty lane instead.  She only did about 10 laps before getting out.. no way is her figure that way as a result of her swimming.  Good genes/being young for sure.  She’ll learn.

Anyway, 40 laps in and I decided to go for that mile.  I still had lots of energy, and it seemed like a good idea.  I’d calculated a mile to be probably somewhere around 72 laps or so, so off I went.  More cramp.  Still had lots of energy.  Breaststroke all the way although sometimes I did crawl or backstroke just to relieve the muscles for a little bit.  At 70 laps I wasn’t thinking clearly any more and decided to go for 100 as it was a nice round number.  I lost count a few times around the 80 or 90 mark as my brain had gone to mush and I couldn’t remember if I’d completed a lap or not, erred on the side of caution and did it again to be sure, so I probably did end up doing well over 100.  When I finished those 100+ laps (in just under 90 minutes, so a reasonable pace) my heartrate was floating around the 150bpm side.  Barely a sweat if I was running!  That’ll be why I could just keep on going and going then..

So I got out the pool and noticed my legs were shaking quite a bit, whoops!  But I still had loads of energy, and “sprinted” the last few laps no problem.  Still, it does mean I don’t have to feel guilty about the chocolates I ate earlier.  And more importantly, I have conquered a childhood dream – not only did I get my 1500m, I thrashed through my mile (did the mile in less than an hour – I could’ve done it in my school swimming session!) but I went all the way to the 2500m!  Sadly I have discovered that the badges go up to 5000m and frankly spending three hours in the pool is not my idea of fun so I doubt I’ll ever go for the whole lot, but, well.. at least I know I can do it now!

I am quite frankly shocked by how easily I could swim that far.  No idea if I could have managed it a month ago.  Are you supposed to get this fit this quickly, or do I have an underlying level of fitness from somewhere?  I was always super active as a child, running and cycling everywhere – I was one of the few children in the village who could cycle my bike (with no gears) up the mile long hill from the post office to the very top.. most couldn’t get up the first part as far as the railway bridge even with their mountain bikes.  But I have been such a slob for years, and stuck in a wheelchair and on strict bedrest for so long last year.  So weird.