Six months to go.......!

So I know I’ve been banging on about this forever already but the clock is well and truly ticking - six months to go until the London Marathon. Yikes!

October has been an extra special month with Baby Loss Awareness week but I just wanted to do another quick blog update to tell you about my amazing Half Marathon experience a few weeks ago. I didn’t intend on running the Royal Parks race this year so didn’t enter the ballot or request to run for a charity. Having run it last year - on a dodgy knee injury - I thought I would let this one pass me by. But whilst attending my Saturday running club, coach Ellie mentioned there was a spare place and would I be interested? Oooh, I thought, shall I put my money where my mouth is and actually run a half marathon instead of just saying to friends, “yeah, if I really had to I could run a half marathon tomorrow”. 

Hyde Park Race Festival

So that’s what happened. On Sunday 8th October, with less than 24 hours notice I was making my way to Hyde Park for the Royal Parks 10th Anniversary Half Marathon. My first half marathon this year. I’ve run a few of these races now and annoyingly I have never completed one sub 2 hours. I was running under someone else’s name (shhh I know your not supposed to do that) and Richard (that's who I was for the day) had stated a slower predicted finish time than I would've liked and was supposed to start in a slower start pen. Egged on by coach Ellie, who was running it as well, I didn’t go to my allocated start pen and just went in the faster one instead (shhh, I know I know, you’re not supposed to do that either, but I wont tell if you don’t). So not only was I running under the wrong name I also started in the wrong pen!  

16,000 runners in this 10th Year
Royal Parks Half Marathon

Now, as usual with these blogs, I mention there aren’t enough loos, and boy there really wasn’t enough. Half an hour queue to spend a penny and then another half an hour to drop our bags in. The race actually started whilst we were still at the bag drop and had to race over to our start pens (although the wrong one for me) to join the thousands of other racer’s - 16,000 in total. At 9.07am I finally cross the start line and we were off; and then disaster. I can feel my running belt is too loose. “Bo***cks” I rant, as I try to tighten the belt whilst running. Then the damn thing came off. So there I am, cursing and trying to run in a straight line whilst tightening the clasp and trying to put the blasted thing back on. My running belt was a key part of my kit for this race whereby I had two small bottles that fitted snuggly into the belt which I had filled with an energy drink to give me that extra boost as and when needed. Finally I get the belt securely in place and I could up the pace and get this race started for real. 

Running Belt finally in place

I do love the beginning of this race, running through Wellington Arch, past Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Park, down Whitehall past Downing Street, up and down The Strand, round Nelson’s Column before you hotfoot it back to Hyde Park for the next 7 miles. Despite having less than 24 hours notice I felt very strong and kept a pretty steady pace, weaving my way past fellow runners when they were too slow. By mile 8 I felt I needed that extra little boost so reached down to my running running belt and grabbed one of my energy bottles. Within a few minutes my legs felt recharged and I was happily striding through Hyde Park once again. The miles were steadily going past and despite the many runners I didn’t get tripped up this time. Royal Albert Hall was within site and I knew the end was near. At the 20K marker I decided to up my pace. Lets get this done. 800 meters and I’m still striding even faster. 400 meters, 200 meters. The crowds are cheering, the clock is counting down and I knew I was in with a chance to finally nail a half marathon under 2 hours. I upped my pace for the final leg and it felt like I actually flew over the finish line. It took me a while to stop as my legs wanted to carry on!  Wow, I thought, that was the best half marathon ever. My official, or should I say, “Richard’s” official chip time was 1:52:55.  I’d shaved a massive 13 minutes off my best time. Hopefully Richard was pleased with this time as well. 

And I'm over the finish line

First sub 2 hour half marathon

My next official race is the new Knebworth Half Marathon taking place on 19th November.  Can I do a repeat performance?  Oh, and this time I will be running as Tina and not Richard!

Remember to visit my Virgin Money Giving Page to read my full story

   

Global Wave of Light

Today’s blog is a little bit different from my usual posts. Today I want to promote Baby Loss Awareness Week - 9th to 15th October 2017 - and invite you to join with families across the world and take part in the global ‘Wave of Light’. Simply light a candle at 7pm on Sunday 15th October and leave it burning for at least 1 hour to remember all the babies that died too soon. 

As you know, I am running for the charity Tommy’s to raise funds and awareness of miscarriage, still birth and neonatal death. I decided to write an experience which happened after the stillbirth of my daughter which I have shared on the Baby Loss Awareness website. I’ve also decided to share this on my blog as this may explain a few things to friends and family about me.

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When we discovered our baby had no heartbeat at a routine scan our world fell apart. Within two days of the scan I was admitted to hospital and induced to give birth. The whole experience was exhausting, both physically and mentally. But the worst part was having to tell family and friends that we had just given birth to a beautiful but dead daughter. 

Knowing the right thing to say to someone when they are dealing with bereavement is hard. Are there any words that can console? But I’ve always wondered why people send flowers? Is it to signify that life goes on? The cut flowers may die but their beauty lives on in the growing plant?

As soon as we returned from the hospital bouquets of flowers started to arrive. And they kept on arriving. It got to a point that I didn’t have any vases left to put the flowers in. I know the flowers were sent with good intentions but I hated their presence in our house. Every room downstairs was adorned with flower displays and it looked more like a florist shop than a home. I found the intoxicating scent suffocating and couldn’t wait for the flowers to die so I could remove all presence of their existence. To this day I hate cut flowers in my home. It just brings memories of that time flooding back. My husband doesn’t buy me flowers for this reason - he knows.

There was one gift we received during this mourning period that a very dear friend sent to us and it still means the world. She had arranged for a star to be named after our daughter. I thought this was so thoughtful and something that would never die. The star will shine for eternity. Our star. I can never thank her enough for this as it was one of the best things anyone did at that very emotional time.

Wearing my pin with pride

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I’m wearing my pink and blue ribbon pin to promote Baby Loss Awareness and although I’m not particularly religious, whenever I go into a church I always light a candle and send a little message to my daughter. Being part of the ‘Wave of Light’ on Sunday 15th October is especially important to us on this 10th year anniversary. If you know of anyone that has suffered a loss of a baby,  join us and light your own candle.

Thank you.

Wave of Light, 7pm Sunday 15th October 2017

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