Little steps, big mountain

Since announcing my marathon ambitions most people have assumed that I must be an avid and long term running nut. In fact the truth is that until last July I had a lovely life where "pounding the streets", naturally, meant hitting the high street.

That was until we booked a summer holiday and I was faced with a choice familiar with women across the nation; burkini or bikini. Now whilst I respect Nigella’s attempt at making the burkini this seasons must-have-item it is, frankly, the most horrendous what-was-she-thinking outfit which probably lost her the adoration of many of her male fans. Indeed my nutritionist who was watches Nigella TV for its deep cuisine related editorial (NOT its soft porn innuendos) quickly removed Nigella from his desktop wallpaper.

So likemost females contemplating the annual summer bare-all, I resigned myself to a pre-holiday keep fit / diet regime in the hope that 4 weeks would be enough to take me from Elmer Fudd to Elle Macpherson.

So on 15th July 2012 I signed up to Map my Run and began to record and share my workouts (sharing kept me motivated and removed the ability to make excuses; no one likes a loser!). Now I have been sad enough to use the mighty excel to produce a graph which represents my, until December, pathetic running regime (both in terms of distance and quantity).

You will notice a steep step change (scuse the puns) in December. This is directly related to the phone call I received on 30th November informing me of my marathon place with Breast Cancer Care. This was no longer something to tinker with!

Now whilst I am the first to admit that most of my months are paltry, the total is a staggering 148.42 miles and 14,248 calories; See even the most small of starts can combine to make something huge. Now think of all the coppers lying around your home, in old purses and bags, back of sofas, change pots etc. Every single one of them could reduce the 1,000,000 pence total... now go on dig around and pledge some copper to a good cause. I am sure it would be happier supporting the cause than livings its life in a dark place together with odd buttons and saftey pins.

BTW: by the time I run the marathon I should have clocked up over  500 miles in training which equates to a massive 60,000 calories; that’s a silver lining of over 200 snickers bars. Now where are my trainers?