T + (yes plus!) SEVEN DAYS since Misbah RAN London!

It was the greatest long run I've ever done - not just in length but in atmosphere; The first 10k flew by shockingly easily. The support of the crowd was immense. The cheers and high fives of the numerous children from 6 months to 16 years were touching - both figuratively and literally! (Probably not good for reducing contact with microorganisms but I figure working in a school means I might as well give up with that!) There were plenty of adults out in force too, including some priests blessing us as we went past and holy water or not it was so humid any sprinklings were welcome. It was lovely to see Londoners out in all their multicultural glory to cheer on all the people who had set themselves out to do 26.2 miles of London raising money for so many good causes.

Although I didn't take well-wishers up on the offers of slices of cakes, the slices of oranges proffered at the roadside were much needed and I was impressed with my ability to grab one while still running. For yes, I ran the whole way. I was slow but there was no stopping - not for the toilet; not to check the blisters I could feel forming; not for the pins and needles in my arms that wouldn't go away even when I shook them in the air and not for a walking break that would up my overall pace. I'd set out with one goal: to run the whole way without stopping; because sometimes development is slow but it never stops.

After 13.1 miles it seemed insane there was another 13.1 to go but I told myself I'd gone further before. At Tower Bridge the screaming VSO supporters gave me a surge of energy. After 20 miles it became a countdown and every person who managed to spot the name and say 'Go Misbah' gave me a bit of extra glucose and I told myself surely I could manage another 6.2 miles. After 23 miles I thought it was time to up the pace and I pounded past people. The last 3.2 miles were nothing but sheer determination. Gone was the energy for smiles and high fiving children in the crowd. The headphones came down for the last stretch as no song would have done it, power song or not. When I turned the corner at Buckingham Palace I went in for a sprint. As I got across the finish line I collapsed, as a switch in my brain just turned my legs "off". I tried to get up but had to stretched across to the First Aid tent were I made a spectacle of myself with all the screaming, tears, biting ice packs and almost throwing up. Everything was checked and everything was fine. I was made to drink and eat and was walking fairly soon, with the help of a good friend since everything just looked and felt 'odd'. It turns out, when I spoke to my trainer, that I wasn't *meant* to sprint to the finish. Opps. Well I'm still glad I did, it means I finished in style... right?! Just would have liked to have received my finishers medal on the platform for a nice photo rather than in the First Aid tent!

The muscles soreness has virtually all gone within the week. The appetite is still a bit messed up. The blisters (which got some of my pupils screaming) are healing quickly. However I am hoping this Marathon will have a lasting change on me. I know there is an easy way it could have a lasting change on others - through your generous donations to VSO. So please keep them coming...

Day T + 11

Sadly things (including some training - honest!) got in the way of keeping this up to date. Can't believe it was 101 days ago I managed to write here! Just to let you know thought the elaborate point system didn't work actually but I have done some training, though not as much as I'd have hoped . I do have a half-marathon and a kilomarathon out of the way and some long runs on my own, including a 20 mile-er. The whole building an aerobic base though never happened (opps). The work I've done with my personal trainer though has been invaluable so far and this last couple of weeks I'm stocking up on me-time with my masseuse Susan Nove!

In these last few days (11 and counting) what I need more than anything is support, including knowing I'll be doing this for a whole wad of cash for VSO. So all donations, however small, will be most appreciated. If you haven't already done so please take some time to visit my Justgiving page* and however big or small your donation if you pay tax don't forget to add Gift Aid so the taxman gives his bit.

*For those who like to cut and paste: http://original.justgiving.com/misbahrunslondon

Day T + 112

Well the days have really flown by and now we are in 2010. Unfortuantely I had some family matters to attend to during November and December and was thrown off course. Then the snow came followed by ice and I was frightened of breaking a leg. However this morning I braved the cold (and boy was it cold, the air was like ice for the first 5 minutes) and went on a run. Only about 35 to 40 minutes, I cannot be precise as I have managed to lose my Nike+. I went and burnt some more calories walking up and down Oxford Street in the afternoon, which included replaces the Nike+.

A few years ago I made a New Year's resolution not to make resolutions. I know that sounds a bit stupid but really there is clear logical reasoning. I figured each day of my life should be lived better than the previous, why should I wait till the 31st December to change my negative traits or behaviour? However goals are a completely different thing. Goals that are written down are meant to be a lot more likely to actually be achieved (there is some statistic for this knocking about, though how they worked it out I'm not sure) and the end of a year is a good time to think about what you want to achieve the following year. So this year I decided to make a goal for each month and write it into my green leather mini filofax (yes had to get that in, love that green leather filofax I do). It's looking like a busy year and there is a cluster of running goals:

February - run half-marathon

March - run kilomathon

April - run marathon

Which brings me on nicely to tell you that I have entered into the Sussex Beacon (Brighton) half-marathon, which is on the This was suggested to be by Uju as she is running it as well. I hope she doesn't expect me to keep up with her if she's going to run at her normal pace; however it will be good to have her there.

Along with my goals I was thinking how I need to push myself to train harder. Thinking like a teacher (and frequent Boots consumer) I thought about giving myself points for doing various bits of training. Obviously running and more running is the basis of marathon training but to ensure I have overall strength and fitness I need to be doing other stuff too. So with these points, when I get enough points I could reward myself with something like a massage. I haven't yet worked out how many points should equal a massage or what other rewards to offer (massages are high on my list of desirable ways to spend an hour but I may need to inject some variety if I start clocking up points). Here is my current point system:

15 minutes hula-hooping = 1 point

30 minutes Wi-Fit = 1 point

15 minutes running = 1 point

30 minutes walking = 1 point

30 minutes cycling = 1 point

30 minutes swimming = 1 point

30 minutes dancing = 1 point

set of squats and stomach exercise (plank etc) = 0.5 points

kettlebell routine -= 2 points [kettlebells are hard work people!]

1 hour session with Uju = 3 points [you go have a session with her and you'll see why it's worth 3 points!]

That's how it stands now. I may add to it if I can come up with other stuff to do, at least looking at this I can see I have a few options for non-running days. I had planned to run to work and back but I'm not sure actually that is going to work - having a bag doesn't help, then all the hassle of getting changed and worrying about getting lost or late etc. I think for this week I'm going to try getting up early to run, come home and then walk to school in my MBTs and see how that works. I want to get a new cycle (my current one looks cool - well that depends on what you think is cool - however is rather heavy for the hills of Hampstead) with the cycle to work scheme (where Camden pays for half of it) and start cycling to work most days, instead of walking. (In fact May's goal is to be cycling to work regularly.) The real training must now begin in earnest. Keep your running toes crossed for me....

Day T + 167

The days are swiftly rolling by, which is quite scary. On Day T + 172, I saw Uju (my personal trainer). I thought maybe it would be gentle session to get me started. Oh no! It was hardcore, lots of burpies and pulsing squats (which really burn I tell you). Now I'm keeping a food and training diary till I see her again in a couple of weeks time. I don't really feel like I'm with it training wise. The weather has put a slump on things as I can't teach wet so need to get the key to the shower at school so I can finally put my action of running into school to plan. I also need to get the yoga up to speed, or rather frequency. I have a training session after school tomorrow but am hoping it finshes in time for me to go to the 7pm class at Triyoga with Panilla (a great teacher). If not, it will have to be this Thursday; and from then I hope to make 2 to 3 classes a week. Anyway this is a short update, I hope to have more to say soon.

Day T + 178

Back from Luxembourg, where amid the falling yellow and red leaves of autumn, the training finally kicked off. Monday was just a short 20 minute run, up to 30 minutes on the Tuesday and on Wednesday was nearly 50 minutes and did somewhere between 6 and 7k. Not worried about speed at the moment, working on building up some endurance. Had a blood test penultimate week of half-term - in which I nearly passed out and then was off work for the next two days - and found out I had a Vitamin D deficiency, so now I'm on a large tablet dose. Oddly one of the running magazines I bought had an article about that. Could explain the moodiness! Or at least it gives me (another) excuse... ;-P

Seeing Uju on Monday. Took the day off today as I flew back to London but hopefully to hit the streets next 3 days and then run to work on Monday. Pay day tomorrow so I'm off to look for some hi-visibility running gear as the nights get every earlier. Will take some photos and upload them, give you all a bit of visual stimulus.

That's all folks. Rather note-form and short but a bit tired out. From the travel and all the catching up I've had to do on iPlayer!

Day T + 195

The training is still pretty much halted, apart from some brisk walking here and there. Still a lot of sneezing and coughing, so I'm not making the same mistake twice. I'm hoping I will wake up tomorrow feeling ready to run, or at least walk briskly, to work.

Met a friend of my brother's yesterday for lunch to get some tips as he ran the Marathon last year. He reassured me the mileage I would be clocking up would be okay and pointed out some good websites. Turns out he may be running the Marathon this year as well - he has a place but is yet undecided on whether to run it. Last year he went from not running at all in October 2008 to running the Marathon in April 2009. So knowing I've already done a 5k and a 10k, whereas he struggled to keep running for 20 minutes to begin with, makes me feel a lot better about my chances! It was nice to meet a 'regular' person and just get his perspective on training and completing.

I also texted my personal trainer from my first bout of running, my 5k (which seems rather paltry now but was an achievement at the time), Uju Eze. She is a seasoned runner and regularly clocks up long runs. She's done many marathons, the London Marathon she's done four times itself! Her next marathon is Brighton so she won't be able to run with me but as part of my training we're going to run a half-marathon together. When I say together she'll obviously be faster, unless she decided to hang back to watch how I run. When I first saw Uju she told me I underestimated myself and my running ability. When I managed to run 10k in a hilly Edinburgh in a good time and with no training I realised she was right. Who knows, maybe I'm even a natural born runner?! Remembering my reluctant beginning to running she is as excited as me about the journey ahead. I'll be meeting her in early November to nail down a training plan to include resistance training and also a nutritional plan. To prepare I'm going to keep a food diary and also dig out my Kettlebells DVD. Uju had a colleague who did Kettlebell training and I did a session with her just to learn the ropes in terms of technique, as I purchased a women's set. Sadly they are poorly used and mostly gathering dust. Uju's colleague has now relocated to Spain but Uju is going on a training course this weekend for Kettlebells so hopefully we'll be able to incorporate it into my training.

I'm very excited about getting some professional help with my goal and I Uju was so good for my training for my 5k. I mentioned how 'nice' she was to my brother's friend and he said "Yeah sure, if you pay someone I'm sure they'll be nice...". But actually that is not my experience of gym trainers - Uju and I both know a very horrid one who use to work at the Fitness First in Chalk Farm. In a bizzare twist of fate, I complained and so had a second induction with Uju only to then meet her a year or so later through an unrelated PT company. Uju and I both left that gym because we didn't like it! I am sure that the other woman was probably a good trainer for some people, though I found her rude, demotivating and unhelpful. Everyone is different and so needs a different type of PT and part of it is just down to an elusive 'chemistry'. Uju is good at her job, knows her stuff and knows exactly how to get me working. I remember the week before my 5k we had a session and Uju suggested Regent's Park to get a lie of the land I'd be running. I readily agreed, only to get there and find Uju ready to follow me on her bike as I ran around the park, i.e. ran 5k! Uju knew not to tell me before - as I'd have chickened out - and run it I did, all the way without stopping. Once we were done I knew I could do it - which was what Uju wanted to prove to me before the big day. So I know she'll get me as ready as I can be for the London Marathon 2010. Besides as well as all her expertise; sometimes just knowing someone is going to ask, "So how many miles did you run this week?" and "What did you eat for dinner?" is all you need to wake up each morning to run and decide against those chips.

Day T + 204

Well the training has started off rather limply, owing to a lingering illness. I got through Wednesday and Thursday with early nights and large mugs of honey and lime (no lemon in the house) dosed with cloves and cinammon, only to wake up on Friday feeling so awful I had to take a cab to work. If it had been a teaching day I would have called in sick but it was performance managment. As the day went on I could feel a high temperature setting and my voice was racked by a chesty cough. So my Head of Department agreed I should go home at lunch. I ate loads, went to the homeopathic pharmacy, missed yoga yesterday evenving and meeting a friend today in order to sleep loads and now feel a lot better. Hopefully after tomorrow I'll be much better and then on Monday I can walk to school and hopefully be running in by the end of the week. On Thursday it said 6k on my Nike+ but I think that it is only actually 5k so need to calibrate the sensor. I had a Teach First event in the evening so didn't walk home. I guess maybe a gentle start is best anyway. I'm lookng forward to some good runs next week. I've signed up to a 10k which is happening in two weeks and I want to run that non-stop....