UPDATE 01/05/2012 - Whew, as I sit here its a week or so after the marathon, I think I'm just about recovered from the whole process. I completed it in 5hrs 22min, which was a bit outside my target time of 4 and a half hours but you can never plan for everything that happens on the day! What it does mean is that much to Hannah's disgust I'm probably going to have to do another marathon in the future to try to get that time down below 5 hours!

It was a brilliant day irrelevant of the time it took me and I want to say a huge thank you to my support team on the day. Hannah, Mum, Dad, Auntie, Mel, Barbara,Wendy & the girls, Amy, Debs and Rach - thank you soooo much for being there, and especially for getting around London to see me multiple times which I imagine was probably more stressful than I had it running the thing!

A final huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, or if you're reading this about to sponsor me then thanks in advance. The amount I've raised is absolutely brilliant and I've completely smashed not only my original target of £1,600, but also my stretch target of £1,900. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Steph x

UPDATE 20/04/2012 - Well it's finally here! Just two days to go and I'll actually be running my first ever marathon for Whizz-Kidz. I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who has already donated, my total raised is going up every day which is amazing. However, the more money I can raise the more kids that can be helped. So please dig deep and donate and you never know it could be your donation that pushes me over my target.

I had the opportunity last week to go down to the Birmingham Ambassador Club to meet some of the kids and they made me feel very welcome so a massive thanks to the kids who let me tag along with their campaigning session and get them together for a group photo. And thanks to Catherine for allowing me to come along to her session, Amy for accommodating me in the afternoon group, Jess for taking photos and giving me a bit of general Whizz-Kidz background and Charli for putting me in contact with Catherine in the first place.  It was amazing to see what a difference the money I'm raising can make, and I hope to go back to their next session to give them a final total from my sponsorship and show them my medal and any photos that I've got.

Well that's it from me for now, please continue to donate what you can. I'm off to Italy with Hannah for a week following the race to rest and recover so I might not be able to update post-race, but I'll be back soon with pictures and my finishing time.

Cheers,

Stephanie

UPDATE 19/03/2012 - Second (and last) pre-marathon race completed yesterday down in Surrey, see latest pictures above. A nice little 20 mile race starting at the Top Gear test track at Dunsfold and then going out into the countryside for a 10 mile lap and then repeating the same again. The weather forecast beforehand was for biblical levels of rain, actual weather on the day - glorious sunshine! I should know better as Water Resources Manager to never expect rain at the moment what with the current drought conditions.

It was a challenging day certainly, my first run at that distance, fairly warm weather as I said, and also a few hills in there to make it interesting. Highlight of the day has to be running round the track whilst a massive helicopter landed in the middle!

So all completed in 3hrs 26 minutes which leaves me bang on track to complete the marathon in 4 and a half hours. Please, please, please keep donating though, every little really does help and with just over a month to go I'm just over half way to my target amount

Cheers

Stephanie

UPDATE 05/03/2012 - Well the training appears to be going well, I ran the Eastbourne Half Marathon yesterday in 2hrs 10 minutes which knocked a massive 27 minutes off my personal best from last summer!

All donations are gratefully received and will make a massive difference to my total so please give whatever you can afford. Please trust me that I'm doing all that I can to get ready for this huge challenge and your money will go to a great cause.

Stephanie

Starting Message

Hi everyone,

As some of you may know, I started running back in February 2011 as a way to relax from an increasingly stressful job - when you have three lots of road rage on your two mile commute then something needs to change! I found it a great way to relax, and started challenging myself to see what I could achieve. To that end last July I completed my first half marathon, and in September 2011 my first, and possibly last, duathlon.

After surviving (and on occasion enjoying) that, I wanted a further challenge and what better way to test yourself than completing one of the world's best marathons, in a year where all eyes will be on London for the Olympics.

Having made that decision, then I wanted to find someone to benefit from this challenge - as great as the positives are for me (less stressed, infinitely fitter) if I'm going to put all this effort in then someone else should definitely benefit from it as well!

I decided on Whizz-Kidz as the charity that I am going to run for. Whizz-Kidz are a great organisation that are working towards getting the 70,000+ disabled children in this country more suitable wheelchairs and mobility aids to allow them to lead full and active lives like any other child. We all know what standard NHS wheelchairs are like, we've seen them at hospitals and that's no wheelchair for a child - they are difficult to manouevre and often require someone else to push them. Whizz-Kidz want to provide disabled children with wheelchairs that can keep up with whatever it is that they want to do, be that going across the mud in the park with their friends, or being independent and getting themselves around town. The best part is that they not only provide chairs and aids that help them to get around, but they also provide them with safety training so that when they do go out and about on their own they can do so in a safe way.

So please, dig deep and donate, and help me to not just meet my sponsorship target but absolutely smash it! And if you're available on 22nd April 2012, you know where I'll be.

Many thanks

Stephanie.