A few weeks ago I was very lucky and honoured to have my photos taken by a lovely lady and friend Emma Freeman. Ems is the most amazing photographer, extremely easy and relaxing to work with. I thought I would show you that I can scrub up when not wearing running kit! www.emmafreemanportraits.co.uk
It’s all systems go in the Gash and Anderson households – emails, Skype calls, FB messaging, texting you name it we have been communicating in one form or another virtually everyday – not as easy as it sounds when Samantha is 9 hours ahead of me. Last week we had a fantastic Skype conversation lasting for over an hour and half – very positive and I for one said good-bye really feeling we had achieved a HUGE amount. People always say that if you are positive and feel positive, positive things happen – Freedom Runners had an amazingly positive, good news marvellous day!
My training over the last few weeks has gone well. I was honoured to support Fiona McNeil on the final 42 miles of the North Downs Way 100; I have never met anyone so determined to finish, Fiona really gave it her all (even if she did insist in the early hours of sunday morning to lie down in the middle of a field and have a sleep!!) For me it was a proud moment to watch her cross the finish line of the NDW100, something she had dreamt of but never thought she would be able to achieve – for Fiona a dream come true and for me it was wonderful to help her achieve her dream.
I have to admit that with the awful weather we had and all the ups, downs, steps, steps and oh yes more steps we had to tackle in the last 42 miles (and I ONLY did the last bit!) my legs the next morning were slightly screaming at me to remain very still. I took Monday as a rest day and was back to running again on Tuesday followed by a good solid week of training.
The following weekend I went down to Cornwall for the Roseland August Trail Events (R.A.T for short). The races consist of 64 miles (plague) 32 miles, 20 miles and 11 miles, all along the same amazing coastal route which really does make for three fantastic events. They are well organised and throughly enjoyed by the competitors as well as family and friends who come to support – the whole weekend is designed for everyone to enjoy. The finish line where the campsite is has the most stunning view to wake up to in the morning.
Ferg, Andy & Jo the race organisers had very kindly said they would do a fundraiser for the Freedom Runners Project over the weekend which was marvellous. I gave a talk on the Friday evening, Becky and Bridget (with lots of help from Paul and Roger) had organised an amazing raffle, auction, second hand running kit sale plus heads and tales all of which were a huge success. Thank you to everyone who donated a prize either to the auction or the raffle, your generosity was fantastic.
As well as meeting up with lots of friends and spending a lovely weekend in Cornwall (camping!) Becky and I were sweeping the 32 mile route which meant we had to collect all the markings, rubbish and not go any faster than the slowest runners (giving them a bit of encouragement when needed!) The most challenge part of sweeping was trying to carry all the signs put up along the route, some of them were HUGE! We were both very impressed that there was very little rubbish to pick up – absolutely brilliant.
After a wonderful weekend in sunny Cornwall I returned home where I had another great week of training, finishing the week with two good 3 hr hilly runs with friends. I usually do all my runs on my own so this was a real treat having some company and an opportunity to chat!
I decided that Bank Holiday Monday was the only day of the week that I could fit in a really long run so decided to run from Charing along the North Downs Way all the way to Dover with the added bonus that Maria and Gavin very kindly offered to pick me up in Dover and take me back to my car – way too good an opportunity to miss. However the weather was going to be the worst it had been for months, heavy rain from about 8am. I packed my backpack up including my new waterproof jacket and drove to Charing.
The first couple of hours of the run were fine as far as the weather was concerned, I thought the weather forecasters had got it wrong – but no such luck, at about 10am the rain tipped it down and the nearer I got to the coast the worse it became together with the strong winds which at one point literally blew me over – this was a laugh out loud moment! Thankfully the wind was blowing from the sea inland rather than the other way round or I might not have been laughing quite so much!
I sent Maria and Gavin a text message to say I was near Dover, they immediately jumped in their car and met me looking like a drowned rat at Priory Station! The run was 52km in total and I was treated to a lovely cup of black coffee before taking me back to my car – what more could a girl ask for!
My body seems to be holding up which is just as well and on my long runs I wear my ankle supports. I don’t usually like strapping and supports to be used the whole time as this can cause other issues with your body, but when I’m doing the Freedom Trail I will be going over some very technical sections so it’s essential that I get used to running with them.
I’m getting very excited about heading out to South Africa and running with Samantha and meeting the rest of the group who will be there to support us but one bit of me is also feeling a bit sad as HWMBO isn’t flying out until the 9th October and I won’t actually see him until the evening of the 13th (nearly a whole month), this will be the longest we have been apart since our son was 18 months old when he was a way working for 3 months. For me it’s going to be tough not having him around and I will miss him, we have been married for 30 years this year – in fact two days after finishing the Freedom Runners Project we will celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary! He’s an amazing man who supports everything I do and I know he would love to be there from the beginning but someone in the Anderson household has to be sensible!!
Photo by Martin Paldan
Happy Training
