Marathon training - 22.2 mile run

This morning I ran 22.2 miles in 4 hours 14 minutes burning 2032 calories! This is the furthest that I've ever run and will be my longest training run so the next long run will be 26.2 miles!

I have had a gentle week training due to concerns about my ankle but I stopped many times on this run to stretch (pausing my watch!) and it all went well. The extra 4 miles didn't even seem that daunting.

My extrapolated time would be a marathon in 5 hours. I'd like to be faster than this and ran the first 15 or so at ten minute miles but then slowed off.

I am now starting the taper - where the level of exercise is reduced and the longest training run before the event now is 10 miles. The idea is to let the body recover a little before the event itself.

Eat for Save the Children!

Reckitt Benckiser is donating all takings from the canteen in Hull, next Tuesday 1st May to Save the Children.

This means that the money you hand over at the till for anything you buy will go to the projects supported by the Global Challenge.

The money raised will be divided equally between the Save 100,000 lives campaign which is working to save children's lives in Angola and Tanzania and the project that we will be visiting in Calcutta where Save the Children is working to help child domestic workers.

Save 100000 lives -
Every three seconds of every day a child dies from preventable diseases such as pneumonia, malaria, diarrhoea or measles. The children die because they do not have access to immunisations and basic healthcare. The Save 100000 lives campaign aims to reverse this trend providing basic immunisation and healthcare. Just £10 provides simple but essential interventions that will help to save a child's life.

Child domestic workers -
Children in domestic work in India typically lose out on several basic rights - including the rights to adequate food and education. Employers do not allow them free time to play, and a shockingly large percentage are abused, either verbally, physically or sexually, such children lose their childhood.

So please, if you work for RB in Hull, visit the canteen on Tuesday and eat well!
The money that you spend really will make a difference.

Save the Children Project Visit - Child Domestic Workers, West Bengal

Please see below information from Save the Children on the project that we will be visiting in Calcutta.

Background information:
An astounding 16.4 million children in India are working. Save the Children is the first organisation in India to focus on an ‘invisible’ group of child workers: those in domestic work. Children in domestic work typically lose out on several basic rights – including the rights to adequate food and education. Employers do not allow them free time to play, and a shockingly large percentage are abused, either verbally, physically or sexually. Living in a situation of daily insults, little food, beatings, and no education, such children lose their childhood.

For the past three years, we have been:
· encouraging parents to fetch back children from domestic work and put them into schools, informing communities on the need to stop sending children to cities for work
· motivating employers with child employees to treat them humanely and to send them to school
· encouraging potential employers to stop employing children as domestic help.
· informing the public and raising awareness to the issue of child domestic work

Since Save the Children began this programme, we have succeeded in sending 1700 children back to their villages. In turn, these children have become change agents, working in their communities to stop the scourge of children in domestic work.

The girls pictured above work as child domestic workers, but are given a couple of hours of a day to go to the Save the Children run drop in centre where they learn basic skills.

Marathon Training - 19.4 miles

On Sunday I ran my second longest run in my training schedule and the longest run I've done to date at 19.4 miles. Mostly it went very well with me feeling better than all of my previous long runs and completing it at a better rate than before.

I now have new trainers and they seemed to support my arches better with less aches on the run itself and immediately after. I do have a blood blister on my toe but minor ailment compared to the aches!

One worry though - I had a strange sensation in my right achilies tendon at about 18 miles which hurt badly enough to make me stop and walk for about 100m. After this it was okay and I was able to finish my run. However, it has been feeling slightly strange for brief moments yesterday and today so I really hope I've done no long lasting damage.

Save the Children - April news letter

Welcome to April’s Save the Children newsletter for the Global Challenge 2007!

Congratulations on your fundraising so far! £56,000 has been raised over the past few months, which is an incredible achievement! Not only that but 6 amazing trekkers have already raised above their minimum amount!!

What your money funds …

The funds raised through the Reckitt Benckiser Global Challenge go 50:50 towards the ‘save 100,000 lives’ programme and the project you will be visiting in India.

The save 100,000 lives programme is working to save children’s lives in Angola & Tanzania. Every three seconds of every day a child dies from preventable diseases such as pneumonia, malaria, diarrhoea or measles.

That’s 30,000 children every day, almost 11 million children every year.

These children die because they do not have access to immunisations and basic healthcare. The save 100,000 lives programme is working to reverse this trend by providing that basic immunisation and healthcare. Just £10 provides simple but essential interventions that will help to save a child’s life.

Programme focus: Angola
Angola has some of the worst maternal and infant mortality rates in the world and is currently the second worst place in the world to be born a child.
Elisa and Nongola, two traditional birth attendants (village midwives) – San José, Huambo province, Angola
In Huambo province, around 80 percent of babies are born at home with the help of village midwives.
These midwives are therefore key for the survival and future development of children. Thanks to the Save 100,000 lives programme, a number of them have received 30 days of training in safe delivery practices and in diagnosis of complicated pregnancy cases.
Elisa and Nongola have been village midwives for a number of years,
they both chose to do it because they liked helping other women but had no specific knowledge nor had received any training.

They were delighted to have completed the training and happy to share their newly acquired knowledge: among other things, they learn about the importance of washing their hands and to recognise complicated pregnancies that need to be referred to hospital. The relevance of the training came to life when they talked about babies that did not cry instantly at birth. Previously, they would have pronounced the baby dead, but now they know techniques to help resuscitate these babies.

Over the last couple of months since their training, Elisa and Nongola had a much higher survival rate and between them have delivered 19 healthy babies.

Yoga

Yesterday I attended a Yoga class. I've been meaning to do this for a while and was considering waiting until after the marathon when I have more time. However, I think it is a good complimentary exercise, gently stretching muscles rather than the abuse of running and it was certainly relaxing. I plan to keep it up.

Within a £100 of my target!

My target is well and truely in sight. I now have less than £100 to go to raise what I pledged. Obviously I will keep going once I make my target - the more money raised the more difference it will make to unfortunate children in the world.

Very many thanks to all of you who have made this possible.

Training in Fontainebleau, France

I've just returned from a weeks holiday in France with friends. We were staying in a couple of gites in the forest of Fontainebleau with the main activity being bouldering (rock climbing on boulders). I climbed every day but one, helping my strength but more relevant for training I also went for three runs. Not sure of the length as I didn't have a map! However, I ran for 30 minutes, 3 hours 20 minutes and 45 minutes so all in all not a bad weeks training.

17 mile run - the other way around!

On Good Friday I went for the same run as the week before but the other way around - amazing how different it feels! still hard by less muscle strain more tension in my feet. There is no doubt in my mind now that I need some new trainers to support my arches better.

17 mile training run

On Saturday I ran just over 17 miles - my longest run to date and within 10 miles of the marathon distance. These long runs make my legs stiff even during the run so I know that they are doing some good!

Easter Cakes raised £64.53!

Alex and I raised a total of £64.53 for Save the Children today through the generous donations of people at RB Hull in exchange for Easter cakes. Very many thanks to all those who donated -I hope that you enjoyed the cakes.

In addition, one employee has offered to match the amount raised if we bake for his meeting on the 16th of April so the final total should be doubled.

I have added £32.25 to my website.