I would run 1,000 miles...

Way Overdue Update

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:52:00 +0000

Hello!

I haven't updated my blog in such a long time, which is pretty bad considering the fact that I used to write or make a video every week. But the thing is, the further into the challenge I got, the more I felt like the posts and videos were becoming a little repetitive. There's only so many times I can say "I went for a run. Then the next day, I went for a run again" before it gets a bit dull.

BUT, I'm storming through the miles now. I've been working really, really hard over the last few weeks, and I'm not over 70 miles ahead of target and well on the way to the finish line. I have 128 miles to go, and everything seems to be ticking along quite nicely.

I strted making a real big effort mid-sptember when I had a week off work. I was helping some friends with their charity walk to the west end, and I found myself with a lot of time on my hands. So I decided to clock up some miles, and really get ahead of schedule. And since then, I've realised that working harder than normal will mean that I could probably reach the 1,000 mile mark by the start of December, and I can have a proper rest and recovery period over Christmas.

So I'm getting 2 runs a day in now. And even though it's not always nice to be in the gym at 6.30am when it's still dark and freezing cold outside, it will all be worth it in the end. My daily average has gone up to between 5 and 6 miles now, so I really am going for it in a big way.

Thanks to everyone who keeps up the massive support on Twitter and Facebook. It really does mean a lot to have everyone cheering me on, offering advice, drumming up support and just being friendly.

I haven't been nagging about sponsorship too much, but I think it's about time to drop the link in for you - just in case you feel generous! If you can spare a few pennies, please click here and give what you can. I'm doing the hard work - help me out by keeping a smile on my face!

Thanks very much,

Nat xx

Half way there...

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:42:00 +0000

Ok... so it's been ages since I wrote anything or made a video. But that's because I've had a hell of a lot of catching up to do!

Those of you who follow me on twitter or are on my facebook page will know that I had a pretty nasty knee injury a few weeks back. I had to have some horrible treatment, and take a lot of time off. Which meant that I ended up being almost 50 miles behind schedule, and I was finding that my spirits were pretty low. But, thanks to a lot of encouragement and support from everyone, I managed to really step up and work hard to get things back on track.

And so, I am now over half way to the 1,000mile finish line.

I'm really feeling quite proud of myself right now. 500miles is a big achievement and it really proves to people that I'm serious about this. I've also caught up on the miles that I lost during my injury, which is a huge weight off my shoulders. I can now get back to running sensible amounts (as I'm very aware that running ten miles is silly, considering I obviously have a weak knee), and I'll even be able to take the odd day off without feeling guilty about it! So it's smiles all around from this girl.

On the sponsorship front... things are going well, but I'm not half way to my target yet. It'd be great if I could reach £1,500 soon. I have to give a big shout-out to Graeme Hackland though - he sponsors me every time I cross another 100mile marker. And he even donates extra money when he feels like I've been working hard! So thank you very much Graeme :)

And now for my excuse about not making a video! Basically, there were about three weeks when I wasn't running. So that would have been quite boring and pointless. And then I was running so much to catch up, that I've barely had time to do anything. (I feel like I'm at school and explaining why I haven't done my homework). But there are plans in place for a mighty comeback of the exciting challenges, and a video will be coming your way very soon. Like it or not :P

I think that's pretty much everything for now. You're all up to speed on how it's going, and that's good! If anyone is feeling especially generous as you're reading this, click on my little JustGiving tab on the right hand side of the page and throw a few pennies into my sponsorship pot. Cheeky, I know, but if you don't ask, you don't get!

I'll try not to leave it so long next time :)

Love Nat xx

The vlog: Episode 12.

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 20:20:00 +0000

Okay, so I know I'm due to do an actual proper written 'post' by now. I will get my head down to a bit of writing at some point, but for now, just watch the video if you want to know how it's all going :) xx

New vlog!

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Mon, 24 May 2010 21:45:00 +0000

After a pretty long break, due to issues beyond my control, the vlog has once again landed and will hopefully be back on form.

Dear Secret Donor, you have made my day.

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:02:00 +0000

I've got the week off work this week. And so I was already in a fairly good mood when I woke up and had the blissful feeling of being able to stay in bed for as long as I wanted. But then I checked my email, and saw something from JustGiving...

"Someone has donated £60 to your charity"

Hell yeah they had!! That alone was enough to put a huge smile on my face, but when I actually visited the page to see who had booked themselves a spot on my awesome list of awesome people, I was really surprised to see that they'd donated under the name 'Secret Donor'. And that has just plain and simple excited me.

I don't know if this random act of kindness is down to someone that I know, or just someone who has heard about what I'm doing on the grapevine of the internet. But either way, the idea of someone donating a pretty big sum of money and not taking credit for it just has a very heartwarming effect on me. This must be what it feels like to be rescued by Spiderman.

I've already sent a thank you out via twitter and facebook, in the hope that Secret Donor will be able to see it, but I'll just say it here too - you've really made me smile! You've taken my sponsorship total up to £1,000 now, and that's a pretty massive deal if you ask me. While I'm issuing the thank yous, I'd just like to give a massive virtual hug to everyone else who has sponsored me along the way so far. It's made me feel quite proud of myself and it's made the pain and the sweating and the tiredness all worth it. I've still got a long, long way to run, and I hope that means that there's still a lot more money to be raised!

Speaking of, I've got a little event planned that will coincide with my crossing the 300mile mark. My mum is a teacher, and her colleagues are always sending lovely messages of support for me, so I thought I'd try and get the whole school involved. This Friday, I'm running over 9miles from Burton Joyce to Rushcliffe, where my mum's school is. It'll take me through Colwick, Wilford and West Bridgeford. And let's face it, it's Nottingham we're talking about. So there is a fairly good chance that I may be shot. Or maybe I'll just be on the receiving end of some verbal abuse from a rude boi. Ya get meeee, blad? Assuming I can dodge any bullets though, I'll arrive at the school at breaktime, and there will be loads of students there to cheer me on, followed by a massive cake sale and other little money raising plots. I've also hoodwinked the sixth form girls to go and flirt shamelessly in order to get people to sponsor me. Fingers crossed, it'll work!

All in all, I'm feeling quite positive about the sponsorship side of things. The further into my challenge I get, the more interest I seem to get and so I'm hoping that things will just keep on getting better and better :)

Oh and on the vlog front - I realise that I've totally slacked off the last couple of weeks. Truth is, I've been having some computer issues. Which is massively annoying. But I'm hoping to have things fixed up and ready to rock again by the time it comes to the run to school on Friday. If you miss me, just watch the older ones on the Videos page. If you don't miss me and are enjoying the break from having to see my weekly vlog, then don't watch the old ones.

Thanks for stopping by, and come back soon :)

Love,
Nat xx

P.S. Davina McCall totally re-tweeted me again the other day. Along with a message: "Well done! Amazing!" when I told her how far I'd got in my challenge so far. I'm thinking I'm about 2 tweets away from being invited round for dinner :) x

Week 11 video

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:20:00 +0000

TA-DA!! Return of the weekly vlog.

Shin splints.

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:39:00 +0000

Those of you who are into the whole swing of things on the vlog front will notice that last week's was a no-show. There is a reason for this.

On Wednesday whilst at the gym, I suddenly felt like someone had stabbed me in the shin with a hot poker. And I'm not even exaggerating. As soon as it happened, I kind of knew what was wrong - shin splints. But at the same time, I didn't actually want to say that anything was wrong. See, I have this ridiculous logic (or lack of), whereby I believe that something is only true if you say it out loud. So I kept my mouth shut and hoped for the best.

But by Thursday morning, the pain wasn't getting any better, and I needed to stop being silly. So I put it out on twitter that I was in pain, and the general response confirmed that shin splints were the diagnosis.

Now, it's not the end of the world. It's not like I'd broken my leg. But the kicker of it is, that the very best - and sometimes only - way to get rid of shin splints is to rest. But I can't do that. I have a giant progress chart on my wall that rules my life for this year, and it tells me that I can't take time off. So, I was left with only one option: sort it out on the go.

After a lot of frustration and a couple of very down days, where I just sulked about the situation, I decided to stop being such a baby and work things out. I collected up all of the lovely twitter messages and facebook comments from people (one of which came from Liz Yelling, off of the Olympics... how cool is that?!) and came to the conclusion that new trainers, insoles and shin sleeves were called for.

And thank god for the fact that my dad is brilliant.

There's no way that I would have been able to afford all of that stuff, and so my dad stepped up to look after his firstborn, and bought me some brilliant new trainers. I'm not going to lie, I properly love them. It feels like I'm running on the moon - that's how much cushioning and shock-absorbing action is going on beneath my feet now. And with a combination of taking it fairly slow, lots of ice and my new best friends (the trainers - I'm not yet cool enough to have made actual human new friends), the pain is subsiding and a smile is slowly creeping back onto my little face.

So, that's the end of the drama. I have decided. It was a pretty near miss as far as injuries go, and I didn't like it one bit. So no more of that crap for me, thanks very much.

I'm nearly a quarter of the way there now, and feeling a lot more positive than I was at the end of last week. I just want to say a massive thankyou to everyone who has offered helpful advice and general support though - it never goes unnoticed and I appreciate it more than I can say, without sounding like the lyrics to a cheesy song.

Lots of love,
Nat xx

Week 9 video

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:15:00 +0000

I'm all about making things easier for people to find, so here is my latest youtube effort, right on the homepage of the blog.

See, now you don't even need to go looking on the 'Videos' page to find it! That's how nice I am :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Nat xx

200... so close

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:27:00 +0000

Well I'm feeling pretty good about things right now! I'm almost 10miles ahead - and that's after having the whole weekend off. And the 200mile mark is seriously close. If I really push myself this week, then I'll have it crossed by Saturday and I can enjoy another weekend of rest. (When I say rest, I actually mean having fun. The rest part comes from not running).

Sponsorship is creeping up slowly, and I'm hoping that £1,000 will be hit pretty soon. I'll definitely have to think of some way to celebrate that one, as it's a pretty immense milestone to hit. Fingers crossed, it'll be sooner rather than later!

My latest vlog seems to have gone down pretty well. People seem to enjoy seeing me make a fool out of myself with my friends! And you know what? If it gets people watching the thing and spreading the word about what I'm doing, then I'll quite happily find some different display of stupidity every single week for the rest of the challenge!

On another note... I think that all this running is having an effect on my brain. I've always been known to have quite elaborate dreams. I sometimes wake up feeling like I've just watched a film. My dreams have proper plots and twists and real characters and stuff - it's quite entertaining. But lately, I've been having pretty full-on nightmares. And it's not really that fun. I don't know whether it's all the fresh air or exercise, but I'm pretty sure that the nightmares come along when I'm doing more of the running. Maybe it'll pass. But I can't stop the running, so for now I'll be sleeping with a baseball bat next to my bed, to reassure myself in the event of waking mid-nightmare.

And as I was writing that, I actually imagined someone breaking into the house, coming into my room, stealing the baseball bat and beating me to death with it. Flaw in my plan, methinks.

Sorry for spilling my strange thoughts onto my blog - I'm well aware that I'm quite 'special'.

On that rather strange note, I think I'll sign off. Thanks for stopping by for a read - I hope you'll be back again soon :) Check out the video page too - I'm much better at keeping that up to date!

Here's to 200miles...

Nat xxx

Update. Because it's long overdue.

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:32:00 +0000

I'm a terrible blogger. Of this I am well aware. I could throw out all the excuses under the sun, about how busy I've been and all that kinda gubbins. But the truth is, I just need to keep on top of things really. So, sorry about the lack of recent updates! I promise to try better in future.

Things are going pretty well so far! I'm over 10miles ahead of schedule, and very close to hitting the 150mile mark. It's all flying by quite quickly now actually, and the daily running has just become part of my routine. I'm feeling good, and getting pretty fast, so I'm enjoying the benefits so far.

On the sponsorship front, things have slowed down a bit. In fact, they've come to a screeching halt. I knew that there would be an initial boom of people getting behind though, and that it was going to end somewhere, so I'm not feeling too disheartened about it. Yet. But I'm thinking that it might be time to do something stupid again to convince people to sponsor me. Something a little more stupid than the pirate run, but not as stupid as running on fire or anything like that.

Publicity-wise, things are looking good. I spoke about the feature on the NHS Local website in my last video, and I can't wait to see that once it goes live. I think it could really lead to some great stuff. I've also got some other really exciting opportunities on the horizon, but I'm not going to get too ahead of myself and start announcing them yet - it's only early days at the moment! I'm hoping that once I get a good few hundred miles done, things will really start to liven up again in terms of sponsorship.

That's the latest update for now, but I'll be back again soon with some more entertaining stories to tell. I seem to attract insanity when I go out on my runs. And I've got to say, I enjoy it. It's like living in a cartoon.

Thanks for sticking with me,

Love Nat xx

13... unlucky for some.

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:45:00 +0000

Not so unlucky for me.

I seem to have picked Monday as my day of madness. The day when I try and push myself just that little bit further than the week before. There's nothing wrong with that - it's had pretty good results so far. But I think that I may have peaked this week.

I usually announce my monday goal via Twitter, just to let people know what I'm going to be aiming for. But this week, I kept it between myself and a couple of people at work. I had a conversation with my friend Kate, which resulted in the conclusion that I have absolutely no sense of logic (or maths):

Kate: You're not going to do 10miles again are you?

Nat: You know what... I think I might do a half marathon. Go for 13.

Kate: Why?!

Nat: Well, I need to do 8.5 to cross the 100mile barrier. So if I'm doing 8.5, I might as well just do 15.

Kate: That makes no sense. You're on about getting to 8.5 and then doing over half of that on top.

Nat: Oh yeah... that does sound a bit stupid.

And with that, you would have thought that I had learned my lesson. But no. Two hours later, I'm ready to rock and I'm determined that I will not stop until I've run 13miles.

It turned out to be a pretty good attitude to take on, and although it was a massive push, (most of which was done without music, due to a tremendous headphone fail) I did it. And it felt flippin' brilliant to be able to say "I ran a half marathon after work today".

Since the start of this challenge, there have been some down days where I really didn't want to do any running. But there have also been some amazing days, like Monday, where I managed to push myself beyond any barriers that I'd imagined before I started. And I've raised £825 for the MS Society in the space of 4 weeks. That's a pretty massive achievement.

So you know what? I'm going to keep on pushing myself, and do every single thing that I can to surprise myself and all of the lovely people following me on this challenge. I'm not saying that next monday will result in 15miles, or even that I'll do another half marathon within the next few weeks. But when I sat back on Monday night and read some of the really nice comments that people had left for me on my site, and realised that my mission to help the MS Society is really working, I also came to the realisation that this is quite possibly going to be an absolutely amazing year.

Thanks for being a part of it :)

Hello energy, welcome.

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:05:00 +0000

After the success of 8mile Monday, I decided that I'd push myself even further last night and do ten miles. At first, it was just a target. But as soon as I'd stupidly announced it over Twitter and gotten lots of encouragement, it was a bit too late to back out and not deliver. So after work, I hit the gym and got going on my longest run yet.

And after an hour and a half, 10miles had been done and I was a happy little runner. The final mile was a bit of a push, but then 'ABC' by The Jackson Five shuffled its way onto my iPod, so I got a final burst of happy musical energy and kicked the crap out of mile 10.

I learned from my mistake after last week, and actually managed to get a pretty decent night's sleep. I was fully expecting to still be pretty tired this morning when I woke up, but no. I actually felt like I'd slept for about a day.

So when it came to doing tonight's run, I decided to take advantage and to push myself again. I set a mental target of five miles. No Twitter announcements this time - just in case. But once I'd started running, I actually felt like I could have kept going for another 10mile show of madness. I had to purposefully stop myself after the 5th mile through sheer worry that my dodgy knee would fall out with me and start hurting if I did too much.

This has led me to the conclusion that I have an energy problem. But not in a bad, lacking-in-energy kind of way... more of a too much energy way. I suppose it's not a bad problem to have, considering the challenge that I'm on, so I won't complain, but I am quite curious as to just how far I'm actually going to be able to push it before I crash...

On the sponsorship front, things are amazing. I'm getting donations from people all over the place. And most of them are from people who I don't actually know personally, and have just heard about what I'm doing through Twitter or YouTube or the gym. Which is great, because it means that word is spreading and that makes me feel very good!

I love the fact that I've got so many people cheering me on and giving advice every time I put a run up on Twitter or facebook, and I'm so very grateful for everyone sticking by me. Please keep it up - I can't do this on my own!

Come back again soon :)
Love, Nat
xx

8Mile. Like the film. But better.

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:58:00 +0000

I spent the whole of yesterday behind my desk at work feeling restless and fidgety. You know, that feeling where you just need to go and do something to burn off some energy? I think I must have been pretty annoying to work with, because I was constantly up and down, finding things to do that would allow me to be out of my chair and walking around. So I though that it would be a good idea to do something about it, and use my pent-up energy to my advantage.

It snowed over the weekend, and the pavements are still pretty icy, so I'm confined to the gym for now through fear of ice-related injury/humiliation (although, after the pirate run I seem to be imune to humiliation). Anyhoo, the gym is quite alright by me, and so I bounded in there like a small child, put the treadmill on 'Marathon Mode' and just went for it.

I had my music on, and was daydreaming away whilst I ran, and the next thing I know, an hour and 10 minutes had past, and I'd run nearly 8miles. That was a pretty great feeling. I decided to round it up to a solid 8, and then triumphantly jumped off the treadmill. It nearly all went wrong at that point, as my legs were a bit wobbly after the running and there was almost a stumbling incident. But no-one saw, so it never happened.

On my way back to the changing rooms, I stopped to fill up my waterbottle and a really rude man shoved in front of me to fill his up first. Once he'd finished, he turned around to give me a smug little grin, tripped and dropped his water bottle, spilling about a litre of water everywhere. So I burst out laughing. For I am immature.

I was shattered once I'd got home and had a shower, but once I'd tweeted and facebooked about how far I'd run, I got so many lovely messages from people that it made it all feel so worth it. I decided to take a preemptive strike too, and gave my trustly icepack and knee brace their first outings. I felt ok, but I didn't want to risk any injury or pain the next day so I played it safe.

And apart from oversleeping a bit thismorning, I feel great! I know that I should take a rest day, but I'd really like to have a couple of days off at the weekend. So I might do a couple of miles tonight... We'll see.

I know I keep on saying it, but that's only because it's true - I am so incredibly grateful for everyone's support. Whether you're following me on Twitter, watching my videos, reading this or whatever, it means so much to have you behind me, and I feel very lucky. And it spreads awareness for the MS Society, which is what this is all about. So thankyou, and I hope you'll come back again soon.

Love,
Nat
xx

4. It's a magic number.

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:20:00 +0000

It's so close to the weekend, and for that I am very happy. I'm planning to run on Saturday, but I'm also planning to sleep and recover from a busy week. Work has been manic today, to say the least, and the last thing I really felt like doing was going to the gym and running. But once I'd weighed up how important it is to be tough and soldier on through off-days (because let's face it - I'm going to have a lot of them throughout the year), I realised that 4 miles was do-able.

And the four miles that I in fact did manage, takes my weekly total up to 16miles. That's four per day, thank you very much, congratulations to me. (I think I'm allowed to be proud of myself at this point).

I've been in touch with some great people this week. Names to mention are Ashley, who is running across the US for MS. Sounds like a hell of a big challenge, but I have no doubts that she'll rise to it and be great. I also want to say thanks to James Ellis for dedicating a run to me. He's writing a blog about what he's doing and it's worth checking it out! He really likes to put himself through hell with some long runs, but he's doing a great job and I'm looking forward to seeing what he'll be getting up to for the rest of the year:

http://www.worldofjames.com/

Sponsorship is climbing slowly but surely, and the £500 mark is within reach. I'm thinking about another episode of silliness along the same lines as the pirate run at some point. Maybe a kind of "When I reach £750 I'll *insert-stupid-act-of-stupidity-here...". But I need to put a proper plan together for that. I'll keep you posted...

The snow has created a little annoyance for me this week. It's pretty much put the kibosh on any road running that I'd had planned. (I just had to google the word 'kibosh' to check I was using it properly). I don't mind getting wet, and I can even put up with being cold, but I'm not going to risk slipping over and landing on my arse. That would hurt and might put me out of action for a couple of days so it's just not worth it. I'll stick to the gym for now thanks.

It was Nat versus Anh again last night for the weekly challenge. (If you don't know what I'm on about, check out my video page). I won't give anything away, but it was quite entertaining and I think it'll make a good watch when I post the vlog at the weekend.

I think that's about it for now! Thanks for reading this latest post, and I hope that you'll be back again soon. For everyone who's following me on Twitter and Facebook, thankyou for the brilliant messages of encouragement and good luck wishes. It's brilliant to have so many people behind me, and hope you'll stick with me to the end.

Love,

Nat xx

She's a pirate!

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:31:00 +0000

I made a promise that I'd run in a pirate costume if I got 200 friends on facebook, or £500 in sponsorship. And within about 12 hours, I'd hit the 200 mark on good old facey-b. So today's 4 mile run was done looking like I'd stolen something from Johnny Depp's wardrobe.

Embarrassment, dodgy looks and stares aside, it was actually pretty fun. I could chuckle to myself every time I saw someone because I know that I'd find it quite funny if the roles were reversed. And it's led to more people following what I'm doing and more money being raised so it's all ok!

I'm pretty happy with how the first few days of the running have gone. I've done over 20 miles so far, and I've still got another run to do tomorrow morning before a well-deserved (in my opinion) day off. So things are right on track at the moment.

I've been talking to some great people this week too, who I never would have spoken to without doing this. So big hello to everyone that's been sending lovely messages of encouragement and support. Especially Jenny Stewart, Kirsty Williams and Joe Marruchella. I've had so many lovely messages that I can't possibly say thanks to everyone individually, but they all mean a lot.

Davina McCall and Kelly Osbourne also did me a huge favour by re-tweeting messages that I sent to them which led to more followers, more awareness and more sponsorship. So massive thanks to them, and everyone who is following because of them!

I'll be putting a video up on my channel tomorrow, with a more detailed look at what's been going on this week, so I'll say goodbye for now.

Keep on spreading the word for me - I really need all your help. And I hope that you'll all be sponsoring soon - even if it's just £1, it will mean so much to me and everyone affected by MS. After all, they're the people who this is all for. Everyone who does sponsor me will have their name put on the front of my running t-shirts (I'm getting new ones every month) so that's kinda cool, right?!

Thanks for sticking with me :)

Love,

Nat xx

Runday is nearly here...

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 11:28:00 +0000

In the space of 3 days, I've got £340 in sponsorship, nearly 200 people on facebook, almost 100 on twitter, and around 140 views on youtube. Things are going brilliantly, and I just want to say a massive thanks to everyone who's been spreading the word to friends and family (Especially Adrian, Flossie, Ali, Kate and the Lawson boys - Joel Peat is my hero). This could still spread a lot further though, so let's keep it up!

I've been stalking celebrities on twitter (and not even ashamed to admit it), trying to get some re-tweeting action from them. It's so difficult to time things right though, and my messages usually get buried in the hundreds of other tweets that are going on.

Stalking aside, I've been spending the week getting ready for everything to start. I've designed posters and business cards, which are getting delivered on Monday. And if you've seen my facebook page, you will have seen the photos of the t-shirts I'll be wearing when I run. I got a few, so that I can wash them plenty. No-one's going to want to talk to me if I smell like old cheese.

I'm off for a practice run now, just to triple-check that my Nike+ is set up right. I'm positive that it is, but it'll put my mind at rest to check again. I've also got a meeting with the big-scary-top-boss-manager-person at the gym today so that I can ask about filming for my vlog and getting a shout-out on the big screens above the treadmills. I'm a bit worried about getting shot down, but if you don't ask, you don't get so I've got to walk in there in demand the earth. I'll keep you posted on that one!

And I'd just like to share with you, the fact that I'm ridiculously excited about starting the running tomorrow. To the point where I don't quite think that I'm normal. But I think it's because I''m excited about the potential that this whole thing has to raise money and awareness for the MS Society. So I'm going to run my little socks off after work, with a big smile on my inevitably sweaty face.

Thanks for stopping by - wish me luck for this week!

The Story So Far

noreply@blogger.com (Natalie) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:15:00 +0000

Hello!

Firstly, thankyou for visiting my blog. This first one is going to contain all of the information on what I'm doing so excuse me for being quite wordy about it all. I promise that the ones to follow will be an easier read!

Secondly, introductions are probably in order for those who don't already know me. I'm Nat, I'm 23 years old, I live in Solihull, and you'll get to know the rest if you stick with me for the next few months. Which is something that I really need you to do, because I'm going to need as many people behind me as possible.

I had a bit of crazy conversation with my housemate a few days ago. We were talking about The Proclaimers (as you do, on a normal Sunday night) and got onto the subject of their song "500 Miles". Anh, my housemate, (Or Anh the Ideas Man, as I like to call him) said that it'd be great if someone said that they'd run 500 miles as a challenge. As you'll probably get to know through upcoming blog posts and vlogs, me and my housemates can get quite competitive. And being the only girl in the mix, I have to step up sometimes and represent. Which is why I initially decided to take on this running challenge. When I realised the potential number of people that i could reach through Facebook/Twitter/Youtube etc, it got me to thinking that it could be a great thing to do to raise money for charity, but that maybe it should be a little bit harder.

So, I doubled the mileage up to 1,000 and gave myself a time limit. I have until New Years Eve 2010 to run 1,000 miles. And it all starts on Monday 8th Feb. I'm going to track every run that I do with Nike+ technology, so that everyone can see how far I've gone every day, how fast I ran, and how many miles are left to go until all 1,000 have been run. I have to run a minimum of 3.1 miles every single day, for the rest of the year if I'm going to reach my target. Which means that if I miss a day, or plan a weekend of resting, then I'm going to have to make up for that by doing more miles some days. It's not going to be easy!

The charity that I've chosen is the MS Society. My Aunt was diagnosed with MS about three years ago and so I know a fair amount about the disease. But if she hadn't developed MS, I wouldn't really know much about it. And I know that a lot of people out there are in that position now. And so I'm hoping, by reaching out to people through social networking sites, I'll get a pretty good following that will raise awareness and lots of money for the MS Society.

There's a link in the right-hand sidebar to the MS Society website, as well as to the Wikipedia page for MS. I'm still learning about MS, and because of the varied cases that people have, there's a lot more to MS than just having it or not having it. The long-shot of it is though, that 100,000 people in the UK have MS. It is the most common disabling neurological disease that affects young adults. And because of this disabling factors of MS, the families of sufferers are greatly affected too.

I'm doing the hard work by running 1,000 miles. Please help me out through sponsoring me, by donating some money to the MS Society via my justgiving page. Sponsoring me anything from 10p to £10 and above will be brilliant, and it only takes a couple of minutes. It's a really worthy cause and every single penny will go straight to the MS Society to help people that really need it.

PLEASE subscribe to my youtube channel and comment on the weekly vlogs. Comment on my blogposts. Be my friend on Facebook. Follow me on Twitter. Even if you only do one of these things, you're helping to spread the word about what I'm doing. And that could lead to raised awareness and lots of raised money for MS sufferers.

Thanks for coming this far - it means a lot :)
xx