I know I can...

 

AND I DID!!!

Friday 30th November 2012 and I firewalked! 


Along with 4 friends from Pinpoint-fitness and a number of staff from Tesco Craigmarloch, I did something I never thought I'd do - I walked on hot coals to raise money for Cancer Research UK...

What a fantastic experience, organised  by Blaze Firewalking from Nottingham we had loads of fun, laughs and interesting preparation exercises with Adam beforehand, then we all went up to watch the fire being lit - it was freezing and sleety rain was falling but it didn't dampen either the flames or our spirits.  

 

It does look quite impressive especially with the reflections in the puddles :-) but it's not actually very hot at this point, by the time it gets to the state where we walk on it, it's MUCH hotter 620C! 

It was such a pity about the weather as we'd had a week of clear cold evenings with an enormous full moon and great views of Jupiter beside the moon, then on Friday evening it started to rain and then it froze so paths and roads were like ice rinks!  Toes were numb with cold before we walked, but you could still feel the heat from the coals!  After the fire lighting, we all went back to finish off our preparation with Adam, then he let us loose, Amanda, Vicki and myself had a brilliant laugh as we ran up 2 flights of stairs and raced through the store to get to the fire first, if I hadn't gone first I might not have gone at all ;-) the faces of the shoppers who hadn't a clue what was going on were brilliant and the three of us really enjoyed that part of it!

Everybody did really well and we all walked without any 'fire kisses' (burns) or other incidents, though it was a wee bit slippy at the start and again at the end we all stayed on our feet!

After we'd finished and had more photos taken, we retired to the pub for a celebratory soda and lime.

Thanks to everyone who has generously donated to our fundraising efforts, we are currently sitting at 73% above target which is incredible.

I was gobsmacked and slightly overwhelmed by the number of wonderful (if slightly mad coming out in that weather!) friends who came along to support and cheers us on - HUGE ENORMOUS THANKS TO YOU ALL!! XXX

ps when I read this back I realise that it doesn't go anywhere near describing the event and the fantastic sense of achievement from having accomplished something else a bit out of the ordinary... you have to try it for yourself to feel it for real :-)

Busy weekend

to follow a busy week :-)
Yesterday I managed to do my 18mile run with a reasonable degree of success, it was hard but it wasn't nearly as much of a struggle as last week and the route I chose was varied in terms of scenery and weather! I ran from home (Tullibody) to Dunblane and back, all uphill on the way there and gently downhill on the way home - after you come out of Dunblane that is - stiff climb out of the town...
I left home in pleasant almost springlike conditions with the sun starting to shine albeit watery - watery is the word for the run by the way- the fields were all flooded by the River Devon where it hasn't so much burst it's banks, just overflowed. There is a bridge which is normally 6-10 feet above the water which would be lucky if it was 18inches clear.
I headed along to Bridge of Allan and the normally peaceful Allan Water was in fine spate as you can see above. From there it's a fairly steep climb out of the town and then a nice downhill into Dunblane. As I arrived in Dunblane the rain was just starting to drizzle, I took a detour through the town to add on an extra kilometre and also to find the conveniences ;-) when I came out it was tipping down, horizontal sleet and driving winds, it was like Florence all over again. "suck it up" they say across the pond, so I sucked it up and headed for home, there is something really satisfying about battling the elements I always feel like I'm saying "ha ha you can't beat me, I can still do this". By the time I got back to Bridge of Allan it was almost dry again and as I headed the last 5miles home the sun tried to come out again but not very successfully and the black clouds were gathering over the hills as I ran towards them. Half a mile from home my knight on his white charger appeared - well in a dirty green megane to be truthful but it meant I got home without getting drenched again - and it was half time in the rugby :-) I still clocked just over the 18miles so was pleased with the day's work.
Today I woke gingerly - you know that way you gently try every muscle and joint to make sure they're all still working before you get out of bed? I was in surprisingly good fettle so headed off to the Diehard session of bootcamp with some trepidation but feeling more confident than I thought I might have been. I really enjoyed it! It was definitely the toughest session we've had so far but I found my legs again and had a good wee 2.5mile trail run interspersed with some push ups, and then lunge and sprint sessions. Wet and muddy :-) This was followed by a tough circuit which Paul had set up for us while we were off on our run. All good fun and although legs are tired now - as is the rest of me, it's time for pilates and then that will be my "quiet restful" weekend over...
Bring on next week =:-0