Great North Run- we got in!

Hubby and I entered into the public ballot for the Great North Run and got places! So did one of our friends which is fantastic news. Both him and his wife run, and we meet up once or twice a year at events. One of them runs and one of them child minds ( 4 children!), we always stay at the same hotel ( Child friendly with swimming pool!), and its always a really nice get together. .

So hopefully even if we have baby Wong, they can child mind ours for the 2 hours (ish) for the race. If it will be too much, then one of us will defer and one of us will run runs whilst the other child minds. After I didnt get into the London Marathon again this year with a ballot application ( 5 years of being rejected!), I didnt want to run for a charity again as you have to raise a large amount of money, this was fine for one year but it was a lot of hard work, and I hate asking people for money ()even thought it was a good cause. So to get into this race is fantastic, its the UK's second largest run after the Marthon, and the worlds biggest 1/2 marathon run. So its a huge event and whilst its only a 1/2 marathon, it will have the same atmosphere, and we wont have to train as hard.

Today we went for a long run again, this is our last long run before the Reading 1/2 marathon on March 3rd. We planned to run to 12 miles, but I felt so comfortable I did manage to run the whole 13.1 miles in a time of 2 hours 7 minutes. But whilst a lot of this was on the Regents canal path, we did have to come off at Islington and had to run through the crowded high street to get back on the canal path dodging all the people shopping. So taking all that into consideration and the crossing of the roads, it wasnt to bad a time. We ran the Reading 1/2 marathon last year in 2 hours 3 minutes. I doubt if I will be able to break that, but as long as I run a reasonable time I will be happy.