Bead Barmy

The starting line is in sight for Marathon runner, Steve Smith and he’s taken a well earned breather to update us on his progress As regular readers will be aware, we have been keeping a beady eye on dedicated marathon runner and Bead Barmy follower  Steve Smith (see Making A Run For It and Marathon Man, Beads Fan).

We are supporting Steve in the 2010 London Marathon, where he will be running in aid of Diabetes UK. Steve has taken a well-deserved break from training to send us the following update:

I’m in the ‘taper’ phase of training now.  This morning I completed my final ‘hard’ session – 12 repeats of running a quarter of a mile up a steep hill well, as steep a hill as one can find in Buckingham!! – and it still felt steep enough for me (about 2 mins each time) then a slow jog back down to recover.  

Having done all the long runs, you feel that by not continuing to do them you will lose fitness, but you really do need to give your body time to recover.  The final few days before the race you really do feel lethargic, what with eating high carbohydrate meals and then only having very short, very slow runs to do.

I don’t get the most ideal preparation the day before, as I should be resting and staying off my feet as much as possible.  However, we have a lace event to attend in Warwickshire on the Saturday – at least it’s not a very early start for us and I will try my best to sit down as much as I can and let Heather get on with the work!

I’ve received my final instructions from the marathon organisers.  We will go up to register at the ExCeL in London on Wednesday and pick up my race number (6975), timing chip and kit bag.  Whilst there we will plan where we will hope to see our supporters (Heather and Pauline’s husband Brian) – around miles 7, 15, 18 and 25 – they’ll have a busy day rushing from one place to another.  Diabetes UK support teams will also be at miles 13, 22.5 and 25.5.  As Pauline has a good for age place, she starts from a different area, so we will not be running together – having said that she always prefers to run races independently.

On the day, it’s not an entirely restful start either.  Although the start is at 9.45 am we will need to be up around 5.30 am for breakfast then Brian will drive to London and drop us off at Charing Cross to catch a train to Greenwich Blackheath at around 7.15 am.

My sponsorship is now approaching £1,000 and I think it will be in excess of that by the time the starting gun goes on 25 April!

Special Commemorative Charity Bobbin

Winslow Bobbins have made a special commemorative bobbin. For each numbered bobbin sold, £1.00 will be donated to Diabetes UK.

For more details look under the What’s New? page at Winslow Bobbins.

 If you would like to take a look, Steve has his own web page with regular updates on his training and a place to make donations.

The Diabetes UK registered charity number is 215199.

Posted by: BeadsUnlimited