A New Year

So it is indeed 2010, and what a start to the year it has been.

First off, a huge thank you to everyone who prayed for my wee sister following her illness over Christmas. God has answered those prayers and didn't take Kerry home to be with Himself, but has healed her of this illness. After a week of emotional turmoil, stress and no sleep, Kerry pulled through it and has made a miraculous recovery. Words fail to express how thankful we as a family are for your support. Kerry was well enought to come home on Christmas Day, which as you can imagine was the greatest Christmas present we've ever received! There is still some way to go, but we continue to ask for God's strength every day.

I am also just back from my friend Nicho's wedding in England. Sub-zero conditions and blizzards were the order of the day, but a fantastic time was had, and I only spent around 18 hours in the car, on a bus, on a plane or sitting in an airport! The guts of one full day!!!

Anyway, I'm going to try to get running this week again, and I may be about to commit to running for a specific charity. Last year my cycling was for two tearfund projects, but this year I've been looking at another charity that I want to support. more details to follow soon.

My wee sister...

So running has taken a back seat after my wee sister Kerry collapsed last Saturday (12th December) with a brain hemorrhage. She has just turned 17. She underwent emergency surgery on Monday in order to remove part of the clot, and is now in the intensive care unit of our local hospital.

If you are reading this, I would ask you just to say a simple prayer for my sister and our family. She has a strong belief in God and a personal relationship with Him, and though we know it's selfish, we don't want God to have her just yet.

Pray that she will make it through this illness and that we can have our wee sister back with us.

Thank you.

Distractions

So no running done for a week now. Not good. Too distracted by Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and put off by the miserable weather that I haven't been out for days.

However I did head out mountain biking on Saturday morning in the cold, the rain, and the mud, and it was fantastic. Haven't been for years, and raked around Belvoir Forest Park getting caked in muck, and whooping like a madman every time I came down a slope. I worry I may actually have been bitten by the MTB bug again, which means I could be rethinking my future bike purchase...

Anxiety

This week I have been sick, and so only got out on Monday night for a run in the rain. Managed to come in at 9m 20s, which was the exact same time as I had obtained on Saturday afternoon!

Sharon's brother Dave has asked to train with me, though was not impressed that I wanted to do the marathon in under 3 hours! But he keeps himself fit, so it's more likely that it won't be him that has any problems doing it!

However, he ran at 7.5 mph last year for the his leg of the marathon, and I worked out that if we ran at that speed, then we would complete the marathon in 3hr 49m. Which ain't a bad time, but if we're to do it in under 3 hours, we need to be running at 8.7 mph or faster! Which makes me considerably more anxious!

Every week I realise a little more that this task is actually a lot harder than it first seemed...

I'm going mountain biking on Saturday morning, so odds on I'll probably break something and the running will have to wait!

Improvement!

Ahhh, sweet caffeine.

Anyway, I went for my mile run last night, and am feeling pretty good, as I came in quicker than my first time!

1 mile = 9m 57 secs!

That's an improvement of 1m 21 secs! Made me feel like I was Usain Bolt for the rest of the evening!

So on that basis of improving over a minute a week, I should be able to run 1 mile in 5 minutes by Christmas Day. Then it's just a matter of increasing the distances! I hope...