Hell Runner - I did it!

Hell Runner - I did it!

Wow, never before have I seen / ran through / slipped all over / waded up to my chest through quite so much mud!

It was VERY tough, but I completed the 10-mile Hell Runner cross-country race quite a bit faster than my 2 hour target – in 1 hour and 31 minutes :-D

The first muddy puddle that you had no choice but running through was the moment I realised, right, let’s just go for this. Yes, I’m going to get ridiculously muddy, and yes, my feet will be absolutely squelchingly soaked. But 2000 other people are doing this with me, and at least it isn’t raining!

From the firecrackers and smoke grenades that marked the start to the 3-piece band marked the half-way point, it wasn’t actually too bad.

Then came the “bog of doom”- chest-deep gloopy, cold and energy-sapping thick mud, followed of course by a massive muddy scramble. After that they just kept it coming – ridiculously long, steep hills, lots of scrambling and sliding up and down – it was certainly hard to keep going at times.

Then atop another tough hill, suddenly there was another steeply-embanked 20-30m river crossing, just as deep as the first. Then more hills, more mud, and more wading. You get the idea.

But then all of a sudden it was the finish line. And I sprinted for it!

I had completed Hell Runner.

I felt ready for anything!!

Ready for Borneo certainly, bring it on!

HELL Runner 2009

Hmm, not quite sure what I've got myself into here...



This is the first big event in my training in the run up to Borneo.

It's going to be nature at its toughest. It's 11 miles (longer than I've ever run before). That's almost a half marathon, but I think it's going to be much tougher with rough terrain, steep hills and muddy pools to navigate.

So I've got to train hard over the next couple weeks. Today I did my first really long practice run - from Clapham Junction, 1.5 times around Clapham Common, back to Brixton, then twice around Brockwell Park. Mapping it out when I got home, I was pleasantly surprised that it was a total of 9.3 miles - so not far off my target.

I think the longest I ran before was Bay to Breakers in San Francisco in 2005. That was 7.5 miles, which I did in 1:06 so my target is to hit the same pace for Hell Runner.

Wish me luck!! Or even better, make a donation to Borneo for this - we're over 2/3 of the way towards our target of £10k now but still got over £3000 to raise by the end of the year...

Join the Quest for the Golden Chicken!

I love making things like this happen...

If you're going to be in London on Saturday, do join us for this treasure-hunting, sightseeing, beer-drinking, clue-solving day of mystery, intrigue and adventure!

As you can tell, I'm rather excited about it :-)

More info / sign up here

JP Morgan - 472nd (in the women's race)

Every year Capgemini enters a big team into the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge – and this year was no exception. Among the 12,000+ running in London on Wednesday there were 90 from Capgemini, including Ali, Andy and I...

Head over to the Borneo for this! Blog to see how we did.

Sutherland

Reflections in loch at dusk

This was the view from our cottage.

What an amazing place!

It was a wonderful weekend - great to be on a proper Cunningham family holiday, to enjoy fantastic Scottish food (especially that venison!), witness Sadie's mountaineering talents first-hand and just to be in such a remote, peaceful and beautiful place.

Training for Kinabalu

Me and Dad climbing up Mt Arkle

Properly started training for Mt Kinabalu now!

Spent three great days in the Scottish Highlands - the far north-west coast - which is absolutely stunning.

On the second day, Colin and I (and Sadie, our dog), went up Mt Arkle - a long, hard rocky ascent up to 787m.

The mountains in this region of Sutherland are quite unique. They are part of The Moine Thrust - not a painful warm-up exercise in the gym, but a geological feature left over from the formation of Scotland. These mountains are made from quartzite, 530 million year-old rock, resting on a slanted base of Lewisian gneiss. It's almost white, hard, sharp and definitely quite challenging to scramble over.

After setting off at 4pm, we managed the 18km round-trip in just over 4 hours. One of the joys of the far north in the summer is that it doesn't really get dark!

Turns out Sadie's quite a mountaineer too, with no fear and able to scale almost anything.

That was 787m. In November, Mt Kinabalu is 4100m. It's going to be tough.

The Go Game

It's important to play.

The concept or urban gaming is always something that's intrigued me: a group of people coming together in a city and turning it into their playground, interacting with their surroundings and with each other in a completely new way.

Technology is one thing that's making these kinds of games possible, but more than that I think it's our desire to be part of something, part of a community, connected to one another and our surroundings.

In a big city like London, everyone is in their own bubble. Sometimes, it's good to break out of that bubble and try something new!

When I approached The Go Game to see if they would be interested in collaborating on a London Urban Adventure to raise funds for Raleigh and The Princes Trust, I was overjoyed that they were just as excited by this concept as I was. And now, it's happening next weekend - the first London Go Game for Good:

London Go Game - Sat 30 May

This event's open to absolutely everyone, so if you're going to be in London next weekend, get a team together and sign up now at:

www.thegogame.co.uk/community

Hope you can join the game!

Bolognese Frustration and Mock Duck

Day 21 of 28

Feeling healthy rating: 6 out of 10
Feeling frustrated rating: 9 out of 10
Weight: 75kg (-1kg)

Definitely counting down the days now.

About a week ago, this moved from being a fun novelty, to just being a very frustrating experience.

As you might have seen if you were following my tweets, the absolute peak of frustration came earlier this week. After waking up late and missing breakfast at home, I had to make do with a cereal bar. Then at lunch Boots had run out of vegan sandwiches, leaving literally no option there.

But the saving grace throughout all of this was that I had already planned what to have for dinner. I was going to make a really delicious Shephard's Pie with quorn mince and sweet potato.

When I got home, Susie was cooking spaghetti bolognaise, so I decided to follow suit and make my own version with quorn.

So I ran out to Tesco, where - yes! - I got the last tin of chopped tomatoes, the only ingredient I needed.

So, after half an hour of conjuring up a delicious quorn bolognaise, with red onion and just the right mix of herbs, it was tasting pretty good.

I started to tidy up while it simmered away on the hob. As I picked up the empty quorn packet to toss into the bin, I saw this:

Possibly one of the most disappointing moments of my life

EGG WHITES?

Why the hell do they have to put egg whites in quorn??? And why did I have to look at the packet?

Seriously disappointing.

But, as Susie pointed out, this is what makes it a challenge. And I am committed to making it through the 28 days, so I didn't eat my bolognese.

Today, I had this interesting delicacy which Patrick found in Brixton Wholefoods (which has lots of vegan foods including vegan cheese):

Mock Duck

It kind of looked like duck. But it certainly didn't feel like it. I'm just quite happy that I managed to get through an entire portion.

So, 7 days until The Week of BBQ. I am seriously looking forward to so many good, real, proper cheesy, meaty and delicious foods.

I now at least partially understand how it must feel to have a real food allergy or sensitivity and have to cope with the constant frustration of having to explain it to everyone and be incredibly limited in your food choices. It is really hard. And I have a great deal of respect for everyone who can't just eat what they want.

The purpose of this endeavour is to raise money for Raleigh and The Princes Trust.

It's all about rethinking things. I'm rethinking what I eat for a week. The Princes Trust is about helping young people to rethink their lives, to see new possibilities and opportunities. Raleigh is about providing them with challenging experiences to help them see these possibilities.

Read more about Raleigh's Youth Agency Partnership programme.

Watch a video about what The Princes Trust does.

I'd like to ask you to rethink what you're doing to help society. Could you spare a few hours each month to volunteer? Could you make a regular or one-off donation to help us raise funds for these causes?

A huge thank you to Tariq, Niall, Declan, Patrick, Mum, Kate and Christina for your donations.