Save the date!

I've just confirmed a carnival fundraising night in the Sugar Club on June 11th :)

Lollipop x

Column inches? Yes please!

Good news for fundraising efforts - I've just confirmed a weekly diary piece from now until Kilimanjaro with the Offaly Independent (and maybe even the Westmeath Independent if they're in a good mood) that's sure to help a lot spreading the word on my fundraising and how to donate!

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity

A Pulitzer prize here I come!

Lollipop x

On track for 10k this Sunday!

I've been doing ok with the jogging for the past few weeks. Well, I've worked on my attitude towards it and I've managed to get past a mental plateau of about 30 minutes and push through to the point where for the past few weeks I've been doing one jog of about 7.5km and then taking it easy. Although for the past few weeks I've been taking the "taking it easy" bit too far, and conveniently forgetting to go for more than maybe one other run in the week. Probably because I've been too busy being chuffed about the long run!
That small problem aside, I suspect I was in the process of forming another mental plateau whereby I couldn't do more than 7.5km...until this evening!
I mapped out my run (love mapmyrun.com) and vaguely took note of the turns I had to take. I set off at 7.25pm and just kept going until running became the norm, what my legs were made for. I was only running for ten minutes more than what I was doing before, but I felt amazing even at the end of the hour, like I could go on running for longer.
So bring on Sunday now!

Hikedy-hike

I went on my first hike in ages - years probably - last Sunday. My personal Hitler Michael drove us to Glendalough, and even though it was the hottest day of the year so far there were no problems getting a space in the popular car park as we were there just after 9.30am!
Off we hiked, me with the help of some super cool poles (I love them, I almost refuse to walk without them now even on level ground!). We climbed Camaderry, and the first half hour was more than a little bit steep. But it got us into the swing of things and from then on it was a breeze!
The whole hike lasted about four or five hours, but for the most part it was very pleasant indeed. We saw snow (cue childish excitement from me!), a dead deer (more childish excitement), frog spawn (eh, same...we actually collected some in an empty Powerade bottle. I brought it home because Michael knew there wasn't a chance in hell of his girlfriend letting him bring it into the house, so I'm expecting super frogs to develop any day soon!) and a plaque in memory of a man who died on the hills we were hiking.
But no dying for us! Oh no, we finished off with a bit of scoffing at all the faux hikers at the end of the trail who had brought their handbags along, and a little road rage at all the poxy tourists who should really have their own traffic lane.
So last week's challenge: successfully completed :)
Now on to this week's challenge: a 10k run on Sunday...

Let the fun(draising) begin :)

After long and careful consideration I decided to fundraise for two charities in the run up to my Kili climb. These two charities are teenage mental health charity Headstrong and the Simon Community.

News of super fabulous fundraising events you'll gladly pay to attend is coming soon, but to begin I have set up pages on mycharity.ie so people can donate online at a time that suits them. Links are below - I'd really appreciate it if you could spare some change and/or pass the links along to your friends.

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong/

 

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity/  

 

Thank you so much,


Lollipop x

I just jogged 7.15 kilometres in 50 minutes :)

Even better, I didn't collapse while doing it!

If Eddie Izzard can run 43 marathons after training for just five and a half weeks...

...then surely I'll be able to find an extra 5km or so in the next couple of weeks and do a 10k run, right?! Well I hope so, because yesterday - after a week or two of saying we would but not actually doing anything - a couple of colleagues and I signed up to do the Spar fun run in the Phoenix Park on April 18. Up until watching Eddie successfully getting through the equivalent of 43 marathons I was convinced the phrase "fun run" was an oxymoron. But now I'm psyched - compared to what he's done this is nothing!
But still, wish me luck!

Lollipop x