One month in and here are my stats so far.

I started this challenge on 27th January 2014 and with today being the 27th February 2014 means its been a month to the day since i started.

Here is a screenshot of my progress so far.

Welcome to week 4, Peas, Pain and Pizza.

Well week 4 is over and its been a week of ups and downs. From great little early morning runs like the one along the Erewash Canal to the awfully slow and sluggish run on Thursday night around Stapleford.

the Erewash on Monday morning

Sometimes i just don't know how I'm going to feel until I'm out there. Yesterday was Sunday and Adam (Adam joins me on a Sunday, it really breaks the monotony of running alone all week.) and I managed a 5 miler (8km) it felt really easy and i could have carried on a bit more. Last Sundays run with Adam left me feeling terrible, we just pushed it a bit too much. From then I've been left with what feels like a pulled muscle in my side, probably the breathing pattern that did that! It makes me feel better knowing that he felt just the same. Ha! sorry Adam... it just does!

Wednesdays guest runner was Lisa Tandy, it was a good steady run for me. I was later thanked via facebook for not killing her. Lisa was kind enough to donate £15 to the Just Giving page before she contacted me to arrange her run. This was not the first time she had donated either so thanks go out to her for that. If anyone else would like to follow Lisa's example all you have to do is donate and get in touch.

Me on the run!

Saturdays run was a rough one, i dragged myself round at tea time after a busy day buzzing from one photography assignment to the next, ending at a drumming party my youngest son (2)  was invited to. I was rewarded for all my efforts by arriving back home after the run feeling drained, hot and a bit dizzy just as the pizza delivery man arrived! Its the food of athletes you know?

Earlier in the week i had a telephone interview with a Mike Plant from the Stapleford Inspire Magazine, Mike writes the sport section and had heard about my challenge, so look out for that in the next issue.

I have paid to enter the Wollaton Park 10k on Saturday 14th June. If anyone would like to join me on a steady trot there its £18 to enter, you will get a free Tee shirt. I am also asking if those that feel they would like to help me run it will donate £5 to the just giving page too.

A branch of the TSB are going to be running with me on the 20th March. They will hopefully be raising money in branch and we will be running between 2 of the branches, Clifton to West Bridgford i believe. Thank you all at the TSB for doing this.

In conclusion, not a bad week - better towards the end. The downside to all this running is the slight onset of shin splints, I'm having to ice my shins after a run. this is fine until my shin bone starts to get cold, now that's pain!

We now have one pack of peas (sorry Petits pois) for legs and one for eating.

A quick update on the total and as i sit here typing on Monday evening 24th February its sat at £600, thank you so much to all who have made this possible. My little boy Arlo who is 2 has just donated £15. Not sure how, but thanks Arlo, I cant help feeling that i may have just sponsored myself indirectly. Although i will be doing that later in the year. Oh and thank you to Trevor Gretton for my regular £1 a week that keeps on coming, you are all amazing!!

Help me run the Wollaton Park 10k in june?

Ive just entered this http://www.wollatonpark10k.co.uk/.

Its a 10k run around Wollaton Park on Saturday 14th June 2014 starting at 10am

Im looking for a group of people to run along with me, the more the better. Its £18 to enter the race via the link above, you get a Tee shirt of course.

If you fancy a bit of a laugh for a good cause, all i ask is that you also donate £5 to my Just Giving page to help me reach my £10,000 target.

Its all part of my 5k a day challenge. I know what your thinking - "Does this mean if he runs 10k on one day he wont run the next day?"

I'm running at least 5km everyday so ill still be out the next day.... Cynics!

Windy week 3

Before we start, people ask me why I'm doing this, well how about this?

...'A big thank you to all at the hospice where my mum spends many happy hours with her new friends. You have so enriched her life and validated her reason for living'

That's week 3 under my belt. What can i say about it apart from the weather, running against the wind, getting caught in the rain but missing the snow on Tuesday was a bonus. Not only was missing the snow a bonus, i ran a personal best (PB) of 26 minutes.
Windy Wednesday came and went, stealing 2 roof tiles, and a bucket full of concrete out of the gable end! After seeing what it had done to our roof I decided to keep out of the wind so i ran the dark Nottingham canal route as it is really well sheltered, Head torch on. i ran without music so i could hear the sound of falling trees (just in case). I emerged back out on the pavement for the last kilometre and i was stopped in my tracks by the gales more than once. I arrived back feeling like id ran 10k not 5.

brave face on windy Wednesday

I felt awful on Friday and then went and did 7k. Just goes to show. 

Saturday was my first ever parkrun. Steve Corry came along, the guy i ran the first route trial with from the hospice in preparation for the first ever run. It was a nice bright morning at Rushcliffe Country park, although still quite windy and bitter cold unsurprisingly. We ran as part of a gathering of around 160 other runners and finished 93rd and 94th. see the full results table here.

waiting for the off at Rushcliffe

I really enjoyed the whole experience at Rushcliffe, i will definitely be returning as often as i can, The parkruns are all volunteer run and are held all over the country, with a cuppa and a biscuit afterwards its a very civilised way of keeping active.

Last nights run (Sunday) was a quick one. Ran with Adam again, who feeling he was slowing me down, turned it up a notch. all i will say is we didn't chat much, we didn't have the spare air! Great run though. It's nice to do a few like that.

The Donations have been coming in well, as of today (Monday 17th Feb 2014) there is 5% of my total sitting in the just giving account, £555. I'm so pleased with the response thank you all who have taken the time to donate, its what its all about and it makes the running easier to do.

There is a possibility that i'll be running between the branches of a certain bank next month. more on this when it comes in. Lets hope we can get a top up in the account and i also hope we can get some the staff out on the road also.

Oh yeah, I managed to get a Retweet on twitter from Torville and Dean!

I'm often employed to cover special events and matches for Basford Utd FC, they are currently doing all they can to get enough votes via here to be eligible for 100k grant. The club have told me that if anyone donating to my challenge then goes to Budweiser Club Futures on Facebook up to 28th feb, my friends at Basford Utd FC will kindly donate a £1. follow the link and vote for them,

Help me, help Nottinghamshire Hospice and help them! Thank you to Chris and the team. And good luck!

Bring on week 4!

5k a day for a year - Week 2

The second week is done and it saw me start off with a blistering time of 26 mins 20 secs. I was amazed at this. I have yet to get anywhere near that time since. It just so happened that a couple ran from aside road ahead of me and I thought I could either slow up a touch and stay behind them till they turn off or I speed up and get ahead. The trouble with the latter is that if it turns out I’ve bitten more off that I can chew I’ve got to keep it up as there is no way I’m going to let them catch me up again! I went for the second option, got in to a rhythm and it seemed to work wonders for the time.

The new head torch arrived on Tuesday so I waited for it to get proper dark and ventured out.

It worked really well, but as one of my friends commented on the video I posted to Facebook, it all got a bit ‘Blairwitch’. At the darkest part of the run I remembered a quote from Bill Bailey, He said something like; “It’s always the joggers that find the bodies” no doubt referring to the fact that you can’t trust them not to be the murderers. I know I’m not a murderer, but it didn’t stop me from dwelling a bit too long on the subject generally! Brilliant run though. See the full video here

Spooky!

Great news! I now have a new pair of shorts and some more socks! I know, exciting isn’t it? I have to say it genuinely did make me happy. I am exploring the fact that i may be a little odd. 

I woke at 6.30am on Saturday morning on the sofa after a rough night of not much sleep. This was mainly due to my youngest being ill and wanting to be in our bed. It was too warm so I vacated, didn’t really sleep much after that.  I had a wedding to photograph that day so a good night sleep before hand is always key, plus I knew I would be working till at least 9pm so a muddy morning run was the only option it was a bit of a wet and blustery week for running on the whole and coming in to a hot chocolate makes for a great incentive to get round quick.

Saturdays mud

Another dark and cold one!

With £437 via www.justgiving.com/5kaday I am slightly ahead when it comes to donations at this point, so thank you to all who have taken the time to donate already. I am even being given £1 a week for every week of the challenge by someone, that’s £52 in total which is quite substantial sum for one individual to pledge.

In chair mode (post run)

On a separate note, I have been able to donate £133 to the hospice from business profits too, thank you to all who have bought prints from Andy Wallis Photography.

What’s coming up?

Im still happy to run with guest stars. All you have to do is donate to my just giving page and then get in touch. Don’t be put off by ability, fast or slow it really doesn’t matter. Look out for the hospice tee shirt running a few park runs soon. After a great meeting with The Nottinghamshire FA we have arranged to be included on the website and I will be running around St Georges Park The FA’s Training facility on Monday 2^nd June. We might be able to do more with their help too. Although nothing is promised at this point, Enterprise Car Hire have a charity foundation where each region is provided with a certain amount of money per year to give to charities. A foundation request must be submitted to a board. These assessments are done twice a year and we will be submitting the challenge later in the year. Wish us luck there. There are one or two more things in the pipeline so keep an eye on the blog for more information as it comes in.

Makes it all worth while

All in all another good week. 

Find out more and donate at: www.justgiving.com/5kaday

follow my progress by clicking the endomondo logo on right.

5k a day for a year - week1

The first week of running the 5k a day challenge is now complete. Thank you to my guest runners so far, Steve Corry (ran the first trial run from the hospice to the CornerHouse with me, my son Joshua Wallis for beating me home on Saturday! A 30 minute 5k and only 11. Thanks also to Adam Patrick for going the extra 1k yesterday due to me accidently pausing endomondo at 4k, we had to run 6k just to make sure that it recorded a 5k run!

Run 1 – Started at the Hospice on Woodborough Rd in Nottingham at 2pm on Monday 27^th January 2014 and ended at the CornerHouse, taking in the sights of Nottingham on the way. I ran passed Capital FM arena, up passed Nottingham Castle as I ran up Maid Marion Way. Then a quick jog passed the Theatre Royal to the entrance of the CornerHouse. Photos were taken at the hospice before I left, as well as an interview for the post and I was greeted at the end by CornerHouse Staff. Oh and not to mention a free drink in the Slug and Lettuce. It rained very hard and at one point I even ended up with brain freeze from the hail on my head!

Run 2 – Was a 6.30am start around Stapleford. I always dislike these as I’m up and out and at times I’m hardly awake before I hit the street. I got back and lost my gloves!

Run 3 – This was an evening run and man was it dark. I chose to run along the Nottingham Canal as you can see I couldn’t see the path. Head torch ordered that night.

Run 4 – was another early one… still no gloves. I really have searched the entire house now.

Run 5 – You will be pleased to know that the gloves have been found and were in a bra! Not whilst being worn I might add. This run was freezing and was in driving rain at about 9.30pm. I stuck 2 fingers up at it though and ran 8k… that’ll show it! nice tree shadow photo taken on this run.

Run 6 And 7 – were Saturday and Sunday runs both with my son Josh (11) on saturday and Adam on Sunday, both morning runs were in daylight and sun. A lovely change from the weeks wind, rain and darkness.

Me chasing Josh

I worked till 1am on Sunday morning at a corporate party at Colwick Hall, I really felt tired and could quite easily have just slept in the corner. Not the best idea as I was asked there to photograph it!

All in all a great start, no panics to fit it in, no injury or pain and a good amount of money raised so far so thank you to all that have taken the time and trouble to donate.

We also met at the hospice on Friday with guys from TheNotts FA, some exciting things to come maybe, look out for more info on this later.

Tee shirts

Idiot not included

I am now selling ‘KEEP CALM AND RUN 5K A DAY’ tee shirts. They are £15 and £5 goes straight to the Hospice. Get in touch with me direct if you would like one: info@andywallisphotography.co.uk

Thanks for the support from everyone this week, I’m sure it’s going to get tougher so the more you donate and send messages of support the easier it will be. If anyone would like to join me for a run, all you have to do is donate and you’re in.

To find out more about what the hospice do and why your money is so needed, please go to www.nottshospice.org

To donate to my challange, click on a link to right, or go to www.justgiving.com/5kaday

To browse through my run history calendar on endomondo use this link http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/user/13040505

Follow my progress on twitter @aw_photo_nottm or @nottshospice and use the hashtag #5kadaynh

You can also catch up with it all on facebook.

Just 51 weeks to go!