We are going to hit the press! (only the local one, the nationals can wait ;) )

I had a call from the Maidenhead Advertiser this week wanting to run a story on why I am running the London Marathon.  Anything that can potentially lead to more sponsorship is more than fine with me.  So the journalist called and asked me questions about Richie, about living with cancer, its impact on the family and then training for the big day.  It wasn't a particularly long conversation but it felt uncomfortable remembering what life was like during that terrible year.  It's not really what I want a story about Richie to be about, I wanted it to be about how amazing he was and how brave he was throughout the horrible experience he had to endure.  But then I suppose you never get what you want when dealing with cancer from any angle.
Yesterday a photographer came to the house to take a photo to go with the article.  Dressed in my sexy running leggings and bright yellow charity t-shirt I got snapped running in my garden!  Which means I will likely look a complete idiot in the photo!!  I'll past a link to the article when it goes live :)

In the meantime please feel free to:-

Run With Me (not literally…… but heres how you can help…..)

So they say to estimate the time it will take you to run a Marathon you should double your half Marathon time and add 30 mins.  This means I am looking at circa 4.5 hours of running, which is pretty daunting.

Whether I am out on my Sunday long run, shorter recovery run or getting in some threshold training I always have my iPod plugged in.  Not only can the music be a nice distraction but it also helps me keep my pace up.  Here are some of my all time favs for running:-

Waiting All Night - Rudimental
Not Giving In - Rudimental (I think I will try and time this one to play when I am at the 20 mile mark!)
Alice - Chase & Status
Control - Matrix & Futurebound
Happy - Pharell (plus was mine and Andy's wedding song so makes me smile…… albeit we fell over during our first dance!  My foot caught in my dress, defo not all the champagne!  I promise!!)

My 'Running Favourites' playlist is aprox 2.5 hours long at the moment….. I therefore need to get a fair few tracks on there.  Now this is where you can help…… Please add a comment with a song for me to listen to as I am pounding the streets of London.  Make sure its got a nice fast beat to keep me going.  This is your way, my lovely friends and family, of making sure you are with me spiritually and keeping me motivated through one big flipping long run!!!

www.justgiving.com/samantha-wildman
Just Text Giving SEAL78

The 3 M's

Since December last year I have had 3 milestones to achieve in a relatively short period - Move, get Married and run the Marathon.  2/3 have now been completed so now its time for 100% focus on those 26.2 miles!!

I spoke on a previous post about moving to our new house - or home as we now call it.  We've not done much to it yet aside from settle in and get use to our new surroundings.  But now the better weather is coming I can feel the start of our first project is imminent!!  (Well for Andy at least, I'll assume my usual advisory/co-ordination type role and then come into my own when we need to do the fun stuff like pick furniture or wall colours etc.  I'll leave the hard work to my new husband!).
Andy and I tied the knot on his 40th birthday on the 28th Feb.  We had a fantastic day surrounded my our wonderful family & friends and our brady bunch family is now complete.  I would like to say a massive thank-you to those that donated to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research as our wedding gift - as we have everything we need it felt the right thing to do for our gift to be a donation to help cure and eradicate blood cancers.

I also have to mention the totally awesome band we had, who made the evening reception a real party.  If you are ever in need of a band then I highly recommend these guys.  Check them out (and also see some of the photos they took of the party themselves):-
http://www.daftonline.co.uk
http://www.daftonline.co.uk/galleries/?id=10152259050616649

So the final M is now drawing near. I think its roughly 5 weeks away.  So after a week in Lanzarote for our honeymoon I am home and have switched my beach flip-flops for my scruffy old runners and back in the swing of things.  My first run yesterday felt great.  I was going to keep it fairly short and build myself up but as I was feeling great I covered nearly 10 miles.  Am amazed that I could every feel that a ten mile run is fun!!

My big sis is heading down this weekend so I will have company on this weeks long run.  We have 3 hours to cover this week eeekkkk!

www.justgiving.com/samantha-wildman
Just Text Giving SEAL78