Hey Folks,

So far the fundraising is going fantastic!

Our online fundraising page - JustGiving - has so far raised £395, whilst the sponsor sheets have taken the grand total to over £1,000 already!

Thank you all so very much

John

Well not wanting the older members of the team to feel bad I have not been out running for the last week after I hurt my knee last wednesday. After hobbling up and down the stairs for a day it felt as if it was back to normal but after attempting the sunday run I could feel things werent quite right and had to stop.

Having read through a couple of articles and websites for advice theres a whole raft of possible causes - high/low arches, bow legs, knock knees, not enough strength or stretching in the leg and knee muscles....

So at the moment I'm taking the advice and working on strengthening and stretching the knee/leg muscles. A number of people have also recommended supplements, particularly glucosamine which is thought to be great for keeping the knees in good working order, so giving those a go too!

Heres hoping will be back up and running this weekend

Sheena

I may be the old man of the team, but I've been the only one putting the miles on recently whilst the youngsters feign injury!

Last Sunday it was 10 miles in just under two hours. Not fast and not pretty, but I was delighted to survive and to be able to run/jog/stumble continuously for almost two hours.

The plan is for 12 miles this Sunday then a couple of light mid-week sessions before the Alloa half marathon on the 23rd. I'm looking forward to pinning on the numbers and running in a large group again. The atmosphere at these events is great.

The vest and sponsor forms arrived from CHAS yesterday. All of a sudden it's all starting to feel rather 'real' and SOON!

Alan

Well, just over three weeks worth of achilles injury, rest, ice, stretching, researching sports injuries on the web, moaning about not running...I finally ran on the treadmill again this week!

I had a trip to www.run4it.com last week for some valuable advice on my existing trainers and ended up with a new pair of proper running trainers. The trainers I bought originally were from a well known high street sports shop which were in the running section, but I had to find out the hard way that not investing in a pair of real running shoes to begin with will cause injuries!

So, my first mile on the treadmill this week just to test the waters and the achilles is feeling much better. All I need to do now is take it easy and build up the miles over the next couple of weeks to get back to full training.

If you are serious about running without injury, I would highly recommend a trip to a shop like Run 4 It for some professional advice. Worth their weight in gold

Take care,

John