Six Weeks Until Brighton

All of a sudden it's six weeks until the Brighton Marathon. Usually I'd be fretting about my training, making travel plans and so on but actually I'd almost forgotten I was doing it at all! It's strange.

I've been running lots but without really thinking about the end goal. Having my coach planning my sessions means I have been just doing them without worrying about whether I'm where I ought to be. I'm paying him to ensure that I *am* where I need to be so it's one less worry. I can run comfortably for 2-2.5 hours which is great, if mildly boring. I've also had the distraction of teaching and studies.

But I'm starting to try and mentally prepare myself now. This is my "A" race for the year. This is the race I'm running to try and get a PB, in memory of my Aunt and in order to raise some money for the trust that helped us so much at the end. It will be one week before the first anniversary of my Aunt's death so it will be a very emotional day. One that I'll be sharing with family and friends.

My Aunt was there at my first marathon, on the sidelines, cheering me on. Occasionally my TimeHop app will show me tweets for my Aunt, from the time I was in training for my first marathon, full of support, amazement and humour. My running soundtrack will contain Quo, Pendulum and Pharrell Williams, because they were artists and she liked and I know I won't be able to stop when they're playing. The Team Bear motto, Suffer But NEVER Surrender, is hugely appropriate and will definitely be in my mind.

Brighton Marathon is the last in the series of events I chose to take part in to raise £1,000 for Hospiscare. At the time of writing I'm around £208 shy of my target so please do donate if you haven't already. My company will match every donation that's made up to the value of £350. Thank you so much.