Many of you may have heard the tragic news that a young female marathon runner died at the London Marathon on Sunday.

Claire Squires, 30, was running for the Samaritans and collapsed within a mile of reaching the Finish Line.  Having run 25 miles, she was so very close to completing the marathon course. Paramedics rushed to help Claire as she collapsed in front of horrified spectators at Bird Cage Walk, but Claire died shortly afterwards at the scene.

As details of the tragedy unfold, Claire’s death has hit the marathon and charity community hard.  Her family must be utterly devastated.  Her inspiration, to run the London Marathon this year for the Samaritans was her Mum, who has worked as a volunteer for the charity for 24 years.  The Samaritans help people when they feel they have no-one else to turn to.  It’s also thought that she ran in memory of her brother, Grant Squires, who died from an overdose in 2001 after battling with depression, as a result of the death of his girlfriend in an horrific car crash.

Claire’s JustGiving fundraising page shows that she was on target to raise £500 for the Samaritans as she set off from the start of the London Marathon.  Since news of her death reached Twitter on Sunday, many thousands of ordinary people have donated money to her page.  When I first saw her page, it was showing a total raised of £3,000 but as news has spread the total now shows a staggering £452,908.60 … and rising.  The Gift Aid tax break to be added to that amount totals £98,791.82.

Claire’s grieving family have urged everyone to keep making donations.  In a statement, they said,
“Words cannot explain what an incredible, inspirational, beautiful and driven person she was.  She was loved by so many and is dearly missed by all of us.”

“For Claire and the Samaritans, please keep the donations coming.  Don’t stop giving, just like her.  It’s what she would have wanted.”

“Claire would be so happy and overwhelmed with the incredible support that has been offered by thousands of people from all over the world.”

JustGiving.com have today agreed to waive its usual 6.5 per cent fee on credit card donations to Claire’s fundraising page (over £30,000 approx.)  A spokesman for the fundraising website said “This is the largest number of donations ever received in a day, and in terms of a single event and not an appeal, it is the highest we have ever seen.  We are donating the fee we get from donations and giving it to the Samaritans in Claire’s honour.”

A committed fundraiser, Claire had raised £1,886 for the Children’s Society by completing the 2010 London Marathon and raised £1,430 for the RAF Association by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

When Claire collapsed, she was within a short distance of turning a bend in the road and being able to see the London Marathon finish line.  It is a terrible, terrible thing to have happened and one that I’m sure will have shocked you all.

Claire wanted to raise money to help other people .. her family can be exceptionally proud of her ..
This is her legacy .. Just Keep Giving

Claire’s fundraising page

Each year I try to provide up-to-date, accurate London Marathon tracking information about how to follow your runner.  Last year there seemed little information available.  The Facebook and Adidas WAP tracker, available in 2010, didn’t seem to be on offer either.

However, BIG NEWS.. JUST IN:

I have just been given information about how to track your runner in the 2012 Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 22nd April!

From 07:00 on Sunday, you can click this link –>

http://results-2012.virginlondonmarathon.com/2012

You’ll be taken to the Virgin London Marathon website where you’ll be asked to enter your runner’s name or race number.  With that information, you will be able to find out where your runner is on the marathon course.

If, like many, you’re intending to watch the Virgin London Marathon on TV, this is where you can catch it being broadcast live & also highlights of the day.  Look out for your runner – there are TV crews all along the course & your runner may be caught on camera!

08:30 – 14:00 BBC1
14:00 – 15:00 Sky red button
17:00 – 18:00 BBC2 highlights

Don’t forget to Enter our super Prize giveaway – just enter your details below for a chance to WIN a super Sports Nutrition Goody Pack from Myprotein. (competition closes: 23-04-2012)

Training for a marathon is hard work and I think you deserve a little treat …
How would you like to WIN a super Sports Nutrition Goody Pack from Myprotein.com?

It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes, just enter your details in the form below* and hit enter .. that’s all there is to it .. of course if you want to Like the Just One More Mile Facebook page as well, that would be super too!

You can enter our Sweepstakes until midnight on
April 23rd 2012  .. One lucky winner will be chosen at random after the closing date and announced on the blog and on Facebook.

 …THE PRIZE …

Myprotein® have generously donated over £50.00 of goodies for you to win – the prize will consist of the following:

MPMax® One Energel Isotonic (30x 60ml sachets) Orange or Summer Berry a unique isotonic energy gel containing both Electrolytes and B Vitamins perfect for those long training runs & superb for marathon day!

MP Max® Recovery EVO (1.28kg) Strawberry & Apple or Blackcurrant a revolutionary recovery supplement which employs the latest research to provide your body with the essential nutrients necessary for effective recovery.  The unique ingredient combination is designed to help promote and speed up the recovery process, making MP MAX® Recovery Evo an indispensable component in every serious athlete’s nutritional routine.

MP Max® SmartShake is a unique sports supplement shaker, combining a 400ml shaker with a convenient multi-storage container for your daily supplements.

For your chance to WIN this great prize, Enter Now!

GOOD LUCK!

*Entry is available to people over the age of 16+ who live in Great Britain … (don’t worry, my International friends, there’s another great competition I’m planning that you’ll soon be able to enter!)

Disclaimer: Your information will only be used by Just1MoreMile.com and I will never sell or pass your details on to anyone else.  The prize is as stated and there is no cash alternative.

If you’re looking for something to spice up your training then this may be an interesting event to take part in.

On 4th March 2012, hundreds of runners will be racing up London’s iconic Gherkin building to raise money for the NSPCC’s ChildLine.

Mother of 3 and Olympic Gold Medallist, Sally Gunnell, OBE, is backing the Step Change 2012 event and wants you to make every step count .. all 1,037 of them! This is a fantastic opportunity to earn a birds eye view of London when you reach the top of the Gherkin and raise vital funds for a tremendous charity!  What a great way to boost your training and push yourself to compete in an exciting challenge!

The NSPCC have been granted exclusive access to ’30 St.Mary Axe’ to host the event, which is open to corporate teams, individuals, groups of friends and, for the first time, families.  The challenge is for Gherkineers to run up 38 flights of stairs to reach the bar at the top and enjoy a well deserved glass of champagne and a panoramic view of the city.

The NSPCC runs the ChildLine service to help protect vulnerable children and young people.  This is the third year that Step Change has been staged and it’s hoped that the event will raise £200,000 for ChildLine during it’s 25th Anniversary year.

Sally Gunnell’s athletics career was full of mental and physical determination to reach the top.  She achieved

• Golds for both the 4x400m Relay and the 400m Hurdles in the Commonwealth Games in 1990
• Gold Medal in the 400m Hurdles in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics
• Another Gold and a new World Record for the 400m Hurdles in the 1993 World Championships
• And Gold again in the 1994 400m Hurdles at the European Championships

Proud to be involved with ChildLine, Sally said “Step Change is a great opportunity to take part in a unique event at one of London’s most iconic buildings and at the same time raise vital funds for ChildLine.  Please enter today and do your bit to help protect vulnerable children and young people.”

Throughout February there is a 2 for 1 deal on individual and team registrations for Step Change, making it even easier to get involved than ever.

So, if you fancy a rather unusual challenge to push your training to the next level then go to www.nspcc.org.uk/stepchange for the full registration details.

It’s always wonderful when people leave a comment here on ‘Just One More Mile‘.  With a loyal, and growing, following it’s fantastic to hear from people from all over the world but also great when runners a little closer to home get in touch too.

So, it was especially nice to receive an email from Lucy who was rather nervously looking forward to her first ever marathon at the Rutland Water Marathon in November.  As some of you will know, Rutland Water is a beautiful area that contains a stunning Wildlife Reserve, great cycle tracks and perfect running routes.  It’s also host to an annual marathon that people come from far and wide to participate in.  The course is quite challenging in parts with some mean hills and meandering paths but all with a spectacular backdrop of open farmland and Rutland Water reservoir itself.

Here’s the conversation that Lucy and I had about the ‘run’ up to her first Marathon:

Hi Joanna,
Great to find your site with so much useful information about the Rutland Water marathon.  I’ve entered this year’s race-it will be my first but hopefully not my last!  I live fairly locally so did the 17 mile circuit last week and then walked another 4/5 miles looking for my backup team (i.e. hubby and three kids on bikes), who were nowhere to be seen at any point during the run. It was all rather stressful, but we’re going to have another go on Sunday and try and add one lap of Hambleton. At 43, I’m definitely a plodder- but looking forward to accomplishing a lifetime ambition.

Best wishes and thanks again for posting the info-it’s a great motivator

Lucy

Hi Lucy,
Thank you so much for getting in touch, it’s great to hear from you.

Hope you have a fantastic day today and have a really good run. I shall be thinking of all the competitors today and giving you all a big cheer! I’d love to know how you got on, so please get in touch when you’ve recovered

Nothing wrong with being a plodder or 43 (we’re the same age) and I very much hope that you achieve your lifetime ambition.

Go Lucy Go.. run like the wind .. and Enjoy every moment!

Best wishes
Joanna

Many, many congratulations again – I’m very pleased for you!

Best wishes
Joanna

 

Hi Joanna,
Thank you so much!  I still can’t believe it myself – despite having legs that feel like they belong to someone else at the moment.  I’m more than happy for you to share my story – I read other people’s accounts in the weeks leading up to the race that I’m sure influenced my decision to give it a go.  The last thing I wanted to do was injure myself further but I’d worked so hard to get to this point.  I was really gutted that I might not be able to give myself a fair chance.  Lots of friends were saying “there will be other races” etc. but I really wanted to run this one!  I think I’d allow the tear just enough time to recover – very very lucky..

Very best wishes
Lucy

Wherever you are, if you’re planning to run your first marathon or just need a bit of moral support, please stop by and get in touch.  You can leave comments on any of the posts to express your point of view or perhaps give tips to other Just One More Mile fans.  Or you can join a growing band of friendly runners at the Just One More Mile Fan Page on Facebook.  Whether you’re an active contributor here or just quietly lurking, I hope you find all the information and inspiration that you need.

Happy Running .. and here’s to the next finishers medal!!

“…you need to be quick off the mark just to get a place at the start line…”

The Vitruvian Triathlon is happening right now just a stone’s throw from where I live.  Rutland Water is a beautiful setting for this incredible race.  Competitors shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security by the gorgeous setting though, Rutland Water will test everyone’s strength and stamina.

The race, organised by Pacesetterevents.com, has regularly received awards from the established Triathlon gurus at 220Triathlon.  Entries for this year’s Vitruvian sold out fast and the conditions today here in Rutland are perfect for a highly competitive and exciting race.

“…a full on tough, quad crunching lung buster of a race…”

First up is a two lap 1900m swim in the cold open waters of Whitwell Creek.  The bike transition then takes competitors on to an 85km race route that includes the notorious Rutland Ripple and nearly 500m of climbing – you gotta love them hills!  Returning to the transition area, athletes will then tackle the final stage .. a 21km run which will take them around the southern end of the reservoir and over the Dam.

Over 1,000 competitors will attempt to reach the finish line today and I’m sure, like me, you’d like to wish them GOOD LUCK!

(For those of you who prefer imperial to metric, the distances are: swim of 1.18miles, bike 52.81miles and run 13.04miles)

How is everyone?  Training on track?  Hmmm… Perhaps you’re in the middle of school summer holidays and trying to juggle even more than you usually do.  Whatever you’re up to, here’s something to motivate you and get you in the mood for some great running.

I want to know your favourite running tunes of all time.

Rock, Pop, Country, Hip-Hop, Jazz, R&B.. come on .. let’s ‘ave ‘em

Here’s the competition bit!

Fancy winning a super iPod Shuffle packed with tunes? .. you do?   You’ll also win a pair of VIP tickets to the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon.  To make sure you have a really Royal time on the day, the VIP tent is right next to the start/finish line and open all day – so you can fill up with your free courtesy breakfast and then a delicious buffet lunch, with massage and physio experts available to pamper you after the race!

Here’s how to enter the ‘Mind Music’ Competition:

1. Join Mind’s Team for the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon in October 2011 by clicking here
2. Then add a track to the ‘Just One More Mile‘ Top Running Tunes playlist by adding a comment below or on the Facebook page – tell me the song title, who sings it and why you like it..oh yes, and I need to know who you are!
3. The best suggestion will be picked by yours truly once the competition closes at 12 noon 26th August 2011 and will help make up Mind’s final ultimate running playlist to be hosted on Spotify

Here’s a bit of fun ..and you never know you could win a prize too! Nuffield Health & Fitness Clubs are running a competition over on Twitter at the moment.  I love Twitter and happily tweet as @Mysitcomlife (come and say hi) and follow @NuffieldHealth for all their tweets about health and fitness. So, it was great to see their ‘Tworkout‘ competition announced and I thought I’d let you know about it as it’s Friday and.. well sometimes, we all need a little light relief from a busy week.

Take a look at www.tworkout.co.uk and you’ll see a simple little workout challenge that you can do whilst sat at your desk.  See if you can be a top scorer .. and you might even win a health club membership!

Tworkout is an online, Twitter based workout for your fingers – Playing is simple: there’s an easy practice warm-up before you have 3 opportunities to beat the clock.  Don’t worry if your score doesn’t look great to start with, you can keep playing till you’re happy with your result..or your fingers need a rest!

You can challenge your colleagues in the office, or Facebook chums, to see if they can beat your score. Watch out though… it’s addictive!

Hurry .. The Tworkout competition closes on May 31st

I’ve had a duff year as far as health and injuries go and to be honest I feel a bit of a fraud.  Between you, me and the gate post, I’m feeling decidedly edgy about the fact I own this blog.  I mean, the title says it all ‘Just One More Mile – Marathon Running for Beginners‘ .. but I haven’t been able to run, or much else, for at least 3 months.  It’s not that I don’t want to.. far from it.. I’m desperate to get outside and I really miss those long Sunday runs through the Rutland countryside.

However, things are beginning to look up and apart from the frequent visits to the Hospital and appointments with my Ever-So-Well-Connected-Consultant (his phone constantly rings with calls from Premier Footballers and his waiting room looks more like the green room at ‘A Question of Sport‘) I’m looking at how to regain strength and vitality … and I think I’ve found the perfect partner to help me!

Let me explain..

The ElliptiGO is less of a bike and more of a cross trainer but that’s about as far as the similarities go.  If you’re looking for something that mimics the action of running (without the impact) and you want to get super fit, super fast, have the option to train indoors as well as outdoors, then you have to check this out and press play..

The ElliptiGo in action! .. I want one!

This is no gimmick or flash in the pan.  There are some serious athletes around the world who are incorporating the ElliptiGo into their training sessions.

Ultramarathon Man Dean Karnazes, who has just run across America, says the ElliptiGO is “The best cross-training device I’ve ever seen bar none.”

In a recent interview with Runner’s World, Josh Cox, who holds the US 50k ultra-marathon record, describes the benefits of his ElliptiGO, “I’ve been riding the ElliptiGO to recover from 50K last season, to rest my body from the demands of the season and shed a few pounds that my coach likes us to gain in the off season. It’s the best of running without the impact on my body and an effective way to maintain fitness and still allow me to recover.”

Triathlete Magazine proclaims “It’s really a hell of a workout”

ElliptiGO offers amazing cross training for runners, it’s great for triathletes and something fresh for cyclists and sports enthusiasts everywhere.  I think this would be a blast to take round Rutland Water, what do you think?  ..  Come back soon to see how I get on!

Running Marathons is a tough job..let’s face it, no-one ever said it was going to be easy.  How you feel at the end of the race, the day or even the week after can be enough to put you off ever running another marathon ever again.  The trouble is 26.2 miles is a bloomin’ long way to run .. and I suspect your aching and sore muscles are agreeing violently with this statement!  Make sure you avoid the pitfalls of marathon recovery.

Everyone is different and some find marathon recovery a cinch, whilst others struggle to negotiate the stairs backwards and are subscribed to the ministry of silly walks for some time after their marathon.

Here are my Top Tips to quick marathon recovery:

1. Just because you’ve finished running a marathon doesn’t mean you have to stop thinking about Hydration and Nutrition. Your body needs to restore glycogen (energy) levels and you need to eat protein rich food to help rebuild any tissue damage.  You should continue to drink sensible amounts of water and if you suffered with cramps or tummy upset during or after your run, you may want to ask your local pharmacist for advice on drinks that help to replenish electrolytes. A sensible balanced diet is essential!
2. Marathon Toes: For readers of this blog or my friends on Facebook and Twitter, you’ll know all about my marathon toes and that I lost nearly every one of my toenails after the 2010 London Marathon … yep, that’s them featured on the right ..not a pretty sight!  The best thing I can advise for feet is plenty of fresh air .. I think I wore flipflops/sandals for most of that year!  Be sensible – wearing high heels the day after a marathon, ladies, isn’t being very kind to those poor ol’ tootsies of yours!  If you think a Podiatrist is just for old folk with bunions, you are very much mistaken.  A professional Podiatrist will help with bruised and missing toenails and can sort out those blisters and problem areas.  Don’t delay, there are plenty of Podiatrists that do home visits and the last thing you need now is an infected blister or toe.
3. Sore muscles – Your leg muscles are going to ache but you don’t have to suffer.  A good sports massage will ease out those knotted, tight muscles and help you relax too.
4. Whilst it’s great to experience that massive high as you cross the marathon finish line, it’s not uncommon to feel a bit low in the days following your achievement.  It’s a sign of fatigue and one easily remedied by talking to other marathon runners. Sign up to Twitter or look through the forums on Runners World or join me on Facebook at Just One More Mile and you’ll be guaranteed to have a good natter with lots of other marathon runners who want to re-live their race experience and swap recovery tips and ideas.
5. This is obvious really but it has to be said .. Get plenty of sleep – it’s when your body is best able to recover from all those hard miles of training and marathon day itself.  Don’t forget that it’s been a long build up and resting is every bit as important as training.
6. If you want to remain flexible and not seize up overnight then very gentle, regular stretching exercises will really help.  Don’t try anything too ambitious as you’ll only add to your existing muscle damage.   Yoga and Pilates are very popular with runners to help with strength and stamina training but are also excellent at helping prevent problems occuring post marathon.  Leave it a full week before you try anything strenuous though.
7. Your marathon recovery should be rather like your marathon taper in reverse.  Don’t rush straight back into long runs and punishing training schedules.  Ease back gently and you’ll be less likely to injure yourself and more likely to improve on the training you did before the marathon.
8. If you don’t feel up to going straight back into a running schedule then try a bit of cross training.  Swimming is great for cardio whilst being easy on the joints.

Got any marathon recovery tips of your own that you’d like to share?  Leave a comment below – it’s good to talk!

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