From this point, forward I go

Fresh from my first training session I now know from where I start and what I have to improve upon for race day.
Last year we walked the 5k at a decent pace considering the heat (and the hangovers) and completed in 65 mins. We thought we'd done alright considering none of us had trained, we ran out of water and at least one team member lacked proper trainers.
I've just done 2.5k in 26 minutes so using the power of maths (a mysterious force over which I have no grasp) I can extrapolate this time / effort and hypothesise I could currently do 5k in 52 minutes. Which is clearly 14 minutes faster than last year.
Not so impressive when I count in factors such as it being much cooler in the controlled gym environment, me being 21lbs lighter and the lack of hangover. In my head I did think I could easily run the whole 5k in 30 minutes by now.
But, alas, that was fanciful thought. I now aim to spend the next five months getting my time down and my run / walk ratio up so that I can get nearer my goal time.

Other things I found out during the course of my training session:

• Las Ketchup is quite a good BPM for my current jog-ability
• Completing 5k in a pack is much more fun than going lone ranger
• I need a new sports brassiere as my bosom is clearly where some of the weight has dropped from.

Anyway, will try and get some cardio training in tomorrow with a one mile swim (which I know I can do in 30 minutes) and then on with the dedicated run training in the week.
If any Fat Girls want to keep me company I am making use of a little known establishment - the Virgin Active. I am sure Mr Richard Branson (proprietor) will find his fledgling business flurishes now he has the endoresment of Team RFGR.

S-ChampPersp x

I'm off the blocks and my Race For Life page eagerly awaits it's first donation! Have a look at it here, Lauren Noakes, I chose the photo very carefully to reflect the overwhelming accomplishment I felt last year!!

I've set the target at £100, double the target for last year, i hope you are all as confident as I am about it this year, i need your support and your cash. To illustrate how determined i am im off into town at the weekend to buy some running shoes and then the training seriously begins!

Anyone had any ideas about a theme yet? I'd also like to see our supporters on the day co-ordinated in some way, i'm thinking 'Run Fat Girl Run' tees!!??

On your marks...

As the poignant strains of M People's What Have You Done Today echo through the minds of all team members we can inform you we are officially registered for Race for Life 2009.

The training and the fundraising begins here (no more chewwy cornflake tart goodness for me for a while) so get ready to get your support on.

Two team members streak into an early online-fundraising lead with their sites already open for business.

• Sponsor Sarah Lay (or Sarah Reek as she is sometimes known)
• Sponsor Sarah Barker

Other team members will surely be on hot on their heels with online sponsorship so pick a girl and give us your money (or if you can't pick a favourite Fat Girl then just give us all some cash)!!!

S-ChampPersp x

PS - Five months until race day!!!

It's the final line-up

Right, we've now doubled the size of the team for the Race for Life so the recruitment drive will now be ending!
It is with great pleasure I introduce the latest member - and our first international member - Aakanksha Chhikara. Or Ace to you and me!
So one final time - let's hear the role call for Team RFGR for Race for Life 2009 and Katie's Midnight Walk II:

• Sarah Lay
• Sarah Barker
• Toni-Anne Sanderson
• Lauren Noakes
• Kelly Race
• Vena Wheeldon
• Sarah Hutchinson
• Aakanksha Chhikara

Last year the four of us raised more than £800 for Race for Life so with twice as many of us let's try to double the amount we gather while also managing to get round the Bowl of Hellfire faster than anyone on crutches.
(Please feel free to sing the post title to the tune of Europe's Final Countdown for the rest of the day).
Thanks to Carl Bembridge for clever Photoshop skillz!

Katie's Midnight Walk 2009

With extra members falling over themselves to be in the team (falling over? that bodes well) we're in the process of signing up for Race for Life 2009.

As well as a stringent and very cutting edge training programme (fnar) we'll be fitting in another event as a team as well.

Katie's Midnight Walk will take place on 20 June 2009 and is a five mile walk in Alfreton, Derbyshire. The aim is to raise awareness of malignant melanoma (a type of skin cancer) hence the walk from dark into light.

As well as raising awareness of this disease and making a team donation to Professor Poulem Patel's research project into malignant melanoma we will also be remembering Katie.

Katie Taylor was my husband's cousin and died last June from malignant melanoma, aged 15. The walk is open to all and we'd encourage Team RFGR followers to join in if you are able. While the Race for Life is a girl-thing we'll be encouraging blokes, thin girls and even our four-legged friends to join KMW too!

Please take a few moments to read Katie's story and we hope to see you at midnight on 20 June 2009.

S-ChampPersp

(If you can't take part please consider making a donation to help fund research into the disease)

And one more makes seven

More new member news just in:

The team are welcoming another new member to the squad for the Race for Life 2009.

Sarah Hutchinson will be joining us on the run / walk / crawl in order to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

So we now have a full starting line up of seven for Team Run Fat Girl Run Race for Life 2009!

Joining stalwart FG's Lauren Noakes, Sarah Lay, Sarah Barker and Toni-Anne Sanderson will be new girls Kelly Race, Vena Wheeldon and Sarah Hutchinson.

More girls surely means more money folks - so get those donation digits at the ready to encourage us on our wobbly way!

S-CP

And then there were six...

Just a quick note to welcome another new addition to Team RFGR - Vena 'Hammond' Wheeldon! Hello V!

Along with Kelly, Vena will be in the starting line up with original Fat Girls (myself, Sarah, Toni and Lauren) as we take a second sprint (for sprint read wheezy stroll) around the Bowl of Hellfire.

We're very pleased our numbers are expanding as not only are there more of us to carry a theme (have your say on what it should be over on our facebook group) but also means we can raise more money for Cancer Research UK.

I would love to say that training has started in earnest but it hasn't even started at all. It's nearly 1pm and I am still in my PJs. Still, as soon as one of us moves a muscle we'll be sure to update you here Fat Girl fans!

S-CP

and so it begins.....

The challenge is being signed up to as we speak. 5km of power walking and puffing lungs is on the horizon. The clock is ticking and the blogs begin. Race for Life 2009 is now offically under way and I begin this momentus day with an evening of chinese and cider! Maybe i'll call Monday the first official day of training and put this weekend of naughtiness down to a fond farewell party for my fat and flab. Smoking is at a minimum but kitkat consumption is at a maximum, the two are not unrelated. So it's down the gym with religious gusto and a firm shake of the head to the kitkat cravings. This time it's serious, we're aiming for a better time round Holme Pierrepont (otherwise known as the Bowl of Hellfire) and to beat the pegleg. I hope we get the same level of support this year as we were truely humbled by the amount we raised in 2008. A big thanks again to everyone who helped us and Cancer Reasearch UK and we hope we'll do you proud again if you're so kind as cough up some cash this year. I'll be updating with training photos and progress reports asap!!

Here come the girls

I'd like to say that we are back from a planned hiatus over the winter months but truth is we just haven't done anything much since completing the Aspire swim challenge at the start of December.

We are starting to plan in our events for 2009 now though and where better to start than, well, where we started from - Race For Life!

Team RFGR will be participating at Nottingham HolmePierrepont again, sweating round the five kilometre course on Sunday 26 July. This year we aim to finish before anyone on crutches, use sunscreen and take plenty of water with us!

We've already gathered a new Fat Girl to our collective bosom and so we welcome the rather marvellously-named Kelly Race (marvellous because we're racing see...oh forget it).

In the next few weeks we'll begin with training (no, seriously, we will this time) and then pestering you all for donations!

Saira - AKA Champagne Perspiration