And she's off...!!

So I'm back from Texas, and after shaking off my jetlag I've managed the incredible walking total of .......(cue foghorns, drumrolls & angels singing)....ZERO minutes! I know, I'm a terrible person, but I was officially still on holiday & didn't go back to work until today so I kind of didn't bother. Although, all that walking around Texas & running from the police after trying to kidnap Graham Coxon must surely have had an effect.
Anyway, I am back at work now & have sent out my "please sponsor me" email this morning. I have had my first donation of £10....yay! I am now (sort of) back on my healthy eating plan - I even got up early this morning to make an extra healthy packed lunch, and the wii fit will be making an appearance shortly.

K xx

Practice run!

Team Run, Fat girl, Run have decided to return to the Bowl of Hellfire for a practice lap on the afternoon of Easter sunday (12 April 2009).
At least six members of the team will be training together at the location of the actual race with the idea that not only can we jolly each other on in our continued training but alos work out how fast we're completing 5k in at the moment to spend the next two and a half months getting that time down.
Exact time to be decided but this is an open invitation to all Fat Girl supporters to come along and burn off some calories while watching the team in action!

We'll be running round the rowing course as this is the route of the Race for Life and handily measure 5k. We'll meet by the building at the bottom end of the course (ie the start / finish line)!
S-CP x

It's all about feet

We're all trying in our own ways to get ready for the walk and race but for some it seems the deck is stacked against them? What hope, really, when even stationery attacks?

I speak of course of the freakish, and yet squimish, accident befalling Sarah H. I can't tell you the full story but I can tell you what I know and what I know is this: Sarah H was stabbed in the foot by a Biro.

I don't know if the Biro is magical and did it of it's own free will (and if so whether the attack was premeditated or provoked) or if someone else, or Sarah herself, was wielding the brand-name-writing implement at the time.

Who can say for sure? Well, probably Sarah H. She was there at the time afterall.

Anyway, I am certain that this picture doesn't do justice to the pain that Sarah H is surely in. I am also certain that if our fundraising total shot up (find the links in the side panel) it would mystically swiften the healing process allowing her to to get back to training asap while we all bask in the warm fuzzy of do-gooding.

What news of other Fat Girl feet? Well, the most comments on our tactical training night out were about the wonderous shoes we adorned our tootsies with. There were high heels, mid heels, sparkly heels, animal print heels but all very cute.

We strutted and danced in them and then we wobbled slowly away into the night. But if there is one thing a Fat Girl loves, it's a good pair of shoes.

If you don't want to donate because you think we are awesome for putting ourselves through 5k for Cancer Research UK then do it in honour of our footwear.

And in non-foot news: the practice run (or possibly walk) will take place on the afternoon of Easter Sunday (12 April) at the Bowl of Hellfire. Please feel free to come along and cheer us on or burn off some of those delicious Easter egg calories while keeping pace with us and providing motivation, water and quite possibly medical support.

The next 'tactical' meeting is lightly pencilled in the for end of May and there are high hopes that all eight team members will make it. Fabulous shoes are guaranteed.

Total currently stands at £154 but we need more folks. If you haven't sponsored us yet please take the time to click a link on the left - you can donate as little as £2 online, make a Gift Aid donation (if you're a UK taxpayer) and know you've made the Fat Girls and Cancer Research UK happy.

Keep runnin' - S-CP x

Team meet

The first 'tactical' training session of Team Run, Fat Girl, Run has been held for 2009.
I'd love to say we talked tactics and got a plan underway but in reality we had fun with the badges, relived last year's stagger around the Bowl of Hellfire, and then got down to the serious business of pulling shapes. All while wearing fantastic, beautiful shoes - which hopefully has helped to tone our leg muscles.
We blessed the, er, Bless with our hospitality but after losing out to Noel Edmonds on the quiz machine headed off to Mosh to pull some shapes. And what shapes they were! Some frankly stunning synchronized dance routines reminiscent of The Supremes (but with better shoes and adorned with Fat Girl badges) stunned the other punters.
I'm convinced that the effort it takes to perform such a technically demanding creative flow of dance moves counts as training, especially when heel height is taken into account.
Unfortunately, the effort was detrimental to some as early doors were called for the team when Sarah B's back problems of last year threatened a painful reoccurrence.
Thanks must be given to the Street Pastors who complimented our footwear before fulfilling the role of team support with the handing out of free flip flops; much needed by the team at this point.
A few pictures are available in the Facebook Fat Girl group so get over there and check them out. Hopefully a few more will be added in the next few days.
And so with Lauren strutting away to home Fat Girl Cabs (as driven by Sarah C-P) called through the all-night Maccy D's and delivered fat girl's back to their beds. Excellent meeting and we can't wait for the inevitable frolics to be had when all eight of us manage to get together in one place!

Which brings us nicely to a quick round-up of team members:

• Sarah C-P is 10lbs down and has had a couple of week's off training but made a return with Body Pump today - whatever wasn't hurting from dancing in six inch stilettos last night is definitely feeling the burn now;
  
• Sarah Barker was making excellent progress with her running but will now be resting her back for a few days / weeks / hopefully not long;
• Lauren is still battling the treadmill for superiority, and starting to win;
• Vena plans to begin training on 1 April and is spreading the sponsorship word;
• Sarah H was training hard but now will be limited by a foot injury;
• Ace is showing dedication to the cause with plenty of training in Londinium and living healthy too;
• Toni is in training and hoping the foot pain of last year stays in the past;
• Last but not least is Kelly, currently at SXSW in Texas most recently understood to have had a chat with Graham Coxon about Sarah C-P wanting to kidnap him. Sorry about that Graham.
  

See the pain that we go through - the least you can do is donate a few pennies :-) I am sure both injured Sarah's would welcome the healing power that comes from people sponsoring us (see side panel for links to online sponsorship sites).

In other news:

• Badges (not badgers - there has been some confusion) have arrived and will be passed out / sent to all those who have sponsored us so far. Please model your badge in a way you feel is a fitting tribute to the team and post pic to the Facebook group - there may even be a small token of recognition for the one that pleases / shocks us the most! Big thanks to Badges for Bands for making our buttons a reality.
• The total raised by the band so far stands at £149. A Blue Peter-style totaliser is over in the side panel for your pleasure.
  

Next team meets are a practice run around Holme Pierrepont over the Easter weekend and a 'tactical' meeting in May, possibly at St Pancras Champagne Bar (if V gets us all on the train for cheap!) or Derby / Notts way.
For now...keep runnin'
S C-P (hoping that injuries to Fat Girls called Sarah don't come in threes)
xxx

Now fully open!

Just a quick note now all the Fat Girl team member's have their online sponsorship pages up and ready to receive.
You can find the links in the side panel over there >>>>>>
Pick a girl and give what you can. And to show how much we appreciate your support we'll send you a little Fat Girl memento!
Look out for blog posts from Sarah B and Ace in the near future and thanks for all your support so far!
S-CP
xxx

Stage one of sponsorhip: complete!

I'm very pleased to announce that thanks to the generosity of those who have already sponsored us the Team has now raised more than £100! This is already one eighth of our target stats fans!!!

So let's start the week with a woop woop for our sponsors. Woop Woop!

We've had a little gift made for everyone kind enough to show us the money. We like to think of it as a medal awarded for kindness. And it's completely secondary that by wearing the 'medal' the Fat Girl word will be spread and potentially garner more money!

But it is for a very worthy cause - vital funding for Cancer Research UK’s life-saving work into preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer. By sponsoring the team now you can help more people survive cancer.

You can find links in the sidebar to the online sponsorship pages for the team which are up and running. Pick a girl and within minutes you will have joined the fight against cancer!

S-CP x

PS - check it out >>>> you can now choose to sponsor seven out of the eight Fat Girls! Vena just opened her page and would gladly be the conduit for donations to the cause!

Sweaty Betty not just in name...

Just been down the gym at lunch, boy what a sweat i've got on! Hot.... but not in a sexy way!

Wish I'd done a little more work to earn this 'healthy glow' though, just a minute of quick walking is enough to get the beads of perspiration rolling down my forehead. I have to use the treadmill under the AirCon machine else I'm likely to cause a site wide melt down with the heat radiating from my beetroot face.

I took a big step today (well a few actually but i meant that more figuratively).... I measured my progress on the treadmill in distance and not calories! This took some big determination and although I'm pleased I now can measure my pace like a big girl, I'm also very disheartened by what the numbers told me today. I walked 1.5 miles in 20 minutes, that's a pace of 4.5mph. So I think if i can at least maintain that then i can do the Race for Life in a little less time than last year. This is good but not great. I'm going to have to put a lot more effort in and make that treadmill my bitch if i want to seriously improve on 2008, bring it on!

I'm loving the merch designs by S-ChampPersp, good work fellow FG. I'm brimming over with other ideas of themes and tshirts, and im sure we'll discuss these over a good few glasses of wine at the first TRFGR MEET on 21st March! Not long now till we can swap training tips and dance moves, see you then ladies. I hope we'll get a few of us to meet at Holme Pierrepont for an Easter practice walk/jog/run too, (top idea Sarah!) it'll be good to test out the gym training in the field. It'll probably be the kick up the wobbly rear I need!

One (still) Sweaty Betty signing off x

Running on the spot

And I was doing so well! Alas, my training needs to be cut back for a couple of weeks due a totally forseeable circumstance which I did not factor in. My bad...
Anyway, while my training turns light and frequent I may as well get my Statto kicks elsewhere by bringing you a round up of our current total.
This total is only from online sponsorship and is calculated by my not-completly- foolproof method of visiting each girl's site.
So - from the six site's currently available we have raised a total of £97!!! Round of applause please...
BUT this is nowhere near enough! Thankfully there is still 19 weeks left until race day so lots of opportunity for more people to show their support for the Fat Girls while getting the warm fuzzy glow that comes from joining the fight against cancer.
Many thanks to those who have already given us cash...the free gift I promised to all supporters will be with you, sometime...possibly even before race day!!! Now I'm not pitched in a battle of wills against a treadmill (and the music policy person of my gym) I can get on with the Fat Girl merch! Swings and roundabouts you see...
S-ChampPersp x

JUST ADDDED: A little sneaky peak of one of the designs for the free gift soon to be adorning our kind supporters. Whaddya thinks?

I am not a number

Actually, I am. I am number 684. Or 648 I can't remember now.
Anyway, the postal pack came yesterday with my race number (down from 2557 last year! Although it bears no relation to ability merely the order in which you register), the dedication thing for my back and ye olde fashioned paper sponsorship forms. So it is all official. Very, very official.
I assume that all other Fat Girls received a similar gift from their postie???
Back to training then.
Back at the gym this morning and feel somewhat stupified by the leap in effort and endurance required for today's session.
Yes, the walk/run ratio has increased (now four mins walk followed by two mins run) but you still have to repeat this five times. FIVE. Yes, FIVE!
So yesterday I was quite pleased with my own self being able to complete 10 mins alternating between one min walk and one min run. Then suddenly *wham* 30 full on minutes. If Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories (almost makes up for the Annie Lennox faux pas yesterday gym music policy person, almost) weren't soothing my sweatsome soul I may well let out a few choice expletives.
But, hey, I did it.
(NOOOOOOOOOOOO...Annie Lennox is back. Expletives coming up like word vomit. I don't deserve this kind of aural punishment after such supreme physical effort, surely?)
Statto facts for today; three km in 30 minutes, 137 kcals burned.
And when I am in charge of the music what did I listen to in order to spur me on?

• Justice V Simian - We Are Your Friends
• NERD - Rock Star
• Prodigy - Omen
• The Massed Pipes whatsit from Help album ('95) - The Magnificent Seven
• MIA - Paper Planes

Not sure how I am going to cram those other two kms into (this is the most random music playlist - it's only ruddy Lional RichTea now) the 30 mins but hey, I guess I'll find out as the weeks go on and the training increases in intensity.
Right, I'm off to stuff myself with all you can eat Chinese food for Fat Girl-supporter Stuart Lydon's 30th. I am sure my 137kcals will account for my consumption.
S-ChampPersp x
Any of the Fat Girls fancy a practice run at the Bowl of Hellfire sometime over the Easter Weekend (April 11/12)???

Week one progress / lessons

To say there has been progress may be slightly misleading. However, I have just completed another training session following my schedule (off t'internet) and managed to do five sets of walking for a minute and running for a minute. Covered just over one kilometre in the ten minutes so not really getting much faster (maths gives me 5k in 50 minutes so perhaps 2 minutes faster than last week).
This also only burns a rather meagre 44 kcals. But maybe this is because I just pressed quick start on the machine and didn't give it my real information. It may have assumed I was Linford Christie (on a bad day) so more efficient at burning calories? I feel sure given my Fat Girl status my body will panic at the merest exercise and burn like there is no tomorrow. Burn Baby Burn!
Anyway, for the moment the run / walk cycle is getting better. Although I should probably get round to finding my inhaler just in case. And stop relying on the A Team theme tune to get me to the end of the session.
Followed the run up with a cool down in the pool - first time swimming since completing the Aspire challenge at the tail end of 2008. I would have done longer but the gym played the Annie Lennox version of Shining Light and I had to get to a place of safety quickly.
So now, it's 8.50am and I feel I have done something with my weekend already! Am moving onto the next step of training tomorrow morning with a shorter walk to run ratio!
S-Champ-Persp (or Statto given my obsession with distance / speed / calorie burn)
PS - Two Ash references in this entry...what do you think that means???

Howdy!!

Well I have finally managed to sort out my fundraising page, although I can't get a photo to upload. I think the organisers are probably offended that all of my photos seem to have beer, vodka or food on them - not really the greatest images for a 5k run !
I got myself a wii fit to start my training on, I set it up but was then mortally wounded when the little mii of me was made fat after I got weighed, so I have packed it away again haha.
Seriously though, I am a member of the gym so I will be making full use of the facilities to try & hit the target time (instead of just bobbing round in the pool then going for a sauna). I also need to invest in a super strength sports bra, as my bosoms are not used to exercise more strenous than walking to the bar.
I'm loving the idea of a theme, but I'm struggling to think of one. (although 2 members of the team will already have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles outfits haha)
Kelly x

Sponsorship begins...

Just a quick note to give some kudos to our first sponsors - Michael Reek and David Bull pledged support to Sarah Reek-Lay and Vicki and Pete showed Lauren Noakes the money. Team total already stands at £55!!!

Obviously thrilled by the news that Team RFGR will run again they were quick to pledge their monetary support as soon as sponsorship opened.

Don't get left behind - sponsor a Fat Girl NOW!!!

S-ChampPersp

(links in side bar to sponsorship sites which are now open)