Fundraising certainly got off to an excellent start last week, with colleagues not only devouring the spinach pie I brought it on Tuesday, but also organising a buffet lunch a couple of days later to add to the kitty! No photographs of that exist unfortunately, as the feeding frenzy that ensued made conditions too dangerous for filming!

The total at the end of the first week of fundraising stood at £235 (excluding gift aid), i.e. almost 12% of my goal! And while I know that things will quieten down a bit over Christmas, it still is a massive morale boost and bolsters my determination to put the miles in over the holidays!

Unfortunately training didn’t go quite as well, with me missing both my strength sessions, and a couple of shorter runs as well. It’s certainly not the end of the world, and it just makes me more determined to follow my routine better in the coming weeks.

The highlight of the week training-wise was the Christmas Pub Run with the Huncote Harriers on Sunday, which happened to start from our new local! 7 enjoyable miles along the canal towpath and across very soft, very muddy fields made for a run that compensated in hardness for what it lacked in distance! I’ve run in freshly ploughed fields a few time before, but the sensation of your legs getting heavier by the step, as the mud just accumulates on your shoes!

I just need to be more consistent during the week leading up to Christmas now, although I’ve already planned to switch Sunday’s Long Run (which falls on Christmas day) with Monday’s stretching session! No point deceiving ourselves, is there?

So I’m quite excited about getting off to a good start, but there are 4 full months of hard work ahead, and a long, long way to go on my fundraising…

And that’s where you can help (if you haven’t already) dear reader, just head over to my fundraising page at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/leonardsymeonides  with feelings of generosity in your hearts… Don’t make me have to send the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come over for a word!