It is always fantastic when people decide to support the AKU Society with a charity event. This week we hear from Katie Smith, who has decided to run the Cardiff half marathon to raise money for the AKU Society.
Hiya, I’m Katie Smith, a third year physiotherapy student at Cardiff University. I’m running the Cardiff half marathon on Sunday 5th October 2014 to fundraise, and raise awareness for the AKU society. I have decided to do this for my dad, Richard Smith, who suffers from AKU.
It will be my first half marathon, and at the moment 13.1 miles seems pretty daunting. After I signed up I went on a short 3 mile run and immediately thought ‘what have I got myself into?’
Last week, after struggling with 3 miles, I thought I better start getting some practice in. I ran 4.8 miles on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It was tiring at first but has started to get much easier the more I do it. I went on a long run on Sunday. I didn’t really plan how far I was going to go, and just thought I’d see how far I could manage. I surprised myself and managed to run 10.5 miles without stopping. This is the furthest I have run so far, and I didn’t feel too bad after, although I was a bit stiff. Now 13.1 miles doesn’t seem quite so impossible.
I am planning on doing three 5-8 mile runs in the week and one long run of about 10-12 miles on the weekend. This will be challenging as I’m back on placement now, and need to fit in netball training too, but hopefully I will manage to stick to it.
I am hoping to complete the half marathon in 2hrs 30minutes. My first 10 mile run took me 2hrs 15, so hopefully with a lot of training over the next month I will achieve this time.
I would really appreciate any donations.
If you would like to sponsor Katie for her run, please head to her JustGiving event page and give what you can to support her.