Isn't it great what average people can do.............

It is pretty amazing to see every day what can be achieved by us average people when we put our mind to it. In April 2012 Dawn and her daughter Winter started on their challenge to break the world record for the first mother and daughter team to run a marathon on all 7 continents. They achieved it at the end of 2013 and in so doing Dawn became the youngest runner to attain the accomplishment. http://womensrunning.competitor.com/2013/11/inspiration/14-year-old-girl-runs-a-marathon-on-every-continent_18210

We don't all manage such acts of courage and physical strength but everyday I am inspired by the quiet athletes I see on the London commuter routes - running and cycling to and from work, quietly getting on with their sport. Often they are doing good as they get fit http://www.goodgym.org/

I am in Oslo this weekend and while checking out the city by tram saw hundreds of local people getting on and off the tram with their cross country skis, just heading off for a little route before lunch - all very normal but I know how tough that sport is having failed at it several times.

So while my challenges are small, they are great to me and push sport into the middle of my everyday as a normal activity.

A special clap for those last home in the race

I was back to training this weekend with my Personal Trainer Matt Shore. Matt is a pretty amazing guy, great trainer and strong man and athlete himself. He has pushed, persuaded, charmed and hassled me from my relatively inactive self 4 years ago to a pretty active average woman today. This weekend session was strength based with kettle bells in the hail and rain on Eastbourne seafront - no moaning expected or allowed.

Matt has always pushed me to build my core strength and believes strength comes first in all sport. Personally I love to watch his spanner bending and tyre flipping - but then I can be a bit odd.

At the end of our first year training together in 2010 Matt asked me to set a stretching target for myself based on something I had always wanted to do - I chose triathlons with sea swims - quite a stretch as scared of swimming, couldn't cycle without falling off the bike and running was slow and weak. Being a brave soul and both competitive cyclist and swimmer in his time, he took this on and I completed 3 triathlons with sea swims in  2011 - Matt shadowing me on two of them to stop me from drowning. He got me from swimming 5 strokes in the pool then 'drowning' to doing 1km competently and then facing force 5 gales and waves in Summer tri swims on the south coast. He patiently went bike shopping with me, taught me how to use gears, put my feet in the pedal straps while not falling off and get to a 25km cycle at a more than competent speed, and finally completing 5km running without believing death was close.

 The Tris taught me many things that have remained with me:

• the physical and psychological pain and pleasure of competing
• how to survive the ignominy of being last in a race and still feel you achieved something worthwhile
• how competition pushes your performance up and onwards 
• how much you need a coach to train and believe in you when you don't frankly have any faith in yourself to complete your personal target

Lots more lessons and competitions since then and have stopped coming last now but much as I love watching elite athletes and those who come first, there is a special place in my heart for the guys at the end of the race who are starting out on their personal fitness journey - as it is the toughest part - so I try to be there to clap them home.

.......and we are off!

My first event of my challenge this year - The Hangover 5 on January 1st was cancelled due to extreme weather conditions. These guys have obviously never run in West Cork. The great action pledges you guys made on my TheDoNation page  http://www.thedonation.org.uk/doers/sinead-brophy/half-way-one-hundred-challenge meant I had to find an alternative quickly to hold up my end of our bargain. Thankfully the good people of http://www.nice-work.org.uk/ decided to run their planned annual Lamberhurst New Years Day 10k off road run, assuring me the forecast was dry for the race. Race went ahead as they said except off-road changed to on road due to flooding and it was wet beyond rain.

Despite wearing off road trainers for an on road race and getting wetter than I have ever done before I managed a PB (personal best for the uninitiated) of 55min and 16 seconds (apparently the seconds matter). I came 17th out of 53 women runners and placed overall 86 out of 136. I am happy with that and was delighted to see so many women out there - loads more did the 5k so The Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation will be pleased  http://www.wsff.org.uk/about

The race was two rounds of a 5k route with most competitors choosing the 5k race option, through pretty Lamberhurst Village and grounds of Scotney castle. As I watched the 5k runners cross the finish line, being weary and very wet, I have to confess I was tempted to slope off for a 5k finishers medal, But as it was a 'challenge' I couldn't give up. Mince pie and sniff of Scotch awaited us all BUT as my DoNation pledge involves no more cakes or pastries; my New Year resolution is to give up the drink and I would be dienfranchised as citizen of Irish Republic if I drank scotch I settled for tea.

Photographic evidence of both my efforts and of my support team being so put off by the rain they refused to leave the car to even take a photograph.

Now back to training for next event on 8th February - details to follow.................