UPDATE: Rachael Completed her run at the R-F-L Event  on Blackheath Common on Sunday 13th! She was hoping to beat Alice's time, but coming in, in just under 40 minuts is an achievement for a busy mum with two small children and studying full time.  I'd like to say a special thank you to everyone who sponsored team Gily's Girls for the 'Race for Life' fund raiser on June the 15th. We have beaten our target of £300.00. Having never done anything like this before, we weren't sure how much was a reasonable target and apprehensively set a target of £300.00, not really sure that we would achieve this. Thanks to your generosity, at present the total (with form sponsorship) is at £455.00. I was unable to upload pics of the event directly onto this web page. Hopefully this link should work. 

Briefly, for those who have not previously visited this page; Team Gily's Girls, (my daughters', granddaughter and myself) were to take part in the charity run, 'Race for Life' for Cancer Support UK. This came about after being diagnosed with Follicular (Oncocytic variant) Thyroid cancer last year. Taking part in an event like Race for Life, gave me a goal and a means of raising money for a great charity that really does make a difference to people's lives. My daughters' wanted to support me and take part too. Tammy was to travel down from Aviemore with partner Dan and son Riley and Rachael was coming up from London with partner Ralph and children Kiah-Ama and Micah. Rebecca's baby was due 6 weeks before the race, so she felt sure she would be able to take part. Her daughter Mollie wanted to enter too so with my youngest daughter, Alice we became Team Gily's Girls. Unfortunately, as a result of pregnancy-related problems, Rebecca had to withdraw. Then baby Isaac arrived on the 20th May, 10 days late and at 3 days old we almost lost him. He had acute liver problems and needed to be treated and stabilised in Intensive care in the SCBU in Ninewells hospital. He was then flown to Kings College Hospital, London for further tests and a liver biopsy. It began to look as if we might have to pull out of the run. With just a week before the run, Isaac came home from King's College, and was able to go home, still being closely monitored. (I can't thank the hospital staff at Ninewells and Kings College enough for saving his life and the support they gave to Rebecca and her partner Paul).

UPDATE: With two days to go before the run, Rachael phoned to say she couldn't come up. Though it couldn't be helped, I was upset as I was so looking forward to seeing her again. However, I knew she would be with us in spirit. She was able to transfer her entry to an event in the London area and is running at Blackheath Common, S.E. London on Sunday, (13th July). Good Luck Rachael, we are rooting for you!!! Rebecca was able to join us on the day, cheering us on, taking pics, while daddy's Paul and Dan, were doing good jobs looking after the little ones.

The day couldn't have been more perfect. The sun was out but with some clouding and a slight breeze, it was cool. When we arrived at the venue, you could feel the excitement and anticipation. As we walked towards the venue, we looked down on a sea of pink. Pink balloons, pink costumes, pink T-shirts, pink hair, pink everywhere you looked. It was a wonderful atmosphere with a great family feel. Mollie had a lovely surprise as her father and granny had come along to cheer her on and she was thrilled when her auntie Fiona appeared with a friend, having also entered the run. We started off with about 20 minutes of warm-up exercises, which was great fun for the children and (speaking personally of course) helped reduce the tension in us oldies. Rebecca was manning the camera while Dan and Paul took charge of Ben, Riley and Isaac.

Alice had been training regularly and wanted to test herself by running the whole 5k AS She had already competed in an inter-schools cross country run of a mile. I have to confess, my training efforts were very sporadic and limited to walking with the dogs. Mollie also wanted to run but knew she couldn't keep up with Alice so her auntie Fi suggested she and her friend, (sorry, I never got her name) could run with Mollie at her pace. Tammy and I 'unanimously' agreed we would walk. Alice, Mollie, Fi (& friend) went off to start behind the experienced runners, (some of who, we later found out, ran twice round the course). Tammy and I joined somewhere in the middle of the 'walkers'. There were nearly 4000 women and girls taking part in the event and by the time Tammy and I started, Alice and Mollie had long gone. We felt we should at least try and 'jog' and with good intentions, jogged (as did everyone else) through the start. I think we lasted all of 50 metres before we decided we were being a little too optimistic and if we wanted to finish under our own steam and not on a stretcher, jogging was not such a great idea after all. We thought we were walking quite fast until people started passing us. Though, looking behind us, we could see we were still somewhere in the middle of the walkers. All along the route, people were cheering everyone on, shouting encouragement whether they knew you or not. Some had made banners, some waved flags. And though this was only a 5k event, the support was touching. Eventually, we spotted a familiar face cheering us on. Rebecca, Paul, Dan and the children, all shouting that Alice had finished already and we had about a quarter of the way to go.

As we approached the finish, the cheering got louder and a voice on a tannoy was also shouting encouragement. I heard the voice say something about 2 minutes to go? Suddenly Tammy started running. Trying to follow, (it seemed everyone else had the same idea as there was a sudden rush of people sprinting across the finish) I tried to ask her what the man said, to which Tammy shouted, "Just run mum!"  So still none the wiser why the sudden rush, we sprinted (as only we could) the last few metres. I followed Tammy through and collected my medal and goody bag before I was able to get my breath and ask what that was all about. Apparently we were being told that if we wanted to finish in under the hour, there was only 2 minutes to go. I was quite please as neither of us are very fit and with so many people passing us on the route, I had thought it was going to take us a good 90 minutes at the very least.

As we re-grouped with the others, Mollie and Alice were both full of excitement, dying to tell me how they had done. Mollie and Fiona had jogged and walked alternatively and finished in an impressive time of 45 minutes. Alice had managed to run the whole 5k, finishing in 35 minutes and was beside herself joy, wishing she could run round a second time! We all agreed it had been a very worthwhile experience and something we'd all like to do again. Next year we are planning to start fitness training in earnest so that we can better our times. Rebecca, (who is normally very fit) and Alice have decided to run the 10k. Hopefully, Rachael will make it too so that we can make it another family occasion to remember. THANK YOU again for supporting Team Gily's Girls.