Hello lovely people!
I hope 2014 finds you well and excited about this next year!
I can only urge you to take a little time out to decide on what you want from this year, then make it happen!
On Saturday 4th January I completed a run which I’ve been really quite nervous about, I’ve actually spent quite a lot of time worrying about it, but you know what, it was awesome!
My husband, mother-in-law and I flew out to Tromso, Norway on Thursday, armed with 2 litres of green smoothie and a huge box of watermelon. We left the house at 5 am and arrived there 17 hours later. Tromso was beautiful and is actually in the Arctic Circle. The distance from Oslo to Tromso is the same as the distance from Oslo to Rome! At the moment the city has no sunlight and has about 1 hour of dusk per day. Then, in the summer they experience 24 hours of sunlight, which there is also a midnight half marathon for, we are already discussing trying that one out too!
We decided to do the run as a challenge for all of us, trying an Arctic adventure and a great way to raise money for charities close to our hearts. Matt is raising money for a charity called CRY in memory of one of his closest friends, Scott, who died whilst training for the Olympics, he had Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) which is an umbrella term used for the many different causes of cardiac arrest in young people.
I decided to run for a Worcester based charity, The Snozelen Project, I have decided to raise money for the Worcester Snoezelen project to add to the money raised in 2013 through meditation sessions in Worcester.
They are a small independent charity based in Worcester, United Kingdom; running a multi-sensory environment for people with severe learning disabilities. The charity is a community resource visited by over 400 people every week.
The run was went really well, I felt light, I had a spring and I quite happily sprinted up the icey hills. I felt I could’ve definitely done it again. So I was extremely happy with that.
The run was lined with candles and had a beautiful view over the city. Tromso has a real calmness to it and is actually quite quiet with only a small population. We noticed that in Tromso there seemed to be no clutter, it was minimally chic yet still had such a festive feel to it. Homes were decorated in very beautiful decorations without any fuss. I would definitely recommend a visit!
Anyone who knows me also knows I hate the cold, I love summer and being warm and running always used to be a really tough part of fitness for me. My legs always used to feel like lead and my feet were always unstable. Over the last few years I have really invested in my education and have learnt a tremendous amount about our biomechanics which really helped with my training. My left foot was a bit of an issue and would not load, causing training to feel unnecesarily hard, as well as having hyper-mobile hips, my running used to feel like wading in mud. But, by using different ways of training and some very cool techniques running now feels comfortable and even enjoyable! I will write a whole other blog on training preparation for the run.
The other thing I had worried about was the small matter of food… Nutrition is a huge factor in my life and has turned my health around completely. My concern was that such a tiny place might not be able to cater for my specific requirements. I am vegetarian and am allergic to dairy, sugar and gluten and also react really badly to any foods with preservatives in them (I come out in a big itchy rash around my lympth if I have anything that isn’t fresh) So I just hoped they had potatoes and some fruit and veggies to fuel me through. To be safe we took a day’s supply of food with us and I made some date and fig bars as a back up (I will post the recipe later) Apart from being very expensive, the food was actually great! 1 jacket potato and a very tiny side salad was £11, considering I usually eat 4 potatoes in one sitting it was quite an expensive trip, but totally worth it! We had a wonderful breakfast everyday and it was brilliant, I hadn’t needed to worry at all!
Here are a few photos…
If anyone would like to contribute towards our causes we would be so grateful! I will provide the links below.
Thank you for reading and I hope you feel inspired to try something new!
Keep moving and nourishing yourselves!
Aimie xx
http://www.justgiving.com/Aimie-Dodson
http://www.justgiving.com/MattDodson-ArcticChallenge