Ultra community and running effort

Welcome to the Ultra blog
This week is an ultra blog because be of the events that happened this week in both the fund raising and running department.
I shall not bore you with day by day coverage this week as I would otherwise have to tell you that I have improved my 5k time despite running post night shifts without sleep, or telling you that it was mine and my father in laws birthday.
I will however talk, well write, about 2 main events; the 1st will be that the Wantage community spirit is alive and kicking and the 2nd is about my first ever ultra event.

Community Spirit

Ok so on Wednesday I decided to go to some local shops to see if I could get any more donations for the raffle and was half expecting to get nothing but a few odd looks from the managers/shop owners. However the response I got blew me out of the water and put a huge smile on my face. I visited 4 shops, 1 fitness studio, 2 banks and 1 hair dresser. The fitness studio was very impressed with my challenge and promised to definitely donate something towards my challenge and asked for a sponsorship form to put out for their customers which was very kind and supportive and gave me hope for the next visits. The next shop was a small local key cutters/shoe fixing place and they asked me to come back after the weekend so they can sort out a prize/donation for me. Again a great result. The 2 banks couldn't help but forwarded my request to their headquarters again a good result. The local hair dresser,  Segais, straight away gave me a a great voucher for a hair design, cut and finish (see voucher below).

In a large chain I was told that the shop donates only to their designated charity but I was asked to leave my details with them as the staff would like to help me in my charity challenge (that nearly made me cry). The other 2 shops said that they will forward my requests to their bosses who weren't there until the end of the week and as long as the charity budget has not been spent yet they were sure that I should get some support (again an excellent response).
This made me happy already but then I got an email from Oxford United Football Club and they have sent me a voucher for 2 people to attend a home game in September (brilliant).

Community spirit even reached the virtual world as a twitter friend whom I have never met yet has decided to send me 2 unopened High School Musical Dance Mat games. Thank you so much Denise (@ruggedradnage).

My first Ultra Marathon run  So yesterday the 05.05.12 at 1100 I started my first ever ultra marathon and I was put in the elite group which concerned me a bit as it was my first race longer than a half marathon so quite a step up.

The course was through the New Forest through woodlands, marsh areas and open fields. The rain leading up to the race was lovely as it made the whole ground boggy, muddy, wet, slippery with a lot of huge puddles which couldn't always be avoided despite big jumps... The other problem was that the course was not always well sign posted so we (myself and other elite runners) got lost a few times which added at least 5 miles to my total and probably 10 minutes on top of that was spent standing around trying to figure out where to go... This really did not help my physical reserves or mental strength. Until check point (CP) 2 (which was officially 16 miles but I had run 20 by then) I felt great and was well ahead of my target as I was pulled along by the elite runners (avg pace was 8:20min/mile not my planned 9min/mile). Here I saw my lovely family which gave me another boost. At some point between CP 2 and 3 I started to feel sick, despite maintaining a frequent and regular food and hydration intake,

 I wanted to vomit a few times but didn't. That really wore me down mentally. As well as that I was running on my own and could not see anyone else for ages. I really wanted to stop 2-3 times before CP 3 but did not despite getting lost with another runner again I fought to CP 3 and saw my lovely girl waving, then I saw my wife, mother and father in law and my cute little boy. I stopped at CP 3 to eat and drink or tried to eat but could not as I was feeling so ill, my wife reassured me that I could stop and have nothing to prove to anyone. She was right I had nothing to prove to anyone apart from myself so I grabbed two slithers of a cheesy sandwich and 2 small cocktail sausages as I knew I needed salt.  It took me 25 minutes to eat them; oh yes 25 minutes for what usually takes me only 25 seconds. I felt less sick after that but was not able to move my legs properly and to check my progress I looked at my phone and my gps acted up so couldn't use that to gauge how far I still had to run.
All of these events played on my mind and again I wanted to stop. Negative thoughts flooded in and I really struggled, but remembering what my little girl was shouting at CP 2/3 "go go daddy you can do it", my wife and in laws supporting me all the way and the lovely messages I got via facebook and from my #twitfam helped me to believe in myself and pull through at a decent pace for the last leg of roughly 9min/mile. At the finish I was very cold and could not stop shaking. When I saw my lovely wife I got very emotional and a bit worried as she told me that I looked a bit blue around the lips. I felt a bit odd from about 2 miles before the end and the feeling only disappeared after a hot shower and lots of food.

Overall I am very happy with my run as I gave it my all and there was nothing left in the tank. I learnt a lot about myself and how my mind and body respond to different conditions and stimuli and how I can rectify short comings even whilst running at my limit.All in all I feel much more confident about running my 37.5 mile ultra on the 14th of July 2012 in Abingdon.


Fundraising news:
www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer is the web address you can use to donate money towards The Amber Phillpott Trust. I have received a lot of negative replies from companies and even more have not even answered at all which is sad but it wont stop me. I am glad it didn't stop me as  2 more national/international companies have agreed to sent me prizes over.
All of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or entered in a silent auction but if anything takes your fancy you can always take it off our hands beforehand in exchange for a donation to The Amber Phillpott Trust.
Available at present are:

High School Musical dance mate games (times 2)
Segais design hair cut
Little cuddly polar bear teddy's
2 Oxford United Tickets (sorry Raffle only)
Cushion from "Spring Lark"
RC car
Black T-Shirts from Calsberg
Baby food (bowl, spoons, sachets, cuddly toy) from Hipp
Authenticated autographs (Sting, Badly drawn boy, Michael Owen)
Open ended standard return train tickets from FGW x 2 (sorry Raffle only)
mens hair cut
oil change
4GB USB sticks (only 2 left)
golf balls
frisbees
If you like any of these items or express interest in a raffle ticket then please email me at florianstoermer@gmail.com and express what you are interested in and I will get back to you.



Stats Zone:
Runs:2
Distance covered this week: 38.1 miles 
Distance covered this month: 38.1 miles


Thank you for reading my blog please feel free to comment on it and share it with your followers and friends.


If you would like to raise money for  The Amber Phillpott Trust. and other charities supported by   The Yeah Baby Concert and to see me finish my 35 mile long Ultramarathon, then please come to the YeahBaby event in Abingdon Oxfordshire on the 14.07.2012 for a  free day of music, stalls, face painting etc... and/or donate via www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer