What can you see..... Great Friends

So this week a lot happened I ran my first ever marathon, ran the furthest distance in one week, received the raffle tickets and wristbands for the Yeah-Baby concert/event and met the Yeah-Baby team on Monday.

That's a lot to write about but the biggest thing I got this week arrived today via email from my best friend Mark Townson and it made me smile, emotional, overwhelmed, cry and a bit proud. What is it you ask well its a link to something Mark has created please click on the link below and enjoy.

Mark's Video for me 

 How cool is that!?!  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Now let me start to tell you about my  week.

Monday
I met the Yeah Baby team at one of their pre event meetings and it was really nice to finally meet James Phillpott and Leon Turner after so many emails  between us. Everyone who was there was very friendly and I am so proud to be allowed to be part of such a great group of people.

Tuesday
I started my first run with a swollen and painful toe and therefore decided to listen to advice given to me from so many people and not push it and only ran 20 miles in a respectable 2:47hrs covering an elevation change of 1134feet on a multi terrain run. This was my first training run where I came home to simulate a check point style stop and it was weird but I need to get used to it.... What is it? Well you have a break basically in which you eat, drink and check your body and gear and fix any issues before you go off again.


Wednesday
After listening to my body and a lot of stern advice given by a lot of people who care about my well being I decided not to run a half marathon as planned but rather to cut it short to 10miles as I fell twice yesterday and hit my swollen toe against a rock. Nothing really happened on this run just that I ran it in a decent pace with a very strong finish (I like finishing strong). 10.1 miles in 1:16hr.... followed by a night shift

Thursday & Friday
I worked 2 more nights

Saturday
I had a lovely time with my family and got a very nice prize from a local shop called Spoilt Silly. They have a lot of lovely presents and is well worth a visit either here in Wantage in the Market Square or online via the link above. In the evening I drove to Cheltenham as I had to prepare for my first ever very early marathon race.

Sunday

This week I have run my first ever marathon race. I know some of you will scratch their head and say but you have run a marathon before and ultra marathons in training and race conditions. Yes you are right but I have never ran a marathon race before.

Before I started the training for my 37+ miles ultra marathon I have only ever competed and trained for 10k and half marthon races so all of this is very new to me as well and I am a newbie to this ultra endurance training/running.

So to start my marathon racing I chose an undulating mud bath off road marathon and boy did I choose well so well that I convinced @mikew30 and @ryyanbayliss to join me for a nice stroll in the picturesque countryside....
It was the hardest run I have ever done but it was worth it despite covering an elevation change of at least 5057 feet burning 5068kcal. It was very muddy, very hilly in places, treacherous at times, heavy sharp showers, got lost and added 2 miles to the run. I didn't fall but slid a lot and made bambi look like a natural on ice, climbed over a 2m+ gate (as it was jammed) and had to work really hard as well as being sensible to avoid any injury. I absolutely loved it.

Fundraising news: 

I have met the Yeah Baby team and finally met James Phillpott (founder of the Amber Phillpott Trust) in person for the first time. They are a great bunch and the day appears to be well organised and I am very excited to be part of it and slightly gutted that I cannot enjoy it as a spectator as it sounds like an amazing day! Read more about it on http://www.yeah-baby.co.uk/.

Thank you for helping to reach the milestone of £1000 which is 66% of the total money I would like to raise... please help us to achieve this total by donating via www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer. All money donated will go to The Amber Phillpott Trust

All of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or entered in a silent auction to help raise funds for The Amber Phillpott Trust, Helen&Douglas House hospice, Oxford children's hospital and Ronald House.
The Beard
Yes I have not shaved for one week and this is all that I have to show for it.... Its embarassing but people enjoy laughing at it and are happy to donate to my charity beard grow please feel free to do so yourself via www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer and mention beard in the message box.

Raffle tickets can now be ordered/bought from me as well as great red yeah-baby wristbands both will cost £1 each and will help a lot and some great prizes can be won.

Available prizes at present are:




Yummy Thai (£20 voucher)
1 Barbie Doll
2 Disney princess dolls
2 WWF wrestling figures
1 Polly Pocket pack
1 Mr.Men toy
5 HotWheels car
2 cars from CARS
3 Buff goodies bag
1 Black Hobgoblin T-Shirt (Marstons)
1 White Pedigre T-Shirt (Marstons)
The Lamb  (£50 voucher)
The Bear inn (voucher for 2 people 2 course meal on a Sunday)
King Alfreds Head(2 bottles of Wine)
Cleggs pharmacy (A spa set)
Creative cookshop (aprons &bandanas for boys and girls and a children chocolate making set)
Headlines (voucher for one hair cut)
Snob & Lock (leather wallet)
Heart to Heart (memory box and scented candles)
Motoquip (car valet pack)
Photogenic (one sitting voucher)
Unami (sauces)
Cutting bar (voucher for one hair cut)
Berghaus Rucksack
Hall&Woodhouse £30 voucher
Kingsmill £5 voucher
Teapot clock
High School Musical dance mate games (times 2)
Segais design hair cut (its gone)
Little cuddly polar bear teddy's
2 Oxford United Tickets
Cushion from "Spring Lark" (its gone)
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
Roly's revived Men's hair cut
Grease Monkeys oil service and valet
4GB USB sticks (only 2 left)
golf balls
Frisbees
If you are interested in a raffle ticket then please email me at florianstoermer@gmail.com.

Online Total today:
£1000direct donations £54 this week Thank You
That is brilliant as we have reached  £1000 but I would like to raise another £500 so please help to spread the word and donate what you can every penny helps!

Stats Zone:
Runs: 3
Distance covered this week: 58.1 miles 
Distance covered last month: 119.6 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

That's not my daddy his face is too beardy

OK this week I had to make a very difficult decision and listen to my body, which meant to rest as I felt so very tired and low on energy.

 Now some of you might think that resting is the easy option but trust me its not. Yes it is difficult to plan every week around work and training needs and it sometimes just hits you bang in the face. Last week I was starting to feel tired so on Monday I decided that I need to stop as I started to despise running and running is my most loved hobby so I knew something was wrong. Not running until Friday was tough as I felt I am letting the charity down, letting everyone that is and has supported me down and worst of all I felt that Mr.Lazy inside of me had won.....
However when I started my 1hour fast run I felt a little less tired than I did last week and managed a decent pace. The rest of Friday I spent celebrating my sister in laws 40th birthday which was great. We had a lot of fun especially because my wife and I could go together, courtesy of our first ever hired babysitter.
I drank a little too much and didn't get much sleep which was not the best preparation for my Saturday morning long run but after Catherine dropped me off at my starting point I just went for it. Boy I enjoyed myself and managed to run 20.5 miles (according to garmin gps watch) in 2:49 hour avg pace of 8:17min/mile which was just great. I LOVE RUNNING AGAIN!!!!


Fundraising ideas


At work I have some very supportive people and one of them liked the challenge that some of my friends had pitched to me in the pub. So one of my latest two fundraising ideas is that people can predict my finish time against a donation but the one that caught every ones imagination is that I should grow a beard for 4 weeks  to raise money and if the beard growth raises £250 it will be dyed in a colour unbeknown to me... So if you would like to join either of those two fundraising ideas and want to support them either mention beard or an estimated finish time when donating via www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer

Fundraising news: 

We are now so very close to reaching £1000 which is 66% of the total money I would like to raise...

www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer is the web address you can use to donate money towards The Amber Phillpott Trust.I have now all but finished my corporate fund raising approach so I can concentrate on my training.
All of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or entered in a silent auction to help raise funds for The Amber Phillpott Trust, Helen&Douglas House hospice, Oxford children's hospital and Ronald House.
Raffle tickets will be available to purchase soon and I am more than happy to take your orders once I have all the details.

Available prizes at present are:


Yummy Thai (£20 voucher)
1 Barbie Doll
2 Disney princess dolls
2 WWF wrestling figures
1 Polly Pocket pack
1 Mr.Men toy
5 HotWheels car
2 cars from CARS
3 Buff goodies bag
1 Black Hobgoblin T-Shirt (Marstons)
1 White Pedigre T-Shirt (Marstons)
The Lamb  (£50 voucher)
The Bear inn (voucher for 2 people 2 course meal on a Sunday)
King Alfreds Head(2 bottles of Wine)
Cleggs pharmacy (A spa set)
Creative cookshop (aprons &bandanas for boys and girls and a children chocolate making set)
Headlines (voucher for one hair cut)
Snob & Lock (leather wallet)
Heart to Heart (memory box and scented candles)
Motoquip (car valet pack)
Photogenic (one sitting voucher)
Unami (sauces)
Cutting bar (voucher for one hair cut)
Berghaus Rucksack
Hall&Woodhouse £30 voucher
Kingsmill £5 voucher
Teapot clock
High School Musical dance mate games (times 2)
Segais design hair cut (its gone)
Little cuddly polar bear teddy's
2 Oxford United Tickets
Cushion from "Spring Lark" (its gone)
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
Roly's revived Men's hair cut
Grease Monkeys oil service and valet
4GB USB sticks (only 2 left)
golf balls
Frisbees
If you are interested in a raffle ticket then please email me at florianstoermer@gmail.com.

Online Total today:
£946 direct donations £50 this week Thank You
That is brilliant as we are close to £1000 but I would like to raise another £554 so please help to spread the word and donate what you can every penny helps!

Stats Zone:
Runs:2
Distance covered this week: 27.82 miles 
Distance covered last month: 61.56 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

My A-Team

This week was not eventful but lots happened which made it challenging but rewarding.
My A-Team consist of great support in the organisation of my training, social media support team, support runners and race day organiser.

Training and Life support team
I have the good fortune of having a very supportive virtual trainer in @piertown who creates and structures my training plan.
However Catherine, Evie and Fabian are my greatest support as they have to give up the most in order for me to successfully complete A.M.B.E.R. and still they support me in any way possible.
Catherine has managed to get the whole route broken into sections so that she can organise my checkpoints and cheering on points. She also drives me to and from races, training runs and makes sure she and the kids cheer me on en route. Together we have also designed the race shirt which will be worn by all runners and the support crew on the 14th of July.

I cannot thank my family enough for their great support as sometimes motivation gets low and training is hard but just then either Catherine or Evie will say or do something that would just keep me going and working this bit harder.

Social Media
Well on Facebook there are many people who help to share this story like The Drohan family, Mark Townson, Rob Ellis, Graham Blundell, Rob Shaw, Tim Nicholls and of course my amazing wife Catherine Stoermer.
On Twitter: Many people have shared my links but the following are the most prolific @TISJOU, @TIS_SI and @havelegswillrun
Thank you so much

Support Runners
This week four runners have confirmed their support and they are scheduled and organised by (yes you guessed it) Catherine.
The runners are:
Tim Nicholls
Mark Townson
Graham Blundell
Nikos Markis
all will run varying distances (choosen by them) at different sections to give me optimum support all thanks to Catherine.

Race Day
So on Race Day my wife is organising all the runners and all members of the extended support team. If you would like to be part of it please contact me and I will pass your details on to Catherine.

Training
I have managed 3 runs this week. 2 HM distances which concluded exploring my race route and a quick one hour run.

Fundraising news: 

          I got a very generous donation from Mattel (see photo below and description further down)

 and a great Voucher form Yummy Thai plus a lot of you dug deep and donated a lot. We are now so very close to reaching £1000 which is 66% of the total money I would like to raise...

www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer is the web address you can use to donate money towards The Amber Phillpott Trust.I have now all but finished my corporate fund raising approach so I can concentrate on my training.
All of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or entered in a silent auction to help raise funds for The Amber Phillpott Trust, Helen&Douglas House hospice, Oxford children's hospital and Ronald House.
Raffle tickets will be available to purchase soon and I am more than happy to take your orders once I have all the details.

Available prizes at present are:


Yummy Thai (£20 voucher)
1 Barbie Doll
2 Disney princess dolls
2 WWF wrestling figures
1 Polly Pocket pack
1 Mr.Men toy
5 HotWheels car
2 cars from CARS
3 Buff goodies bag
1 Black Hobgoblin T-Shirt (Marstons)
1 White Pedigre T-Shirt (Marstons)
The Lamb  (£50 voucher)
The Bear inn (voucher for 2 people 2 course meal on a Sunday)
King Alfreds Head(2 bottles of Wine)
Cleggs pharmacy (A spa set)
Creative cookshop (aprons &bandanas for boys and girls and a children chocolate making set)
Headlines (voucher for one hair cut)
Snob & Lock (leather wallet)
Heart to Heart (memory box and scented candles)
Motoquip (car valet pack)
Photogenic (one sitting voucher)
Unami (sauces)
Cutting bar (voucher for one hair cut)
Berghaus Rucksack
Hall&Woodhouse £30 voucher
Kingsmill £5 voucher
Teapot clock
High School Musical dance mate games (times 2)
Segais design hair cut (its gone)
Little cuddly polar bear teddy's
2 Oxford United Tickets
Cushion from "Spring Lark" (its gone)
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
Roly's revived Men's hair cut
Grease Monkeys oil service and valet
4GB USB sticks (only 2 left)
golf balls
Frisbees
If you are interested in a raffle ticket then please email me at florianstoermer@gmail.com.

Online Total today:
£896 direct donations £145 this week Thank You
That is brilliant as we are close to £1000 but I would like to raise another £604 so please help to spread the word and donate what you can every penny helps!

Stats Zone:
Runs: 3
Distance covered this week: 33.74 miles 
Distance covered last month: 33.74 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

My blood, sweat and tears!

my female support crew

Blood
I ran a half marathon on Thursday and 1-2 miles into it I felt a pain on my toe. It did not last long but was sharp. So I did not think anything more of it but when I got home I realised that my toe was bleeding. I acquired a blood blister on my ultra at the beginning of may and it was under my toe nail and decided that it was about time to pop and to take a bit of skin with it.... It was not nice so sadly no pictures.
That is my blood story so now lets go to the next story about my bodily fluids....


Sweat

It is normal to sweat when you exercise and to sweat a little more during interval session especially when it is a little warm like it was Wednesday evening when I did my fastest distance interval session of 4.5miles. I ran my fastest training half marathon on Thursday but it was colder so I only needed 2l to re-hydrate after the run not like Tuesday when I ran my first ever training ultra marathon of 29.35 miles in 4 hours and 45 minutes when the starting temp was 18 degrees in clear sunshine without any wind or shade at all on my run..... On Tuesday I drank in excess of 10L and was still dehydrated, don't ask how I know I just do trust me;-)

my male support crew

Tears
Hmmm I am not sure how to start this....maybe by explaining that I am an emotional person who appreciates the thoughtfulness and kindness of others. When I get surprised with it like I did this week by two different and unconnected parties I am humbled and cannot contain or rationalise my feelings in time to stop me crying. It's like the goose bumps effect....
So what made me cry and rabbit on about it you ask?
On Monday I called ASICS sales line as ASICS UK told me that they cannot sponsor/support me but they provided me with a special discount code so I could buy their products at a very good rate. I chose some things but then realised that it is still too much for me as funds are limited as a self funded runner... After being on the phone with the sales assistant for a considerable time I felt bad to say at the end that I could not purchase these items after all as it was just too much for me right now , despite it being a very good price, so she said to me to stay on the line for a minute. I was wondering what I had done, if I had annoyed them or upset them by wasting their time? I was considering hanging up but then she came back on the line and asked me for my number which I gave her without asking much. She then went on and ask me to call her back on Wednesday but wouldn't be specific why, she just said I cannot promise anything and that was that. So on Wednesday I called back and she explained to me that she had a look around at home and spoke to some other departments and colleagues and she found some things that might be useful to me and that she will look in more detail over the weekend for me. She did not have to do any of this but did just out of the goodness of her heart and even so she has not promised anything it made me very emotional and humbled me that someone who doesn't know me would do this for me and the charity challenge.

Thursday a friend of ours Viv (who was one of the first people to sponsor me) asked me how the fundraising was going and I had to be honest it was not going well at all at that point. Later that evening I received the email notification from virginmoneygiving to say someone had sponsored me. When I checked the website to see who I can thank for their generosity I saw it was Viv again. This was very generous and that alone made me tear upbu t when I read that the money was generated by Viv, her daughter Charlotte and her son Rory giving up their Chinese takeaway I start to yes CRY as it is one thing to donate but another thing to give up something you like and look forward to in order to help someone else. A pure selfless act in my mind and I appreciate that and will use it even more to motivate me on my harder runs when I struggle.

So that was it with me crying. Well no not really as Rory sent me a message the very next day stating that he and his band Daughters Day want to do a gig at their school to raise money for the Amber Phillpott Trust via my virginmoneygiving site. Again such a selfless, kind and thoughtful act by a young man made me yes well CRY again.
I don't mind admitting that these acts of human kindness made me emotional and cry as it is a beautiful thing to witness and to be part of. THANK YOU ALL!


Fundraising news:
www.virginmoneygiving.com/florianstoermer is the web address you can use to donate money towards The Amber Phillpott Trust.I have now all but finished my cooperate fund raising approach so I can concentrate on my training.
All of the gifts  received so far will either be raffled off on the day or entered in a silent auction to help raise funds for The Amber Phillpott Trust, Helen&Douglas House hospice, Oxford children's hospital and Ronald House.
Raffle tickets will be available to purchase soon and I am more than happy to take your orders once I have all the details.

Available prizes at present are:


1 Black Hobgoblin T-Shirt (Marstons)
1 White Pedigre T-Shirt (Marstons)
The Lamb  (£50 voucher)
The Bear inn (voucher for 2 people 2 course meal on a Sunday)
King Alfreds Head(2 bottles of Wine)
Cleggs pharmacy (A spa set)
Creative cookshop (aprons &bandanas for boys and girls and a children chocolate making set)
Headlines (voucher for one hair cut)
Snob & Lock (leather wallet)
Heart to Heart (memory box and scented candles)
Motoquip (car valet pack)
Photogenic (one sitting voucher)
Unami (sauces)
Cutting bar (voucher for one hair cut)
Berghaus Rucksack
Hall&Woodhouse £30 voucher
Kingsmill £5 voucher
Teapot clock
High School Musical dance mate games (times 2)
Segais design hair cut (its gone)
Little cuddly polar bear teddy's
2 Oxford United Tickets
Cushion from "Spring Lark" (its gone)
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
Roly's revived Men's hair cut
Grease Monkeys oil service and valet
4GB USB sticks (only 2 left)
golf balls
Frisbees
If you are interested in a raffle ticket then please email me at florianstoermer@gmail.com.

Online Total today:
£751 direct donations £116 this week Thank You
That is brilliant as we are Over Half Way but I would like to raise another £749 so please help to spread the word and donate what you can every penny helps!

Stats Zone:
Runs: 3
Distance covered this week: 47 miles 
Distance covered last month: 166.1 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