I have always had the biggest and total respect for anyone who dares to push their boundaries and take on a challenge.  No matter how big or small that challenge, setting yourself a goal that requires both mental and physical training, focus and absolute dedication is admirable.  On Monday 25th May over 30 international competitors will set sail from Plymouth to compete in the OSTAR race.  This race will see these adventurous skippers set out to sail single handed across the Atlantic westwards traditionally against the wind (ie they are in for a tough ride!).  Having watched the previous OSTAR start back in 2005, its great to see the wide range of yachts and skippers, aspiring solo stars such as my double handed sailing partner Katie Miller (go Millz!) alongside veterans of the sailing scene who embody the corinthian spirit of this race.  Best of luck to all and I will be watching with great interest, New York is a great place to sail into!

As for my plans, we are working hard at the moment on the summer schedule of events and structuring in as much fitness training as possible.  It has always been top of my list to run a campaign that promotes healthy living and being fit and active.  In a moment of adrenaline fueled excitement apres the Lymington 10K, Lisa and I decided that despite that fact that running is still quite a painful experience we could and should push harder and try to run further.  As a result next week marks that start of training for...drum roll please...the New York marathon!  With 162ish days to go we have our work cut out and right now it feels like an impossible task but like anything if you put your mind to it you can achieve what initially might appear impossible.

So after 6 weeks of training Sunday turned out to be a fab day to run a 10K.  Over 800 runners turned out to take part in the Lymington 10K and I am pleased to report that both Lisa and I made it round without stopping.  We did make a mental note of the ambulance standing by at the start and decided that it would be crushingly embarassing if we had to be brought back in it and vowed to use this as our motivation to keep pushing.  The start was a bit daunting with all of us squashed in waiting for the horn to go off and we both had a good look around checking out the legs of our fellow competitors trying to decide if we stood any chance of beating them!  I would love to know if anyone else out there had deemed us as worthy competition.

About 2K in and I found my stride joining up with a lovely lady who kept spurring me on all the way to the finish and even shared her energy drink with me.  Unfortunately we didn't really get a chance to introduce ourselves properly, the running got in the way of that, but if you are out there and reading this then apologies for my one word answers to your lively banter - I was concentrating on trying to breath!

57 minutes after the start, I crossed the finish line beating my previous training time by 4 minutes and was simultaneously ecstatic and trying not to throw up.  Lisa followed just 4 minutes later in her best time and we celebrated with enormous chunks of the best carrot cake in the world, courtesy of mama Jenner's baking.

A big thank you to all of you who sponsored us through our Just Giving site and helped us to raise a total of £415 for the RNLI.  We have been discussing the next running adventure so watch this space...