Nearly there...

This could well be the last blog post before I race tomorrow morning, so I have a lot to get through!

I am pleased to say that as I write this, I have nearly met my minimum fundraising target, being just £46 pounds shy of the £395 minimum.  There was a big surge in donations yesterday which really took me by surprise.  A massive thank you is due to everyone who either via Justgiving or offline pledges helped me bump up my total by £124 in a single day!   The target is now in sight and so I am hoping that as the remaining donations come in, we may even exceed the target - I know we can do this!

As this is my training blog, I really should update you on where I am with my training...  I completed my final pre-race training session yesterday at the gym - a mere 25 minutes of race pace running which was a nice end to a productive week at the gym/pool.  I am looking forward to getting outside and running in the fresh air again, so in some ways the Half Marathon can't come soon enough!  The shin splints haven't bothered me in the last couple of weeks, though by Monday that may have changed.  The big question is where does my training go after the Half Marathon?  I'll save answering that one for the post race blog post.

Two of my running t-shirts have now been printed with "runmalrun.com" to help me publicise this fundraising campaign on race day tomorrow.  Thank you to Time Bomb in Croydon for getting these printed so quickly.  I had my name on my t-shirt for the 10k and spectators cheered me on by my name, so I figured it would be nice to hear "run mal, run" for 13.1 miles!  I realised that if I had "runmalrun.com" on the t-shirt then I might also get a few hits to this page as well, thus increasing my fundraising potential.  Of course I had to buy the "runmalrun.com" domain so I could redirect to this blogspot page, but it is all for a good cause.  Tomorrow morning I will be looking something like this:

Oh yes, the sideburns!  My "fuzzy bear" beard has given way to what can only be described as "Rockabilly" sideburns.  They are a little oversized, but this helps to draw attention to them.  They certainly provoked a reaction in everyone I saw yesterday - from "What's with the Elvis look?" to Noreen's "I hate them!", they did the trick!  I didn't really bank on explaining the reasons for them as often as I did, but despite the lump in my throat, it helped me focus on why I have to run with all my heart tomorrow.

So now you know what I am going to look like tomorrow, you are more than welcome to come down to Hyde Park and cheer me (and thousands of other runners) on!  And if you get bored of watching us all run, there is the Brakes Food and Fitness Festival going on in the park at the same time.  There will be many things going on, including a Farmers Market, Live Music and have-a-go Sporting activities.  It looks like it is going to be a sunny day tomorrow, so will make a great day out!

The rest of today will be spent preparing for the race - getting all the race gear together, planning travel, stocking up on carbohydrates and getting some rest.  This time tomorrow it will all be over!