I would just like to share with you my final total. I raised £1035.10. Thank you so much for your amazing support. I know that The Shooting Star will be able to put every penny to good use.

I'm off the Isle of Wight next week with Year 6. My marathon training may come in handy!

Fingers crossed for good weather!

Many thanks once again.

Deirdre Inman

 I did it! I have completed the London Marathon. What an amazing day. As I woke up it was very strange, because I was more excited than nervous and that is how the day continued.

The event was everything I hoped it would be and more. I loved it. I had a grin from ear to ear 'most' of the way around. I was achieving a lifetime ambition.

The support was phenomenal and London sure does come out to party!

I was very fortunate to have family and friends supporting at various points and that made such a difference. The SMSP crew complete with banner were at mile 13 and 23.

My official time was 5:34 and I was placed 31 759. I need to check the final figures, but I think I have raised around £900 for The Shooting Star. A huge thank you for all your support.

Since Monday, lots of the little ones have been asking me,'Did you win?'

In many ways I feel that I have.

It is the day before the Marathon - with just over 330 miles in the bank since WB 4th Jan I am as ready as I will ever be.

I have run in snow, ice, wind, lots of rain and now sun. The knees are a little sore but just about holding up.

I had a lovely send off at work, with a beautiful bunch of flowers to wish me luck. The children made a card and a wonderful banner that the some of the staff are going to bring along to cheer me on.

The cake sale was very busy and we made £153.60. I have raised approximately £850 for The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice so far.  

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone at SMSP for their encouragement and support over the past months. A special thanks to Claire Gibson, SMSP Physiotherapist extraordinaire, for working her magic on my tired old muscles/bones. It should be safe for her to come to the playground now without being accosted on a regular basis!

Fingers crossed, see you on the other side!    

Easter Sunday saw me up bright and early to meet a couple of friends from the running club to go off for a long run. We ran through Twickenham to Kingston and then along the tow path to Hampton Court. The daffodils at Hampton Court were beautiful and it was lovely to run around such a historic place so early without any crowds. We then headed up to the Sicily Isles roundabout and back down through Thames Ditton along the Portsmouth Road back to Kingston and then Twickenham and home. I clocked up just under 18 miles which I was very pleased with. Thank you for your continued support.

It has been great to be off and get the shorter runs out of the way in the day.

Last weekend I was due to do 16 miles and I was keen to do it on my own, to test my mental strength, as I will be running on my own on the day. I managed it but the knees are really beginning to say enough now!

This week is tapering down week so I only did just over 7 miles this morning. I hope the weather is not so hot next week, I am not very good running in heat.

Back to work this week – hope everyone had a good rest and there aren’t too many people stuck abroad.

 http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/deirdreinman.

http://www.justgiving.com/Deirdre-Inman

Here is the photo of some of the team running the marathon for Shooting Star this year.

Thank you for your continued support.

 http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/deirdreinman.

http://www.justgiving.com/Deirdre-Inman

The London Marathon is a bit of a family affair this year. My son is taking part in his third, and last, Mini Marathon. He will be old enough to qualify to do the full one next year, which is a scary thought! Two of my sisters are also training to run the Marathon this year. So, this weekend I went to join them for part of my long run on Saturday. It was fine until I left them in Richmond Park. Running on your own is so hard, as you want to keep stopping, or I do! I did just under 15 miles and it was painful.

 This afternoon put it all into perspective though, as all the runners, running for Shooting Star were invited to Shooting Star House for a visit and a team photo. One of my sisters is also running for the charity and it was such a wonderful opportunity for us to see the work they do first hand.

I was hoping to see Kiera’s star in the garden of tranquillity but we were unable to visit as the suite was in use.

Shooting Star House does not feel like a hospital at all. It aims to care for the needs of the whole family with play rooms for siblings; a music therapy room; a sensory room; it even has a place where ‘mum’ can have a have her hair and nails done to give her a little treat.

I know when it gets tough on the 25^th April, I will think of my visit today.

Thank you so much for your kind messages and sponsorship. Every little counts, so if you could sponsor me I would be so grateful. Please follow links below:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/deirdreinman.

http://www.justgiving.com/Deirdre-Inman

March 22^nd - another early Sunday morning start, I was all set for a visit to the seaside. The one draw back was that I was going to have to run 13.1 miles while I was there!

There were a few of us doing the race, including our own Mrs Peach. We had hired a mini bus to transport us to the coast. I knew that the course was a hilly one, but hoped it wouldn’t be too bad.

There were 5000 runners on the start line. The atmosphere was great and I hoped it was a little taster of what the VLM has to offer in four weeks time.

The race was very tough between miles 4 to 7 especially as it was a gradual uphill climb. I began to think back to King Harold in 1066 and wondered whether his decision to climb a Hastings hill to fight a battle was a wise one!

I finished the race in 2 hrs 28 mins, 8 minutes behind a speedy Mrs P who finished in 2 hrs 20 mins.

A huge thank you to those of you who have sponsored me.  If you could possibly sponsor me, I would be so grateful. Below are the links to my fundraising pages. Virgin Giving does not take any profit, but if you have problems with the site I have set up a Just Giving page too.

The Shooting Star need £3 million every year (£8,000 a day) to maintain the care and services they provide.  

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/deirdreinman.

http://www.justgiving.com/Deirdre-Inman

Before I had the honour and pleasure to meet and teach the most amazing child, Kiera Brown, I had always said if I ever run the London Marathon I would run for The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice.

So here I am a couple of weeks away from my goal.

If you could possibly sponsor me, I would be so grateful. Below are the links to my fundraising pages. Virgin Giving does not take any profit, but if you have problems with the site I have set up a Just Giving page too.

The Shooting Star need £3 million every year (£8,000 a day) to maintain the care and services they provide.  

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/deirdreinman.

http://www.justgiving.com/Deirdre-Inman

Sunday 14^th March, Mother’s Day.

 Did I have breakfast in bed? No, I was up bright and early to get ready for a trip to Dunsfold Aerodrome (the Top Gear race track) to run 20 miles!

To say I was nervous is an understatement. Once again I was going into unknown territory.

There were two races in one, The Tempest Ten and The Spitfire 20. One of the worst things, apart from the hills which they did not tell us about, was running two laps of the course. This meant that as I was going past the half way point at 10 miles there were people going off in the left hand funnel and finishing. Cruel!

Part of the race was run on the track that Top Gear use to time the 'stars in cars'. I did try to speed up going past the tyres that I recognised from the fast part of the track. The mind was willing but the legs had had enough, as it was at the 18 mile point.

 The run was one of the hardest things I have done. Although I came 630^th out of 635 finishers, I was delighted with my time of 04:07:51. A real personal achievement, and as I discussed with my class, that is what it is all about.

206 miles and counting.

Up to now, the longest races I had trained for and undertaken were the Brighton Half Marathon and the Royal Parks Half Marathon.  

My Virgin London Marathon (VLM) training officially began nine weeks ago - week beginning 4/1/10. It got off to a very snowy start, I wasn’t too happy.

As the weeks have gone on, the miles have built up and up to last Thursday 4^th March I had clocked up 160 miles. We were trying to work out at school how far that would take me to. General consensus was Birmingham.

The mileage is definitely beginning to take its toll. The other week I knelt down at a desk to help a child and when it came to getting back up again, I took so long because I was so stiff, a kind child asked if I needed a chair (thank you Chloe).

I am finding it harder to join in our warm up games in PE – my running style is now the cause of some amusement to my class!  

Yesterday I had to go into unknown territory and run for 16 miles. Luckily I was able to run with two other people and our own Mrs Peach came to join us for 13 of those miles. She is training for her first half marathon in a couple of weeks. We are off to the seaside to run up and down the hills of Hastings!

16 miles took me 3 hours and 13 mins and at the moment I am really trying hard not to think, how on earth I will do another 10 miles on top of that!

176 miles and counting.