Its been a strange month. The new year started with me struggling mentally which carried on over the last four weeks for various reasons. I could quite happily have done what I have done in the past and completely hibernated from life. But I made a commitment so even when it sometimes felt like wading through treacle, I had to get on with it. I wish I had understood the power of turning up your music, putting on trainers and just moving when I was a suicidal, self harming, unmedicated mess, its possible I would carry less scars.

Running for MIND has kept my head above water. Its helped me see that I am better off lacing up my trainers than opening a bottle of wine when I am not well. Even though I am quite looking forward to raising a glass to a job well done I think I will be trying to be more mindful with the bottle from now on. I prefer my runs without the hangover.

Thank you so so much to everyone who sponsored me and supported me. You all went above and beyond once again. I have a couple of sponsors to add to my total but I will let you know what was raised soon. The encouragement really helped especially on those days where I would much rather have been in bed than running around Stonepay in the wind. The waves and messages were much appreciated. The sponsorship donations helped raised over £510K for MIND which means the Mind infoline can answer 850,00 calls next year!

The biggest thank yous have to go to my lovely husband for buying me my treadmill so I had no excuses not to run and to my mini me and my friends, Liz, Claire & especially Zhanara who pushed me, who got up early or came out in the dark to run with me and kept me going another mile.

I’m pretty sure I will give my legs a break tomorrow but the awesome leggings will be back on by Friday. I signed up to run 1000km by December 31st, only 794km left to go……