crewlove

Adventures with the Cheer Dem Crew Part 2: London Baby!

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London Marathon 2014 (April 13th) 

No messing about, and RDC Cheer Dem Crew brought out the big guns. Confetti Canons. Oh yes.

Ready. We Ready

 And all that training paid off – here’s what happens when you take 100 RDC cheer dem supporters, add confetti canons, some sunshine and a WHOLE LOTTA CREW LOVE

Cheer Dem Crew in action

Now if that’s not enough to get you counting down the days to the 2015 ballot, you’re beyond help.
As Charlie Dark says…. If you don’t run. You must cheer. 
Simple really. You get what you put in, and then you give it back
Not a dry eye in the house

Adventures with the Cheer Dem Crew: Part 1 Brighton

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Marathon Season is upon us. Everyone knows this requires huge amounts of dedication, training and planning. Conquering the race is no mean feat. Months of endurance training, stamina and strength workouts leading up to one day where everything would have to come together at the right time to make it a success. 
Which is why when you’re training for a cheer-a-thon like April, you need to have exercised your vocal chords to manage serious decibels with and without a loud hailer, managed the tricky supply/ demand ratio of jelly beans every ten minutes (for the runners too obviously), worn in your best stand/jump/run around shoes to last for at least 5.5 hours and trained your eagle eyes to spot your runners at least 100 metrers away for the best cheering opportunity. Speedy high fivers are a must. And a steady supply of scissors and string for signs essential. 
Brighton Marathon (April 6th)
What a great race to start off the season. Armed with layers for the weather, backpacks of supplies and the serious combined logistical genius of Paul and Clare, over 20 Cheer Dem Elites made it down to the coast to doll out some serious support to our runners (and everyone else!)
The Cheer Dem effect – actually lifts you off the ground

Ash models the new banners

Run Man! 

Which was the perfect way to warm up for the BIG ONE….


Mo Running? No Problem! The Movember 10K (Greenwich)

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Training this autumn has been fantastic. I joined the new season with Run Dem Crew in East London, got over my fear of Track (just), and shook it all up a bit with a muddy obstacle course or two for good measure. So what better way to to top it all off, than racing with over 100 fellow RDC members in the Mo Running 10K in Greenwich? YES!

This was to be my first race back from the ITB injury that has me on the bench all summer. Earlier this year I was guilty of making it all running and no strength training. Or stretching. Or rolling. Of course the inevitable happened and I found myself sobbing at my physio, AGAIN. Frustrated and fed up. I was doing the same old things and expecting different results. Definition of insanity right there.

This time I decided not to take my first race back race too seriously and just enjoy it. No stressing about negative splits and no worrying about the hills’ impact on my time. To get into the mood I bought six different comedy moustaches to remind me not to panic and have laugh.  And even *I* couldn’t take myself seriously in this get up. Stylin’ 

Nadia and I repping the MO: Serious Business
I arrived at Greenwich park around 9am to meet up with the rest of the crew. Registration was seamless, with very little queuing and we had our numbers and race chips pinned on, lopped through in no time at all. 
This left plenty of time to choose a respectable moustache (I went for Hulk Hogan), have a pre race dance (Disclosure, on repeat, standard). Remember its about 3 degrees here and we’re all wearing lycra. Brrrrrrr!
As we set off for the start line, I was introduced to Natalie who would be running her first 10K race, and we decided we’d take on this hilly, two lap course together. After almost losing each other at the start, (over 2,000 people!)  we found an acceptable pace and took on the race. 
We couldn’t have asked for better conditions. The course cleared shortly into the race so there wasn’t a huge amount of congestion, we warmed up really quickly and the views were just spectacular. 
What. A. Day. 
The Supreme Cheer Dem Crew, lead by motivational guru and running bad ass Chevy Rough, had positioned themselves on the trickiest part of the course – a very nasty hill –  and they gave it their all. Each and everyone of those whoops and high fives gave us the extra boost we needed to push through. In fact, you lot were so good, there were at least another three or four groups of people I over heard chatting on the train about ‘that massive group on the hill’ who gave each and everyone of them a lift. 
For all 10kms, Natalie was a total hero and soldiered through shin splints and my constant nattering with impressive resolve. That steely determination really came into play when we approached the finish line and we both upped the pace and flew over the line straight into the running paparazzi (looking forward to seeing if we made the FB page!).  Natalie clocked a great time of  1hr 8 mins for her first 10K and I was thrilled to get through without any injury niggles and a massive smile on my face. Winning!
Natalie and I showing off our new bling – well done Natalie!

That left us to get our bling on (my favourite medal so far), eat a bacon sandwich and collect as many cartons of Vita Coco as we could lay our hands on. What a way to start a Saturday!

A huge thank you to Glenn Hannock, all round legend and project manager extraordinaire, who not only motivated over 100 of us to get signed up ahead of the event, but sorted out training runs, meet up points, and also managed to set up RDC base complete with music, balloons and our own private bag drop! How lucky are we? Definitely IN for 2014.

Marvy Medal