Scottish Power's High 5 Challenge and the Race for Life #high5challenge

Having enjoyed running the Race for Life in Preston in June I was very excited to be asked by Scottish Power to run again yesterday in Manchester for their High 5 Challenge. They paid for my entry fee and have donated £200 towards my sponsorship. It was great this time to be involved with a team of bloggers from across the north west. We all arrived with our special blinged up High 5 gloves:

There was plenty to do in the Scottish Power tent including posting our own high 5 message on the wall:

My daughter and I took our turn at doing the Cancer Slam dance and I am waiting for the video to appear on Facebook! Hopefully I don't look too awful ;-) I didn't risk doing a high 5 jump before the race as I was already nursing an injured leg which I had to strap up for the race.

Update here is the video:

 

After what seemed like ages it was time for the warm up. I was with Chayz and Charlotte with the other mad runners. It was a really hot day and not a good one for running but we were all determined to do our best. After a minute's silence and a cancer roar the hooter went and we were off!

The route turned out to be pretty hilly which was a nightmare in the heat. Good job there were 4000 of us out on the course plus 1000s of supporters to cheers us on in the heat. I have to admit I walked up every hill but attempted to run the rest of it! I was never going to beat my previous time of 29 minutes though..

One of the best parts was the high 5 people at about 4.5 km in who encouraged us to keep on going:

  

They did lie about the fact that was the last uphill section though! Eventually the finish line came in sight and I just about managed to up my speed on the home straight to cross the finish at a proper run and a time of 37 minutes. It was a great relief to be handed my finishers medal and a bottle of water! 

It is always a fabulous atmosphere at these events and we stayed around for a little while longer to soak it up:

I am glad to once again have been given a chance to help raise much needed funds to fight cancer. Roll on 2014 when I will be out there again getting hot and sweaty for a good cause! Nickie and I are on the case to organise a massive blogger team at Preston race for life so watch this space... Here are the other fab blog posts by the lovely ladies in the challenge:

For all the High 5 Challenge bloggers at Heaton Park

1.	Lakes Single Mum	3.	Science Geek Chic	5.	My Mummys Pennies Race for Life 2013
2.	Nickie	4.	Race for Life 2013 - Grumpyishmum

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