Run 26.2 Miles and Help The Puppies!

I have finally set up my fundraising page for Friends of the Dogs!

I know, right!

For those of you who haven't read my Marathon Madness and Puppy Dogs blog, I am running my first marathon in April 2016 and have decided to keep myself focussed by raising money for Friends of the Dogs.

Awwwwwwww!

I need all the help I can get, my training isn't going very well right now. Today's run started at 6am and it was raining that drizzly, soak-you-in-a-second kind of rain. I was miserable, cold, wet and wanted to quit before I reached the end of my road. I spent the whole run chanting "think of the puppy dogs... think of the puppy dogs" and it helped, I completed the run.

If you would like to help me raise as much money as possible then please go to https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/saramorgan4. Every penny helps and will be greatly appreciated.

A Girls Night in with Tinder... What Could Go Wrong?!

I have been known to do a crazy thing now and again but I think last night was the craziest of them all so far!

Saturday night was Tinder night at my friend L's house. A bunch of ladies got together for a night in with some very food, a good old giggle and a Tinder account or 3.

It's where all the cool kids hang out!

Our instructions from our host were this:

• Bring food and drink
• Set up a brand new Tinder account - if you currently have one then delete it so you can start fresh
• Do not touch new Tinder account... don't even take a sneaky peek at it!

We all arrived at L's house with our instructions completed. The next instruction was to give your phone/iPad with new Tinder account on it to another lady to use on your behalf. Yes, you read that right, I had to give my iPad to someone else to be me!

The aim of the night was to swipe right (for like) or swipe left (for no way!) for your friend and get as many matches as possible while making sure you only swipe right for people who you would actually want her to date. The first person to set up 3 meets* for her friend was the winner and hopefully the Tinder account owner gets to meet some nice guys.

*A 'meet' is not a first date, it's just a coffee for an hour or so to see if you get on. After this you either arrange a first date or change your identity. Back in the olden days you would see someone in a pub, have a chat and then arrange a first date, you wouldn't class your first encounter as a first date. Same in the online world and it takes the pressure off.

Calm down Oprah!

L and T grabbed my iPad and I grabbed T's iPhone! Now this is where you probably think we're crazy and usually I would agree but, to be perfectly honest, how much worse could their choices be for me? I've not exactly picked the best men to date so why not put my love life in someone else's hands. Perfectly logical!

My thoughts exactly!

The evening started with us sitting around the table in the conservatory, L had prepared meats, prawns and veggies for us to cook on a table top grill - it was great and meant L could relax and not have to keep an eye on the cooker (although the sweet potato fries in the actifry gadget ended up cremated!) 

I see T and L a lot so they know me pretty well, they know my 2 non-negotiables are 6ft and above and a non-smoker. I wasn't quite sure that they were remembering these 2 vital facts especially when evil laughs and hysterical laughter could be heard for miles around.

He's probably not that short!

Clearly a romantic!

Pretty sure this is Dave, 43 from Porthcawl

Soon the matches started to flood in and it was time to message with our admirers. We kept it simple and we kept to the facts (ish) so that the Tinder account owner could pick up the conversation if she was interested in the man we had chosen for her. 

This rule was kept to with all messages except one. That one exception was a guy we will call Creepy. He was clearly not a gentleman and was matched with myself and T so we decided to have a little fun with Creepy and see how long it took for us to get busted. 

We started off asking and answering questions in a similar way. It turned out that Creepy wasn't talking to anybody else on Tinder except for me... apparently. Now we're all grown ups and we all know that you talk to numerous people at once until you start actually dating someone so why the lie? Without going into details, Creepy was well and truly earning his nickname by the end of the messaging and we had to be very blatant before he realised what was going on and we were busted. 

So long sucker!

Online dating can be a hard and soul destroying thing to do. I've tried it a few times and met some lovely guys but the percentage of creeps/weirdos usually outweighs the good ones. Swiping left and right and is much more fun when done with a group of friends then sitting on your sofa at home alone. We had such a giggle. The night was a great success, we might not have scored the 3 meets each but we had so much fun trying. I highly recommend having your own Tinder night in!

Marathon Madness and Puppy Dogs!

Way back in April I entered the ballot for the London marathon after an amazing run with my club Pegasus. I hadn't even run a half marathon yet, or even more that 10K for that matter, but decided to do it anyway.

Yes I probably am!

I was 99% sure I wouldn't get a place as it's virtually impossible these day and I was right, I didn't get in. A lot of people found out by receiving one of 2 magazines, either the bumble bee for accepted or Spiderman for rejection. I received neither. Nope, I''m not worthy of a magazine apparently! Booooooooooooooooo!

I decided to say sod it to the London marathon and hello to the Manchester marathon on 10th April 2016! As it turns out, quite a lot of my Pegs didn't get into London either and are doing Manchester instead so it's going to be a club weekend away.

ROAD TRIP!!

I have already drafted a marathon training plan that has me running 4 times a week plus cross training once a week, I'll do either yoga or spin or both depending on how busy my week is.

I've also decided to raise money for charity and have chosen Friends of the Dogs (www.friendsofthedogs.org.uk). They work closely with Cardiff Dogs Home, local rescues and other animal welfare charities to help stray and abandoned dogs in Wales find their forever homes. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm crazy about dogs and wish I could rescue many more but I can't so want to raise money for them instead.

Awwwwwwww!

So this is where you come in kind people who read my blog! I shall be setting up a charity giving page in the next couple of weeks and will start to promote my fundraising. I will be eternally grateful if you can spare some pennies to help me raise money for this amazing charity. Your reward will be hearing me moan about my marathon training, how much it hurts and how hungry I am from now until 10th April 2016!

I shall keep you updated on my marathon training progress and how my fundraising is going. Any donation, no matter how small, will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.