Three Years

On Thursday 5^th March 2015, I wrote my first ever blog post… how has it already been three years since I set up my own blog?!

On this anniversary I usually like to thank those who read my blog, suggest ideas for potential posts and share my content. I am also grateful for those who have supported my blog over the past three years in the three areas which I focus on: feminism, fitness and food. Therefore I thought it would be a nice idea to look back over the three years and see how I have developed as a feminist fitness foodie!

It wasn’t until about six months after setting up my blog that I decided to brand myself in the way I do today. I originally focused on my Leicester heritage as my identity, with the tagline ‘Ey up’ which refers to a colloquial saying ‘Ey up me duck’. After a while I realised that feminism, fitness and food are important parts of my identity, so I changed my tagline to how I am known today: feminist fitness foodie.

Fitness

It was when I was out running on Thursday 5^th March 2015, training for my first ever long distance run, that the idea to set up my blog was born. I knew for a long time that I had always wanted to write a blog, but I didn’t know where to start or what to focus on. While running I suddenly thought it would be a great idea to document and keep track of my training in the form of a blog.

Fitness is definitely the primary focus of my blog, and the topic I write most about. I am amazed at how far I have come in terms of my fitness. Since starting my blog I have ran in plenty of races, such as discovering the parkrun (5km) while on a holiday in Guernsey, completing two Race for Lifes (10km) in aid of Cancer Research UK and trying out eventful runs such as the Color Run (5km) and the Iron Run (6km).

Completing my first long distance run (10km)

When starting on my fitness venture, I never imagined that I would run a half marathon, which is the greatest fitness accomplishment so far and one which I’m still incredibly proud of. Coming from a childhood of bullying because of my body weight and not being taken seriously in physical education lessons used to deter me from thinking that I could achieve anything such as running a half marathon. I’ve proven it all wrong and learnt throughout my fitness journey that it doesn’t matter if you’re overweight; you can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it.

I completed my first half marathon on Sunday 15^th October 2017 at the Leicester Marathon in a time of 2 hours and 47 minutes, while raising an incredible £2837 for the Association of Air Ambulances. My aim this year is to beat that time and raise more money for a worthy cause (I’ll decide on a charity nearer the time).

Foodie

 I have my father to thank for my passion for food. He taught me how to cook and inspired me to try out different foods and recipes. To this day we still suggest ideas to each other and take it in turns to cook the family meals.

The anniversary of my blog also marks how long I have been giving up meat for lent. When I started my blog it was actually during lent, and the first time I had decided to give up eating meat. This means that the foodie part of my blog tends to be the most active during the period of lent, as I have a go at experimenting and trying out different vegetarian alternatives, the most recent one being quinoa.

I’ve never looked back at the first time I abstained from meat, and for the third year running I have adopted a vegetarian diet. I usually feel like my body has had some sort of detox when I’ve not eaten meat for over 40 days, but I must admit that I do look forward to eating bacon in a hot cross bun on Easter Sunday, another tradition which I’ve adopted.

Stuffed sweet potato skins

Of course I post throughout the year about food, including new recipes which aren’t vegetarian, baking sweet treats for charity events and special occasions, and even about food festivals.

I’ve been to the StrEAT Life Festival at Alexandra Palace in London for the past few years which is always good fun. I get to catch up with university friends and choose tasty food from a wide range of stalls, including Greek, French and Caribbean. I am very much looking forward to the Cheese Festival in Leicester on Saturday 14^th April, which I’m treating my sister to as she is a huge cheese fan, and had to abstain recently from certain types of cheeses while she was pregnant.

My passion for food will never waver. I can’t imagine living without good food and I always aim to make everyday tasty!

Feminism

And finally onto feminism- one of the more controversial parts of my blog but an area which I believe is becoming less stigmatised and something which more people are proud to be associated with.

Feminism is an important part of my life, as I’m a believer in equality across all genders. It wasn’t until university that I realised that I could identify myself as a feminist, and one of my favourite aspects of my course was learning about gender theory. I learnt more about the history of feminism, masculinity theory, the different types of genders and most importantly, how gender is a social construct (it can be argued that sex is a social construct too).

I felt empowered after becoming enlightened about the implications of gender, and I’m glad to see a shift in attitudes towards gender. We’re all human beings at the end of the day, so it only makes sense that we’re equal. I believe that the world is making progress in terms of gender equality and it’s only the minority which we hear about on the news (I’m sure you know who I mean).

Some of you may remember that I posted about my dissertation on my blog. I was studying a Masters in English Studies when I first set up my blog, and my dissertation was titled ‘Fo(u)r Women’: British Female Poetry of the Second World War. I focused on four female poets who wrote about their experiences of the Second World War, as it is widely known that women’s experiences were underrepresented and that they served a major part in the war effort. There are so many amazing female poets but I could only focus on four for my dissertation, so I looked into Alice Coats, Vera Bax, Slyvia Read and Wrenne Jarman.

Handing in my dissertation!

Yesterday of course was International Women’s Day, which had a particular super woman theme on my social news feed. People were posting about the super women in their lives, whether it be their mothers, daughters, historical figures or even modern day celebrities- it was those women they find to be influential and powerful.

I have several super women figures in my life, most notably my mother who is an incredible woman and has always been there for me, and my sister who is doing extremely well as a new mother. I’m lucky to know so many fantastic women who I’m proud to support and know as my friends.

Recently people celebrated 100 years since women in the UK first gained the right to vote (those aged 30 and above). It wasn’t until 1928 when full emancipation was achieved, when all men and women aged 18 and above could vote. I find it intriguing that New Zealand was the first country in the world to allow women the right to vote in 1893, and then other countries eventually followed suit. Considering the course of human history, it’s only really very recently that women are on equal grounds to men in terms of the vote.

 

Again thank you to everyone who reads and supports my blog. Writing is one of my passions so I’m thrilled to be still writing my blog. Here’s to the next three years!

Happy reading and blogging!

Clare Bear 🙂

Run round up

It only occured to me recently how many t-shirts I have from participating in runs. I like to wear these t-shirts when I’m out running or working out. On the odd occasion I’ve seen people wearing the same t-shirt as me at the gym or at the Braunstone parkrun. One example is the t-shirt from the 15km Resolution Run which I completed last month, and on the following Saturday at the Braunstone parkrun there were parkrunners wearing their Resolution Run t-shirt.

The t-shirts, along with the medals, also remind me of my achievements so far fitness wise. As a child and through my teenage years I never thought I would be able to run 15km or even be training for my first half marathon in the present day. Growing up and being told by bullies that you’re a “fat cow”, a “fat bitch”, a “fatso” etc meant that it put me off thinking that I could achieve amazing things with my body.

However, I came to realise when I started running about 2 years ago that size doesn’t matter. I remember being surprised at my first Race for Life that people much thinner than me finished after I did. What matters with running is being able to control your breathing. I was also pleasantly surprised when I started training to run 10km because I didn’t feel breathless. At school there was the perception that if you were “fat”, you wouldn’t be able to run very far because you would become breathless quickly, or almost immediately. This perception wasn’t just viewed by children, the teachers seemed to hold that view as well. I don’t know what it’s like for children at school now, but I hope physical education is a much more positive experience now.

T-shirts and medals

Starting from the left, the pink t-shirt is one I’ve worn for three Race for Lifes, the first was I walked 5km and the other two I ran 10km. The t-shirt says “Cancer, we’re coming to get you.” I received a medal after the 5km Race for Life, and a dog tag from both 10km runs (I like to wear the dog tags with my casual clothes). The orange t-shirt is my Braunstone parkrun t-shirt. I decided to buy it last year; I love it when I see people wearing this t-shirt as it makes a good conversation starter.

The most recent addition to my collection of running t-shirts is the purple Stroke Association one. Purple is one of my favourite colours, so I quite often like to wear this one. I also got a medal for completing 15km at Resolution Run, which has been my biggest challenge so far. On the far right are two t-shirts together, both from the Iron Run in October last year. The very colourful t-shirt was designed by a colleague I used to work with, and a group of us wore these t-shirts on the day. After completing a very muddy and phyiscally challenging 6km course, we were all given a meal and an Iron Run t-shirt.

I forgot to include the t-shirt from the Color Run! This is because I don’t wear this t-shirt very often, the reason being that it’s quite see through. It’s a white t-shirt which means that the colour stands out a lot more for when you get covered in coloured powder.

I feel that I’ve come a long way with my fitness since I started my blog just over two years ago. I hadn’t long started my training for my first 10km Race for Life when I decided to set up my blog. My blog has certainly helped me to keep track of my goals and fitness. I didn’t think two years ago that I would be where I am now- I feel fantastic!

 

Happy reading and blogging!

Clare Bear 🙂

Looking back at 2016

The start of a New Year has begun, and so I will do what a lot of people traditionally do- look back over the previous year to see what happened throughout the year and what has been achieved.

I started off 2016 with a list of 7 New Year’s resolutions. I only managed to achieve 3 of them, which was to find a full-time graduate job, join the Leicester Philharmonic Choir and become more involved in feminism. I start working as a Copywriter in February 2016 and joined the choir shortly afterwards, so the start of the year was looking pretty good. While I haven’t joined a feminist society/group as such, I wrote some blogs for Viral Feminism throughout 2016, and I participated in my second Reclaim the Night in November.

In order to keep track of my New Years resolutions, I wrote ‘goals updates’ towards the start of each month. I would look at how I was working towards my goals for 2016 however, I started to feel negative about myself. I was finding it difficult to work on so many resolutions while trying to enjoy my life at the same time. So after my fourth goals update, I changed the title of this series of blogs to just update and focused on what I did each month in relation to what I write about: feminism, fitness and food. Since making this change I have felt better in myself and rather than dreading each update, I now enjoy doing it.

Despite 2016 being such a horrid year with celebrity deaths, continuing terrorism, Brexit, Donald Trump and the list goes on, I had a pretty good year and achieved quite a few things, in particular fitness wise. I ran my second Race for Life in July, beating my previous time and again raised money for Cancer Research UK. I also participated in two other runs this year, the Color Run in Birmingham and the Iron Run in Kettering. The Iron Run was the hardest run I have done so far, while the Color Run was fairly relaxed with the added bonus of getting covered in coloured powder!

After the Color Run

What sticks with me the most last year regarding fitness is discovering the parkrun. I went on a trip to Guernsey with my mother in May and I decided to take my running gear with me, since I was in the process of training for the Race for Life. On the plane I heard someone talking about the parkrun, and they asked me if I’d like to join them at the one in Guernsey. It was certainly a new experience running a 5km course by the coast on a Saturday morning at 9am. After completing my first parkrun I found out that there’s one local, which I had absolutely no idea about despite it being close to me. I ran a further 9 parkruns in 2016 at Braunstone park, running my 10th parkrun on New Year’s Eve.

My parkrun t-shirt

One of my goals for 2016 was to run a half marathon. This didn’t happen due to poor planning and training, and because I was so focused on wanting to run my second Race for Life in 1 hour. I ran 14.5km in March when I originally went out for a 10km run, but decided to continue to see how I would fare. Therefore this year I won’t be running the Race for Life, but instead all of my attention for fitness will be focused on running 21km! I’m hoping that training and running a half marathon will help me to lose body weight, which is a struggle I’ve had for as long as I can remember.

For the second year running I gave up meat for lent. While I was brought up as Christian and no longer believe in the religion, I still continue the tradition of giving something up for lent. I enjoy challenging myself and find giving up something I have a lot of is a good way to do so. I must admit that the foodie aspect of my blog is most active when I abstain from meat for the period of lent. This is because I experiment a lot more with what I can eat as a vegetarian and my parents continue to eat meat, so I cook for myself a lot more during lent. I will continue with the tradition and will be giving up meat for lent this 2017. Expect an increase in foodie blogs around this time!

This brings me onto the final ‘F’ of my blog: feminism. I wrote some posts in 2016 on my blog and for Viral Feminism. My first post for Viral Feminism was about the British TV show Top Gear, looking at how the first female presenter was included in its 15 year history and highlighting the issue of gender inequality in motor sports. I also decided to keep an eye on the story of Nicola Thorp, a woman who was sent home from her first day at work because she was not wearing high heel shoes. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I went to my second Reclaim the Night in November 2016. This was a great success which aims to make people aware of the issue of safety on the streets at night and gender inequality.

Reclaim the Night 2016

Many of you will know that I have a separate blog for poetry, which is called Poclaretry. I found it very difficult to write one poem a week, which was one of my goals for 2016. However, I did write some poems which I’m proud of, especially some feminist theme ones. My favourite has to be a poem called ‘It’s an act of life’, which attacks the issue of gender stereotyping and how gender roles are enforced upon us from the moment we are born.

This year I am not setting myself lots of resolutions/goals. My main goal is to run a half marathon at the Leicester Marathon in October 2017. I will continue with the parkrun and who knows, I might be able to achieve the milestone of 50 parkruns this year. Of course I will continue with my blog, focusing on the topics feminism, fitness and food. I will carry on writing updates at the start of each month, as it’s a useful way for me to keep track of how I’m doing.

A notable achievement last year in April was reaching 100 followers! Starting a blog has to be one of the best decisions I have made in my life so far. I enjoy writing and producing content, so having a blog gives me the opportunity to be creative, interact with fellow bloggers and readers and discover new topics to write about and explore. I’d like to say thank you to everyone who follows my blog and to WordPress for giving people the opportunity to express themselves through an interactive social media platform.

If you don’t know already, I have a Facebook page! So if you’d like to follow me on Facebook, you’re more than welcome to. I am also fairly active on Twitter, sharing my blogs through this social media platform as well.

 

Happy reading and blogging, and here’s to a great 2017!

Clare Bear 🙂

For another time

One of my goals for this year was to run a half marathon. I was going to run half of the Leicester Marathon on Sunday 23rd October, but I have decided against it. I only have myself to blame.

I decided at the start of this year to go for a half marathon, which meant 9 months of training. This was plenty of time but before I knew it, October’s already around the corner. I ran 14.5km back in March when going out for a 10km run, but then I decided to extend it to see how I would do. I didn’t find it too bad, but then about a month ago I tried to run more than 10km again, which I found a real struggle and I only managed about 13km.

My focus was mostly on the 10km Race for Life which I ran on Sunday 10th July. I set myself a challenging target to complete the race in 1 hour. This meant when I went out running, I only did 10km and ran rather fast towards the end of the route. This method of running of course wouldn’t work for an even longer distance. In the end I completed my second Race for Life in 1 hour and 4 minutes, which I’m still proud of because last year I finished my first Race for Life in 1 hour and 11 minutes. 7 minutes faster may not seem much, but to me it’s an achievement and shows that my fitness has improved since last year despite gaining more body weight.

In addition my time management could have been much better. It’s easy to say that ‘Life gets in the way‘. There have been times when it has been like this for me this year, such as periods of time when I’ve been more focused on other areas of my life. However, I would like to work at balancing the activities that I do rather than putting fitness aside, which I have done at times.

Therefore I will save the half marathon for next year. It would be dangerous for me to run the half marathon this year without the adequate training. Maybe I will drop the Race for Life next year so that I can just focus on the Leicester marathon. At least I have a route planned ready for when I decide to go out for a long distance run.

Half marathon route planned

Rather than being too hard on myself, I have done pretty well this year in terms of fitness. I ran my first parkrun in Guernsey and have ran a total of five so far. I go to my local parkrun at Braunstone Park when my Saturday mornings are free. My fastest time so far at the parkrun is 33 minutes and 11 seconds. I beat last year’s time at the Race for Life and also had a lot of fun at the Color Run last month.

Furthermore, this Saturday I’m going to be participating in the Iron Run with colleagues from work! The Iron Run is a 6km route with lots and lots of mud, as well as many obstacles. I’m certainly going to be very dirty after this run and quite exhausted from overcoming the obstacles. However, I will be cautious not to over exert myself as I will be travelling to Paris the very next day! I’m off to Paris for a week from the 2nd-9th October with one of my university friends; je ne peux pas attendre!

Feeling ready for the Iron Run!

Expect update #9 sometime after the 9th October.

 

Happy reading and blogging!

Clare Bear

Update #8

September already?! Everytime I come round to writing my monthly update I wonder where the time has gone. August went by in what seems a blur, but I refresh my memory by looking at what blogs I published last month. Sometimes I even look through my Facebook profile/timeline to see what I’ve been up to the past month! I feel that writing a monthly update helps me to keep track of how I’m doing this year and what I’ve achieved.

I came back from a short break to Spain on the 3rd August which was lovely. I got to visit Barcelona for the first time, which I definitely need to go back to as I only scraped the surface. I did my fourth parkrun on the first Saturday of August and a professional photographer was present, so there’s a few snaps of how I look when running.

One highlight of August has to be the Color Run! I went to Birmingham with some friends to participate in the 5km run around a venue called the NEC. Getting covered in colour is a fun experience, since colour makes most people feel happy. It was my friends’ first time at a Color Run and they really enjoyed it as well.

En route home after the Color Run

Another highlight of last month is going to the Savoy near Convent Garden in London for high afternoon tea! I do love an afternoon tea. The Savoy is full of grandeur and beauty; I felt overwhelmed for a while until I relaxed into the atmosphere and enjoyed tea, sandwiches, scones and cakes. I have actually got another afternoon tea to book by the end of October, so I will no doubt post about that one in the near future.

I also got round to planning a route to train for the half marathon in October. However, I have decided not to run it this year. My preparation has been very poor and I didn’t plan my time very well at all. I decided at the start of the year to run a half marathon, so I had plenty of time to train. Sometimes I have found it difficult to find the time, since it would take me over 2 hours to run a half marathon. If I attempt to run it in October, I would probably cause myself an injury. Iwill aim to do it next year, but plan my time instead and keep my focus on training for 21km.

I have got the Iron Run coming up next month on the 1st October with work colleagues, which is a 6km course with obstacles and lots of mud. That’ll be an interesting experience, as I’ve never ran through mud before or really ran a course with obstalces. It will be an intense work out as well!

I’ve been quiet on the feminist front and I haven’t written any poetry either. I’ve been busy and more focused on other areas in my life the past month, but I do have ideas that I’d like to set in motion this month. There has been a lot in the news concerning feminism and I have some poetry ideas, which came about when I decided to walk to work this morning.

My favourite poetry night, Find The Right Words, starts again this month after the summer break. If you are interested in what I get up to poetry wise, you can check out my other blog ‘Poclaretry‘. I share poems that I’ve written and blog about events that I perform at.

Here’s to September!

 

Happy reading and blogging!

Clare Bear

Colour me happy

Yesterday was the Color Run at the NEC in Birmingham. I had a fantastic time with my friends who hadn’t done a Color Run before. As an added bonus, the weather held out all day, as heavy rain and strong winds were expected in Birmingham during the run. The Color Run is a 5km route with five different colour stations, which are at each 1km point.

En route to the NEC

It was great to see lots of people at the Color Run. I think it’s gained popularity since I did the one in London three years ago. We had to wait for a little bit in a queue at each colour station where volunteers sprayed runners with colour powder. It was a bit windy yesterday so it was easy to get covered in flying powder while you were waiting. The colour stations were yellow, orange, blue, red and tropical at the end, which was a mixture of colours. My friends and I noticed that some people had a tye dye effect on their t-shirt. They did this by pouring water over themselves, so we decided to try it as well. It looked pretty cool!

Covered in colour after the run

I didn’t expect to do much or any running yesterday, but my friends were eager to do some running. I enjoyed it for a bit, although I’ve not done it before in short shorts! I felt quite liberating in a way, having my legs out on show while running but simultaneously, I was conscious about revealing too much (I think it was all fine!). Wearing white short shorts meant that my legs were covered in lots of colour by the end of the day.

Making my way back home

After the run there were Color Run sponsors handing out freebies. I had some Alpen granola and an orange Capri-Sun. There was also a stage set up with two presenters, who were hosting a sort of after-party, where you could dance and go crazy with more colour powder! The presenters chucked out lots of freebies into the crowd; I managed to grab a bag of Skittles and a tube of glitter face paint. At certain intervals colour powder packets were thrown into the crowd and a few moments later commenced something incredible. Everyone who had a colour packet opened them on the count of three and chucked the powder in the air. This created a colour burst, which looked amazing to watch from the oustide, and was fun to dance about in on the inside.

The front

And the back

I was knackered once I got back home; who would’ve thought getting covered in colour could be so exhausting. I had a good shower to wash out the colour. The water draining from my hair and body was certainly an array of interesting colours. The colour has washed out of my t-shirt, but my shorts are now light pink after a wash. I might wear the shorts in bed as pajamas, and the t-shirt I’d like to wear for working out and running.

In my previous post about the Color Run, I titled it ‘Taste the rainbow’, which is the slogan for Skittles. ‘Colour me happy’ is the hashtag that the Color Run is using to get people involved on social media by sharing their photos from the Color Run. It makes sense, since so many people were happy yesterday from being covered in colour.

If you’ve not done a Color Run before, I highly recommend it. It’s great fun!

Happy reading and blogging!

Clare Bear 🙂

Taste the rainbow

Many of you will recognise the title of this blog from somewhere. It’s for a sweet treat which is very colourful… it’s Skittles of course! I’m not attempting to promote Skittles (they are nice) but it just so happens that they are a sponsor of the Color Run this year.

See, I told you that Skittles are a sponsor!

This Saturday I will be running my second Color Run around a venue called the NEC in Birmingham. I’m going with a couple of friends who haven’t done it before. I hope they enjoy it; it’s certainly an incredible experience. My experience from my first Color Run over three years ago in London was fantastic; everyone was happy, full of smiles and laughter from getting covered in colour.

At my first Color Run

I’m not intending to run the 5km route on Saturday. The great thing about the Color Run is that you can complete it however you want, whether it be running, walking or dancing. I’ll see if my friends fancy a little jog/run, but my main reason for not running the whole route is because it’s more fun to stop and spend lots of time at each colour stationr! There are five colours stations throughout the route to mark 1km, where volunteers are ready to throw powder at you.

The 5km route

For the best experience of the Color Run, it is best to wear white clothing that you don’t mind getting dirty. I’ve got my t-shirt through with my Color Run pack and I’ve ordered a pair of cheap white shorts. In my pack I also got some temporary tattoos, a headband, glitter face paint and a wristband.

My Color Run pack

My weekend is certainly going to be a colourful one; I can’t wait!

 

Happy reading and blogging!

Clare Bear

 

Running mad!

I’ve just realised that this year is going to be a very active one. I’m participating in 4 races/runs! All of them are very different, some more challenging than others and some with an element of fun.

The first run I’m doing this year is my second 10km Race for Life, in aid of Cancer Research UK. This will be on Sunday 10th July in my home town. I ran my first ever 10km race last year, which I completed in 1 hour and 11 minutes. I intend to beat that time this year, as well as raise more money for such a worthy cause.

Almost at the finish line in my first Race for Life!

On Saturday 20th August, I will be participating in the Color Run with some friends in a city called Birmingham, which is about 40 miles from where I live. The Color Run is a 5km course which you can run, walk or even dance around. You turn up at the start line dressed in white and by the end of the race, you are absolutely covered in colour! I had a lot of fun at a Color Run in London about 3 years ago with some friends from university. The Color Run supports a charity called NSPCC, which provides a childline for young children in need of help. I might have a little jog or a run on the course, but my main intention is to get covered in coloured powder like I did in the photo below!

The happiest 5k on the planet!

The third race I’m participating in this year is with my work colleagues. I signed up today for the Iron Run, which we’re doing on the 1st October in a place called Kettering, and our team is called Universal Titans (I work for a company called Universal Textiles, so Titans sounds great for a team name!)  There are different options in terms of distance, but essentially the Iron Run is a challenging obstacle course with lots of mud! Some of the obstacles include hurdles, rope climbs, mud pits and even a water slide. I am doing a 6km route with my work colleagues, which I think is plenty enough distance when you have obstacles to tackle. I probably won’t be running much for this race either, since it will be even more physically challenging than just running a long distance, but it will hopefully be a lot of fun!

The final race this year is going to be the hardest challenge I’ve ever faced yet. After successfully running 10km last year, I am going to be running my first half marathon on Sunday 23rd October in my home town! There is the option to run a full marathon, but I think it’s best if I start off with doing a half marathon first. I’ve ran 14.5km so far, which I did non-stop in 1 hour and 37 mins just over a month ago. I’ve not had the chance yet to run that distance again or further, but I’m hoping to soon (maybe even this weekend). I’m not setting myself a time for this race, I just want to be able to complete it non-stop. I also want to continue to prove that you don’t have to be thin to participate in long distance runs.

I’ve not been out for a run for a while actually, but I’ve been going to the gym and have walked to work a few times recently. Now that it’s staying lighter for longer in the evenings (and the weather’s sort of improving), I could go out for a run after finishing work when I have a free evening. Despite struggling with losing body weight at the moment, I’m feeling fitter than I ever have! I’m noticing this at the gym when I’m doing cardio exercises. I can start earlier and last longer on higher intensities, which is a good sign. The muscles in my upper thighs are becoming more prominent again, and I guess they will increase in size when I start running longer distances.

So I’ve got some exciting months ahead in terms of fitness. I can’t wait to do them all!

Happy reading and blogging!

Many thanks,

Clare Bear

Lucky to be alive

Finally I got round to writing about what motivated me to start blogging- the 10km Race for Life on Sunday 5^th July 2015 in Leicester, to raise money and awareness for Cancer Research UK.

Let’s beat cancer sooner

I have always been a supporter of cancer charities, due to my family’s background. Many of my family members have been affected by cancer, the majority taking on the fight, leading to their survival! Unfortunately my grandmother, from my mother’s side of the family, lost the battle against pancreatic cancer when I was around 11 years old.

The most recent survival from cancer is my great uncle (my grandmother’s brother) when he survived from pancreatic cancer a few years ago. He is still the cheeky great uncle I have always known and loved, and I am thrilled that he is still energetic and full of life.

Cancer has not just affected my mother’s side of the family, but also my father. His grandmother suffered from cancer and treatment in the 1960s was, from what I’ve heard, a lot more painful and dangerous than it is now. She endured though and survived as well.

As much as cancer has greatly affected all of my family, the one I take closest to heart is my father. He was diagnosed with cancer in his early twenties, when he was engaged with my mother. My father was rather unwell, and my mother has told me a few times that she thought he was going to lose him.

He had a rare case of cancer at the time, so students were quite often present when he was at the hospital. Visit after numerous visit, my father continued to fight the battle, knowing that he had so much to live for. People asked my mother whether she would still marry my father, to which she always replied, ‘Of course I will’.

My parents became husband and wife while my father was still receiving treatment, and finally it all paid off. I’ve never seen my father cry, but one of the times that he did was when he was given the all clear.

My parents could now start their life together and have what they had always wanted, children. Their first attempt resulted in a miscarriage, to which both were distraught. They were worried that the cancer had affected their chances of conceiving children however, my sister was born!

My sister’s name was chosen with much thought and care. Her name is Zoe, which in Greek means ‘life’. A beautiful name which signifies the battle my parents fought and won.

A few years later I was born, and my grandfather simply called me Clare, saying that he really liked the name. I am proud to have been named by him, as he was such a kind and gentle-hearted individual, who sadly lost his life to a stroke.

Since cancer has affected both sides of my family, both of my parents have been great supporters of cancer charities and have helped others who suffer or have suffered from the effects of cancer.

My mother raised a fantastic total of £64,000 two years ago for Macmillan Cancer Support through endless fundraising and talking about the charity by travelling around the UK, with my father accompanying her as an escort.

Celebrating my mother’s hard work!

I have helped out where I can for cancer charities, by putting loose change in money boxes, buying badges, going to the occasional coffee morning and sponsoring people who participate in fundraiser events. However, I want to do much much more; that is why I have signed up to do the 10km Race for Life.

While cancer has recently been proven to happen by chance in our bodies, more people than ever are now becoming affected by the disease. This is due to various factors, such as prolonged exposure to the sun without adequate protection, diet and lifestyle (smoking and alcohol), which increases the chances of producing cancer.

According to Cancer Research UK, 1 in 2 people in the UK will get cancer at some point in their lives. That is huge! However, more people than ever are surviving due to the improving treatments and Cancer Research UK’s ongoing quest to find a cure.

If there’s one thing I can reassured of, I won’t get cervical cancer. I remember receiving a letter through the door when I was in secondary school, requesting that I go to the doctor to have the HPV vaccine- I went without hesitation!

So there are some vaccines out there to prevent certain cancers from developing, and people are starting to become more aware of cancer. This awareness means that people are becoming more familiar with their bodies, getting themselves checked at their local GP when something is not quite right. This leads to early diagnosis, and a much higher chance of surviving.

I have actually previously participated in fundraising events that raise awareness for cancer. I had a lot of fun with university friends at the Color Run at Wembley Stadium in July 2013 and I walked 5km at a Race for Life last June at a lovely park in Welwyn Garden City with one of my university friends. I raised about £100 for both events combined, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Absolutely caked in colour!

However, signing up for the 10km Race for Life this year is a big step for me, a chance to really do some serious fundraising, continue to raise awareness for Cancer Research UK and to change myself as well. I managed to successfully jog 10km non-stop recently on a treadmill at the gym, but I need to practice this outside at some point in the very near future.

Pretty in pink

Since lifestyle is now having a big impact upon our daily lives, I feel that jogging 10km would be a great and motivating way to change my health for the better, to help in reducing the risk of getting cancer in terms of lifestyle. So I am not just raising money and awareness for an important and worthy cause, but I’m also aiming to become a healthier individual.

So this is the story that motivated me to set up a blog, something I had wanted to do for a while. I must admit, this blog was quite hard for me to write, as I could feel myself getting rather emotional.

If any of you would like to donate towards Cancer Research UK, I have set up my very own just giving page. I have set a target of £200, which I think that I can reach!

My entry for the Race for Life on Sunday 5th July 2015

I would like to end this blog with a massive thank you to all cancer charities for your continuous supportive and hard work for those suffering from the turmoils of cancer. I also want to thank everyone in my family who have survived from cancer- well done for being courageous and strong-willed!

And a personal special thank you to my parents. If it wasn’t for your determination and fighting power, I wouldn’t be here. I thank you for giving me the gift of life.

I will jog this Race for Life for my life.

Happy reading and blogging,

Many thanks,

Clare Bear