Rachel doesus proud at the London Marathon!
Rachel Lynn, a teacher from James Allen’s Girls School took on the brave challenge of running for Roots & Shoots at the London Marathon this year. And did she run! Flying over the finish line while raising nearly £3,000 for Roots & Shoots!
Rachel said: “I found out last year that I had a place to run the London Marathon in 2018, in aid of the Jane Goodall Institute, for Roots & Shoots. I have been a keen runner for some years now and a marathon was a definite target for me. I started training hard on 1st January – a great way to see in the New Year! The terrible weather was a backdrop for my training – long, slow runs in the sleet and snow, interval training in the rain and welcome strength training, in the gym, in all sorts of weather. I even started using yoga as an opportunity to stretch and recover. After 16 weeks of cold weather training, the day finally arrived. I was pretty nervous in the week leading up to it – worrying about hurting myself. That weekend, the weather was the hottest on record. I worked steadily, keeping myself hydrated and as cool as possible, running in a large group of equally sweaty people! It was probably the toughest thing I have ever done, but I was carried along by the amazing crowd – including Miss Stack, our Headteacher, standing on a wall and screaming like a teenager! Overall, my determination to finish and claim all the sponsorship for Roots & Shoots kept me going. I am so proud of my achievements and happy I was able to help such a worthy cause. The pressure of walking normally the next day in school was pretty hard too – but I wore my medal all day and ran in my marathon T-shirt until it really needed a wash!”Well done from all of us here at R&S HQ!
