So, the team had its first official meet-up at the Haggis Farm Charity Ball last Saturday in aid of bowel cancer research at Addenbrokes hospital, Cambridge. We had a great table of 10, and enjoyed a fun evening of polo, drinks, dinner, dancing, fireworks, casino, bucking bronko and auction... in fact I had to run the auction at the last minute and so took delight in abusing people into giving up their money for a good cause - we raised £7000 which will help fund research into the diagnosis of bowel cancer.

Christobel also delighted us with her skill on the bucking bronco, which she puts down to wearing stockings rather than tights (dont ask!) and everyone demonstrated their skill on the dance floor (see the photos!!!)

We seem to be doing a round robin of helping out different charities - we are all off to run the 10km Cancer Research UK event at Hampton Court palace on the 1st - look out for photos of us in our rather dashing and very tight CRUK t-shirts... nice!

some more photos of the dancing as it got sweatier - the guys take to the floor and michael tries to convince everyone he has some muscles somewhere....

Will the team make it throug to October 1st? Will Konstantinos be co-opted for the Greek ballet team? Will Christobel and Koko (as he is now being called) throttle each other before Christmas! Remember to tune into the next exciting adventure of ...www.crossingcostarica.com! Cheers Mx

Well the website is launched and we can finally start going live with this expedition and with the fundraising. Countdown 183 days to go! I celebrated this by buying some new running gear (my stuff was developing holes in it....). I had real problems trying to find some normalish running shorts. Everything is either the full leg lycra (no thank you!) or the really short italian running "no restrictions" shorts where you are in danger of giving an unrestricted view of yourself to everyone you pass. I finally found some normal knee length running shorts but couldnt avoid a % of lyrca in them... hmmm! I have however fallen in love with no-blister running socks. They are heaven sent.

 

I also have teamed up with my new friends in crime - the navman. this handy little device actually tells me how far I am running and what speed, average speed, max speed, lap times, altitude and calorie burn. Before having navman, I had just been guessing about distances so the first run with navman was either going to be a happy surprise or a gloomy realisation of the truth. Happy to say it was a happy surprise and that I had been running further than I thought... nice! time for an ice-cream!

 

We have as a team all agreed to do the 10km run for Cancer research on October 1st at Hampton Court Palace. Should be a great day although they send you a t-shirt to wear for the race. I ordered what I thought was the right size but it has come through pretty snug... hmmm nice! ah well its all for charity!

 

Thank you so much for the donations so far! Keep them rolling and also send us your ideas for what we can do to get you to donate more!! All things considered (although not necessarily accepted!) Mx