Karolina Pavlikova

I’m fundraising for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award

I'm taking part in the Manchester Half Marathon 2024 to raise vital funds for the DofE charity helping to transform the lives of young people through The Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

DofE is what got me into running! I started running for my bronze DofE with aim of running 5 km under 25 minutes. I continued running through my silver and gold achieving a half marathon and a 10k under 1 hour.

Last year as a UK Youth Ambassador I took up the challenge of running a London 10k and raised £200 for DofE.

This year I am taking it up a notch and running a half marathon. This would be my forth marathon, having run twice in Bratislava in 2020 and 2022 and once in Edinburgh in 2023.

There however will be hurdles along the way. Last year I have been busy with uni workload and my extracurricular activities which meant I did not commit much time for running. With the start of the new semester I will push myself to train to successfully complete the half marathon in October.

I will appreciate your donations and I will keep you updated on my progress!

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My Updates

I have completed the Half Marathon!

Wednesday 16th Oct

Two good news:

Firstly, I have ran the half marathon in 2 hours and 13 minutes.

Secondly, thanks Ed, Eli and Louis for the donations, thanks to you we have reached the fundraising goal.

The race was really good, after it rained on Saturday, it got nice and sunny on the day of the race. There were 24 000 runners, the first 4 miles I managed to keep up with the 2 hour markers, but I slowly lost them. The crisis came on the 10th kilometer, which is understandable as I have not ran more than that since my last half marathon. The energy boost came thanks to supporters giving out free sweets and cheering. After that I was walking and running, but I still made it to the finish line in a good time.

This was my first time in Manchester and I managed to do some sightseeing on Saturday. I loved the city and its vibe! Hopefully see you soon Manchester!

Last Park run before the Halfmarathon!

Saturday 5th Oct

Record-breaking time for this year for the 5k! See you soon Manchester!

What if there is no parkrun? I have a plan B

Sunday 29th Sep

Park run was cancelled this week, but thankfully I had a week-long ultimate frisbee tournament, so I was running more than enough!

5k parkrun under 30 minutes

Saturday 21st Sep

Another Saturday, another parkrun. The run felt really good, I only stopped and walked a couple of times so I knew I was pretty good which was shown on the final results ! Official time 29:56.

One month to go!

Saturday 14th Sep

That means doing a park run every Saturday if there is one! Today I did my best 5k on this course this year in 31:28, which is surprising as I felt the run was not going well when I was running. Also, got free strawberries at the finish line from a Parkrun sponsor - what a great start to the weekend!

New 10k PB

Sunday 8th Sep

Yesterday in the evening I took part in the Telekom Night run 10k in my home town of Bratislava. It is a great race where 5000 people run through the streets, bridges, a tunnel and a park.

I started the race off with a 5:40 pace although it was 24 degrees outside, then slowed down a little bit. The crisis came at 7th kilometre when it looked like we were almost at the end, but we did not, but I forced myself to keep my pace under 7:00, which I managed to do.

I arrived to the finish with official time of 1:03:31, which is my new recorded 10k PB, last time I ran this route in 2019, I had a time of 1:06:13 and my 10k in London last September took a minute longer than yesterday, so I am really happy with my improvements.

Preparation for a 10k

Monday 2nd Sep

It has been quite warm outside lately, so it is hard to run, so I decided to go on a 17km cycle. I am running a 10k on Friday, so this was a good way to prepare.

Another Saturday, another 5k Parkrun!

Saturday 24th Aug

A little bit slower run compared to last week, but I improved my overall position from 501. to 490. :)

Intensive training has officially begun!

Saturday 17th Aug

We now have less than 2 months till the race and I am starting my intensive training. The first challenge was a 5k parkrun around the Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.

Thank you to my Sponsors

£50

Elizabeth W.

Wishing you good luck in the race!

£50

Louis

£37.10

Katarína

Šťastne do cieľa!

£37

Ed

She ran!

£21.20

Ywvhdniia

£20