Completed: Run a marathon

My proud mother & me both supporting RP Fighting Blindness
www.rpfightingblindness.org.uk

Task number: 86.

Run a marathon.

Date: 14^th April 2011.

Location: London, UK.

Attendees: Yvonne Weatherlake, Joe Berry, Aimmie Scorer, Rae Peters, Andy Lopez, Jack Lopez, Sophie Pilcher, Rory Creavin, Belita Pilcher.

I’d advise anyone to try this, but remember it takes a huge amount of commitment, determination & time. & That is just the fundraising!

I had always wanted to run the marathon, ever since I was a little kid & had applied 4 times, but not been successful. When you apply to take part in the race, you are entered into a ballot. If your name is lucky enough to be called, you are in. But after the 4^th rejection in a row, I decided to take another option. I decided to run for a charity. If you run for a Charity, you are given a so-called “Golden ticket”. This means that you don’t have to go through the ballot procedure & are entered straight into the race. However, there is a catch.

In return for your Golden ticket you must raise a certain amount for the charity. This varies from One to another, but mine, RP Fighting Blindness wanted a minimum of 2,225 Pounds. The training began in earnest, but the fundraising would take a little more planning. As well as setting up a website, begging friends & family, I organized a series of events aimed at pulling in the cash I needed. The first was a video games night, based at a friend’s house, near Amsterdam. We charged 20 Euros entry & Two Euros per game. It was a tournament style format, with points for 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd in each game. This meant the more games you entered, the more chance you stood of winning the “coveted” Video games night trophy. It was a great success & we raised 250 Euros. We even got in my local paper, back in the UK!

The Second was a bring & buy sale that I had at work. I asked everyone to bring in anything they wanted to donate, from CD’s & DVD’s to clothes & we sold it in the sale. Another fantastic result & we raised about 400 Euros.

As well as running a book on what people thought my finishing time would be, I saved the best until last. Nike kindly donated some signed football shirts & equipment for an auction & raffle in which we raised 900 Euros.

As well as this, Nike ran a scheme, which meant that as I was an employee, whatever money was donated by other employees, via the Nike Just Giving website they would match.

I was also lucky that I was able to be flexible with my job & train in the day whenever we were quiet work. It started with just a couple of short runs, on the treadmill, but after Christmas it got serious.
Again, I was lucky enough to be in Australia during the holidays, so it meant that my first half marathon was in a lovely warm climate. But, that couldn’t last. Let me tell you running 25 kilometres in minus temperatures is not fun. The following January I had to head out with snow on the ground. 3 weeks before the Marathon I had reached my peak distance. I ran 30k & after that it was short runs for a week before virtually nothing the week before. For those of you who don’t run & are thinking surely not doing any training in the weeks leading up to a challenge is strange, you’ll be interested to hear that this is how the professionals do it & the advise doctors give to all first time runners. Your body needs time recover.

My girlfriend & I went over to London the Friday before the Marathon & stayed with friends to make a weekend of it. I had been detoxing Two weeks before, with no alcohol & plenty of water. Trust me, meeting up with friends & resisting the temptation to have a few drinks when you haven’t seen them in a while is harder than you think, but I got through it, picked up my number on the Saturday & headed to the start point at Greenwich park for 10 o’clock on the Sunday morning. My girlfriend & my friend Joe came down with me & helped to find where I needed to be & get prepared with the Vaseline & Energy drinks. The thing that stuck in my mind though was the absolute deluge of Bananas that littered the streets. It just shows you that there can be all the modern equipment & nutrient suppliments you can possibly imagine, but there is still a place for mother nature’s bounty.

Again, people often ask me, what it was like. I say it’s hard to say. I had looked forward to a lifetime experience, taking in all the sights & taking in the atmosphere, but it is hard to when you have to concentrate so hard on what you need to do. It was a beautiful sunny day. Slightly too warm for running, but fantastic for spectating. I had so much support from the people on the sidelines, offering me drinks & pushing me on, but taking in the sights is the last thing on your mind. My favourite memory though is running down the mall, after turning past Buckingham Palace & feeling the tremendous sense of achievement when I crossed that finishing line. I had just run 26.2 miles! Family & friends were waiting for me in Green Park & I met up with them a short while later. We had a glass of Champagne & it was a pretty special moment.

It took me 4 hours & 18 minutes & I ended up raising over 5,000 Euros. I have a lot of people to thank for this though. My long suffering girlfriend Yvonne, my mum, who raised so much money from kind donations from her friends & family, Nike & my close friends, who I really depended on for support & the generous donations that I fleeced them of in One way or another!