Update 6. Hello dear friends. What can I say? Firstly, I can say a massive THANKYOU to all of my inspirational, fantastic supporters who, together, have raised well over £1000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association in tribute to Eric Rivers and in memory of Phil McGarvey. You are stars, you are shining brightly you are making a difference.

Sunday was a terrific day for me too. It was cold, a little damp, perfect really for running 13.1 miles around Reading. What a lovely Half Marathon. Veyr friendly runners. Lovely locals cheering you on and calling out one's name. Bit congested for the first 5 miles I'd say and a couple of surprising inclines (modest climbs, but surprising all the same), the legendary beer stop (I declined; I don't do halves!) and a man called Tony running with a fridege on his back (I kid you not).

My finish time was 1.58.22, so, within the 2 hours I set myself, but actually, I could have gone faster only I did what I set out to do and maintain a constant speed throughout. Came in pretty much spot on. Sub 1.55 a defo!  The highlight? Coming into the Madejeski Stadium for the finish. Pumping loud music a strong crowd and a lovely stadium. Really very moving. When I get the photos through I will post them      here for you to look at. There's even a video of me chasing up the inside track and sprinting to the finish!

Thank you once again. I can only begin to tell you how much it means to me that you care enough to have raised money for the MNDA in tribute to my dear friend Eric Rivers and in memory of the late Phil McGarvey. The families and friends involved are very grateful.

Peace n love always to you and yours. Colin xxx

 

Update 5.  Good morning! Just polishing off a bowl of porridge. Didn't sleep that great. Had a nightmare about the Ofsted inspection I've got on Tuesday afternoon! Never mind, it warned me off something so I'll now be prepared for that little piece of mischief!  ; ) It's raining! So it looks like it is going to be a wet one! Never mind.  I'm a hardy Northerner with Gaelic blood running through my veins.  Thanks a million to my overnight supporters who have pushed sponsorship over the £500 mark, which is just amazing.  Thank you all so much, you are amazing and you will be responsible for getting me around today's Reading Half Marathon.  Bless you all. Catch you later Cxxxx

 

Update 4.  Good evening to my wonderful supporters. Well, it's 7.45pm and I'm just about to start preparing my kit for tomorrow morning. Haven't quite decided which colours to run in. All green, blue, orange? They are all clean. Mrs G gathered them all up (they were cluttering up the bathroom), now I can take my pick. I think I'll have to cover up in my yellow running jacket cos I think it is going to be wet and cold. Whatever I wear, my final layer will be my MNDA running vest. This run is to help raise awareness of MND and to raise funds for the MNDA. I'm also running this Half Marathon in tribute to my dear friend Eric Rivers who, together with his wonderful wife Davina, are two are the most inspirational people I know. I'm also running in memory of the late Phil McGarvey whose battle with MND ended on New Year's eve 2013. Thank you to the Rivers family and the McGarvey family for their support of me. It is most humbling.

Finally, thank you once again to all the wonderful people who have been sponsoring me over the last couple of days. You are doing a most incredible thing in helping to fund vital research that one day, please God, will bring about an end to this awful disease.  Not only that, but you are helping to provide essential help to those men and women, husbands and wives and children who live with MND every day. Bless you all. I'll try and let you know how it went tomorrow evening sometime. But for now, thank you once again. You are very special people indeed.  Peace n love, Colin xxx

 

Update 3. "Please forgive me if I act a little strange, for I know not what I do..." Some of you will get that reference... some of you will think the poor fella has lost his marbles! Anyway, sorry for not having kept in touch as much as I would like/hope that you would like (nobody complained Ed.) But life! Eh? It gets in the way. We get busy. There's loads of stuff I was gonna talk about... Krispee Kreme doughnuts being one. I know I told you about steppin' out really quite early and KK not having fired up the ovens (ok, deep fryers eD.)and how I missed the enticing smell. Well, during half term, I went out a little bit later for my run and was greeted by the smell of them as I progressed down the A10 My senses having been heightened by the previous weekend's visit to Chez Rivers where KK doughnuts were served upon arrival!!!! This is very indulgent of me talking like this and is either making you feel very hungry or very... sick! Movin on, but  still with a food theme... those of you who have followed my occasional posts on Twitter will be aware of my penchant for peanut butter and banana on toasted wholemeal bread. Particularly good for those early morning starts. I also posted about knowing who it had been who had polished off all the mince pies and bubbles over Christmas! And... having got over all of that, who it was that was devouring all the roast potatoes. Sorry, but I had a little    roasty fest there for a couple of weeks, which can't have been doing the old waistline any good. But I am cured! That little pot belly       I was worried about has morphed into a  what's his name?  Fastbinger something or other, washboard of a stomach area.... NOT!!!!!!!! LOL. Anyway, I don't know what I'm talking about there anymore. Onwards... Oh Yes! Running socks on the radiator! Sounds so obvious doesn't it? If you are going out for an early morning run, one of the simplest pleasures you can afford yourself are warm running socks! I have some running socks that are supportive in different areas of the foot (don't ask me to go into detail) and they really are different to plain ordinary everyday socks. I love them. But wow! How much nicer they are when they've sat on the radiator for 20mins or so. Lovely. I just share these things with you. Mmmm. Last weekend I think I let yous know that I was to be doing my  final long run before the Reading Half Marathon this Sunday (Yikes!) Well, it went really well. Lovely to be out running in the Herts countryside and the conditions were perfect; cool breeze, bit of moisture in the air. And it was a nice undulating run up to the Potters Bar roundabout and back through Cockfosters and Oakwood into Enfield Town. Helped make me feel we are ok for the Reading jobbie. Mind you, the weather is meant to be a bit ropey, but hey!  Finally, before I sign off, a massive thank you to all my sponsors! You know I couldn't do this without you. You fuel me. I run for you, because I know you recognise just how important it is that we all try and raise awarenss of MND and funds for research and support through the MNDA. Between us, we have raised just short of £10,000 and I hope by the time I cross the finish line on Sunday we will have achieved that figure. Bless you all. I'll try and knock something out just before I head off for Reading on Sunday morning, and I will certainly tweet @Colin4MNDA in the run up to race time. In the meantime, thank you ALL for your fantastic support. I wouldn't be able to motivate myself without you. Not in this weather anyway! ;-) Peace n love to you and yours xxx

 

 

Update 2. Firstly, I would like to thank my 'early adopters' who have straight away jumped in there and set the ball rolling on the way to hitting that £1,000 mark I am hoping to reach in aid of the MNDA in tribute to my dear pal, Eric Rivers, and in memory of the late, Phil McGarvey. It's not easy this fundraising malarky and I know how generous my supporters have been in raising funds and awareness of Motor Neurone Disease over the last 3 years. So, it is humbling to see such generosity pouring forth so readily. Mary, Claire, Ann, 'all at No 6' (I know who you are!), Jim, Teresa and Terry, Anna, Clair and wonderful Girlings... thank you all SO much!

Today's picture captures the moment when after 21 miles of last year's London Marathon, Eric and I were able to grin like babies at the joy and wonder of being able share that particular moment. A lovely sunny day in London (remember them?) and a great personal achievement for us both to have got that point on the Highway. (Massive thanks, once again, to Zen who made it possible for Eric to be there.)

Another picture, if you check out the gallery, is of 'my new running partner'! Or at least that is how she was sold to me when I was finally convinced to consent to the Rochford-Gardiner household expanding by one, four-legged friend. At barely 9 weeks old, I think it will be some time before she causes me any serious opposition and she is unlikely to be accompanying me anywhere unless she is tucked up in a warm blanket on the inside of my running vest! Her name is Poppy and she comes home for good on Saturday!

Now for what really came here to read about.  The sweat, the toil, the pain, the sacrifice! Yeah, yeah, yeah, alright I know it's difficult to work up a sweat the temperatures we have been enduring lately. And while it's always going to be a bit of wrestling match with oneself to get out of bed at 6am to go for a run, you do actually feel so good afterwards and set up for the day it almost feels like a small price to pay. Pain? Well, if you stretch a little before you venture out, you're not really going to experience that much pain. And, as for sacrifice? Well, Ges Barker will attest if he happens to be reading this post that there was a time when we believed ourselves to be better runners if we did what was probably a 10k having knocked back 3 or 4 pints of what would have been Greenhall Whitley's Best Bitter back then when we were 18 years old! I can't do it now of course. And, children, if you happen to be reading, nor is it ever advisable to run after consuming alcohol. So, the bottom line is, I'm actually enjoying the early morning runs and they do set me up for the day. I'm a bit disappointed that there haven't been any major observations or stories to share just yet. The doughnut factory doesn't seem to have turned on its ovens by the time I pass it, so I can't comment on how I crave one of them at 6.15 in the morning. Although I have to say I did start to fantasise a bit about garden trellises as I passed by B&Q on the A10 this morning! And of course there was that moment the other day when the wind changed direction, and the air was filled with a waft of bacon sarnie with brown sauce on toasted broan bread. (I have a sensative nose for these things.) I've sometimes thought I should bring a bit of loose change with me in case I've needed to make a phone call, or pay to use someone's mobile, or needed to use the loo at Enfield Chase station but never before have I thought I should have brought a few bob with me in case I fancied a bacon sarnie on route! I can't believe this but... my good pal Stuart reminded me the other day that the Reading half marathon - thanks to the fact that its route takes it around Reading University- provides a beer stop for runners at mile 7 I think it is! Ges, you should be here mate.  This is right up our boulevard!!!! Those of you who know me well, will know that I would not be tempted by a half.  Now, a pint maybe!!!! I look forward to telling you how that one pans out.

So, training is generally going well. I sometimes wish I had the body of a 20 year old (go on, crack your own jokes), but inside that's how I feel. I'm just finding it hard to convince the outside. Still, I'm grateful to be getting around at all. Be in the present as my good friend Joe would say. And that is where I am. The present is a good place. We are doing something positive you and I. We are raising awareness of and funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, we are remembering the men and women living with MND and, in particular, my personal inspiration for running long distance again, Eric Rivers and Phil McGarvey. Thank you once again for your most generous support. You are the fuel beneath my shins! Some of you will get that, I hope! Until next time, Bless you all, Col xxx

 

Welcome and thank you for taking the time to visit my latest justgiving page.  Once again I am turning to my ever-increasing band of loyal supporters (and a whole host of new friends too I hope) to help me raise funds and awareness for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. This time I am running in the Reading Half Marathon on the 2nd March 2014. So, not much time to get the fundraising part done, but I'm sure we can do it, we always seem to surprise ourselves, don't we?  In fact, if we raise my target figure of £1,000, including gift aid, we will have raised over £10,000 together over the last 3 years. So, a huge thank you once again for all your support over the many miles we have run together.

3 years is, of course, a very significant period of time.  Because it is 3 years since my dear friend Eric Rivers was first diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. He has been and remains my constant source of inspiration for getting up and out in the morning and running through the wind and the rain (and occasionally the sunshine) to try and get fit enough to complete 2 London Marathons, the British 10K and my own 100km Challenge. Eric loves his sport, every sport and I carry him with me on every training run and every event so far. I can hear him willing me on and picking me up when I falter. Eric is in the advanced stages of this horrible disease and once again I want to run this race in tribute to him and his wonderful wife Davina and the girls that make up the 5 Rivers Gang. 

This year I also want to run in memory of the late Phil McGarvey who died from MND just a few weeks ago. Phil was only diagnosed with MND a little over a year ago, but sadly his MND was accompanied by dementia.  I got to know the McGarvey family through our local church and I saw how his children poured their love into their father and supported their mother through this very difficult time.

I know there is only 4 weeks to go before the Reading Half Marathon, but I promise to keep you updated on my training and anything that comes to mind during them. You know I like to share these things with you!

Please spread the word if you can. Take a look at the MNDA webpage and learn a little bit more about Motor Neurone Disease. And thank you.  Thank you in advance for your continued support.  Your donation will make a difference. It will help fund research that one day will bring about a breakthrough that will mean this dreadful disease will be beaten once and for all. Peace and Love, Colin x

 

 

 

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