I am so proud to say I have completed my 7 days of Running the River Thames Challenge in memory of my niece Lara Lewis. Crossed the finishing line at the Thames Barrier having run 315km (195miles) @ 2pm Tuesday 3rd September with the tremendous support of my Mum and lots of my friends with their children at the finish. A truly amazing end to the most magical week in my life. I will remember this for the rest of my life. A massive thankyou to friends running with me and supporting me along the route and especially to my good friend Aaron Chai who cycled 4 days and ran the last day with me, what awesome support, cheers. Thank you so much everyone for all your support along the way during this week and for your very kind donations, so much appreciated. It was extremely tough, 7 long hard days running, distances Ive never thought were possible let alone ran before, meeting lovely people along the way, running from the source of the Thames (no water) in the Cotswolds to see it turn from a small stream, getting wider and wider as I ran into the majestic river flowing into London. Such stunning beautiful countryside along the way, and lovely sunny weather, I loved it, have enjoyed it all so much. Its amazing what we are all capable of. We did it, Team_Lara did it, thankyou X

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am Lara's Uncle David. From Wed 28th Aug to Tue 3rd Sept 2013 I will be running the Entire Length of the River Thames. Starting from the Source of the Thames (near Kemble in the Cotswolds) to finish at the Thames Barrier in London running along the Thames Path National Trail. This is some 300km (187miles) which equates to running a Marathon a day for 7 consecutive days.

I will be running in memory of my very young beautiful niece Lara Lewis, who was only just 5 years old when she drowned taken by a freak wave off the coast of Portugal  just last year in August 2012 with her heroic Grandad Brian O'Dwyer dying with the ultimate act of bravery trying to save her. We so miss them both. I loved being Lara's Uncle David.

The Charity I have chosen to run for is The Special Care Baby Unit (S.C.B.U) at Homerton Hospital, Hackney, London. This is where Lara was born prematurely in 2007. They did and do an amazing job, which allowed Lara to grow into the most beautiful intelligent and fun loving magical young girl you could wish for.

We all miss Lara so much and I thought to do this challenge in her memory. This will be the toughest challenge I have ever undertaken, both physically and emotionally.

I was extremely excited to work out that the exact halfway point of the River Thames is Thames Valley Park, Reading where every Saturday Reading parkrun event occurs, so i have built the entire weeks running around one of my favourite saturday morning activities Reading parkrun.This not only gives me a mid challenge point to aim for but with all of the great support from my fellow parkrunners will definitely give me a needed boost i am sure i will need. This extra 5K brings the challenge to a nice round 300km.

Thankyou for reading this and i hope some of you can be part of my adventure, especially at Reading parkrun on Saturday 31st August.

Any donations (via JustGiving) would be greatly appreciated and any help very gratefully received. Thankyou for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.