Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page - see below for info.

STOP PRESS:

I successfully completed the half marathon in 1 hour 47 minutes and 37 seconds. For the purposes of this page, I'm claiming that to be "3" minutes better than 1 hour 50, so anyone who pledged £5 per minute should now pay up £15. The run was very hard, and was not in perfect conditions with 2 hours of torrential sleety rain to start with, although this did stop part way though the run.  At 8 miles I was on for 1 hour 44 minutes, but clearly I had gone off a bit too fast and it was all I could do to hang on in the last couple of miles - Trish (and the money it would cost me!) was very clearly in my mind during that period I can tell you!!

Last August, a dear friend of mine Trish Coates, finally lost her fight against Leukemia.  The Anthony Nolan trust helped give her nearly 10 years of full and active life that she otherwise would not have had.

In thanks and honour of her, I'd like to raise some badly needed money for them.  I'm always very cynical of the "I'm doing a marathon and I should be sponsored" thing - so I'm adding some spice to it.

On Sunday 21st Feb 2010 I shall be competing in the Wokingham Half Marathon.  This is not my first half marathon, and it won't be the last, so why should you sponsor me? Because it's a good cause, and because there'll be some significant excitement. Here's what I'm going to do:  My personal best for a Half Marathon is just under 1 hour 50 minutes. This was done at Reading half marathon in March 2007, so quite some time ago!  I desperately want to beat that time, so here's the proposal:

You sponser me an amount for every minute that I go under 1 hour 50.  I promise to match that amount for every minute slower than 1 hour 50.  For example, Tom in the office has sponsored me £10 per minute. If I do 1 hour 48, he has to donate £20.  If I do 1 hour 52, I have to donate!

What's the risk for you? My previous 3 half marathon times have been:

Brussels (October 2008): 1 hour 59

Henley (October 2008): 1 hour 56

Henley (October 2009): 1 hour 52

So please dig deep and donate now. You're welcome to just donate some money now, but if you want to just send me a pledge message (gordon@oxinet.co.uk) and take part in the risky business, then I'll either pay up after the run, or I'll make you pay!!

[P.S. Someone just suggested: If you'd like to do the "fun" part then you might want to limit yours and my risk by giving me a ceiling amount that you don't want to go above - after all, I *might* do 1 hour 40!! - yeah, right.)