Hello

Thanks for coming to my charity page. 

To celebrate the completion of the Marathon Des Sables in the Sahara Desert two weeks ago, I am competing in the Virgin London Marathon this Sunday.  Thus I hope to complete 7 marathons (292.2KMs) in 3 weeks.  You may think this is crazy .............. and you would be right to think so.   The London Marathon is a standard marathon distance at 42.2 KMs, so a mere walk in the park!!!! (I hope).  Given that I took it relatively easy in the Sahara Desert (55 hours over 7 days and placed 667 out of 1,080 competitors), with no ill effect (ie I did not die, have to be revived with sailine drips, airlifted with heat stroke to a French hospital or get any nasty blisters) I plan to push a lot hard this Sunday, Guinness World Record harder to be precise. 

Following the Icelandic “ash for cash” fallout I had delusions of winning the Virgin London Marathon outright.  That was until I factored in the fact that even though your average UK based runner is not as fast as your average Sub Saharan runner, there are plenty of runners who are a lot lot faster than me.  So in order to make the event more memorable I applied to break a Guinness World Record.  I had two choices – be the fastest animal or the fastest person carrying a 20lb backpack.  After much thought and consideration I went for the heavy backpack record as the thought of running as a camel did not appeal to me in the slightest.  All I have to do now is run the marathon in less than 3 hr 49 min 14 sec wearing all my MDS desert gear which will have to weight in at least 20lbs.  Not sure I have any chance of breaking the record or that it would be accepted in the event that I do manage to break it, but I will have a laugh trying.

Needless to say I will continue to run for my chosen charity.  My chosen charity for this year’s adventures is Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research; a charity, which as the name suggest, raises money for this form of cancer. Leukaemia & Lymphoma cancer effects over 28,000 people (young and old) each year in the UK alone.  I am fortunate to be healthy and fit enough to compete in amazing events such as the MDS, the London Marathon etc. so it is nice and it is an honour to help raise money for a charity that enables thousands of other people, through its research, none of which is Government funded, to live out full, active and hopefully amazing lives.  Leukaemia Research is also my chosen charity for the Windsor Triathlon in June 2010 any other sporting or endurance events I compete in, in 2010.

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Thanks in Advance  

Cyril