My story

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

To celebrate my 50th birthday, I will be running the London Marathon on the 22nd April plus another 23.8 miles to make the distance up to a round 50 miles! If anyone wants to check on me, I'll be running most of the course in reverse, starting from under Blackfriars Bridge at about 4am and hopefully reaching the start line before the womens elite race sets off at 9am!

I am running for The Children's Society, the charity I was adopted through. They also helped me to trace my birth mother 15 years ago. The charity do a lot of great work helping people cope with the reunion process through their post-adoption project. In keeping with the fifty theme, I'm hoping to raise fifty £50s for them

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Update 24/04/12

Well I managed to complete my challenge, but it was a real struggle.

After completing a trouble free training programme, my preparation in the 24 hours leading up to the challenge was a disaster. I ate too late on Saturday evening and didn't get to sleep until 11.30pm, giving me just 2 hours kip! I then ate breakfast at 1.45am despite still feeling full from dinner.

I started running at 4.05am, accompanied by my friend Tom on his bike, and everything was going well until I reached Docklands, where I managed to become lost twice, losing 45 minutes until a race marshall arrived and pointed me in the right direction. I began to feel sick and experience stomach pains after about 10 miles. I limped on to Greenwich where Tom dropped out and another friend Neil ran with me the last 6 miles to Greenwich Park.I didn't feel like drinking because of the nausea and became very dehydrated after about 20 miles, feeling very light-headed. I only realised this when I ate a piece of chocolate and was unable to swallow it because my mouth was too dry. Luckily, some water and a big bag of Jelly Babies came to the rescue and I reached Greenwich Park in 5 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds.

At the marathon start I discovered I had forgotten my change of top and socks, suffered bad cramp in my left leg and had a reccurring stitch each time I tried to run. At one stage I was in last place behind several people in heavy rhino costumes and 3 dressed as London landmarks. The 101 year old Sikh was out of sight ahead of me. I felt depressed and embarrassed!

As I struggled along overtaking a few very unfit looking people, I spotted a man in a gorilla suit. He also seemed to be in a spot of bother so I tagged along with him, helping to carry his collection bucket. It turned out Steve had spent the previous two weeks walking from Bradford to London in his gorilla suit with no back up team, and some of you thought I was mad! We decided to walk most of the course but run every time we passed somewhere playing music.

We carried on like this despite cramped feet and aching muscles until the last 6 miles, when the wind and rain hit us head on and it was a grim trudge through the East End, being forced on to narrow pavements as the roads reopened. The only relief came 3 miles from the finish where the Children's Society cheering team had stayed out in the driving rain to support me, one of many moments when the tears welled up a bit.

Competitive to the end, we overtook the 101 year old Sikh and his entourage near Westminster, but they battled back past us when we stopped for photos outside Buckingham Palace. A desperate limping sprint for the line saw us regain the advantage at the last moment and the race was over in 7 hours, 21 minutes and 7 seconds, making a combined total for the 50 miles of 12 hours, 42 minutes and 30 seconds. I reckon I could shave 3 hours off that but I don't think I will be daft enough to ever attempt that again!

A big thank you to everyone who has donated, all those who offered encouragement during the race, the team from the Children's Society and especially the friends and family who supported my fundraising and kept me going during the run.

Cheers everyone

Mark

My gallery 2

My Teams

My company

My charity

The Children's Society

The Children's Society

Charity Registration No. 221124

The Children’s Society is committed to helping vulnerable and disadvantaged young people. We provide over 75 direct programmes, including Children’s Centres and preventative work. Our aim is to improve the lives of all children and challenge society’s negative attitude towards young people.

Donations 51

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Good Luck mate, reckon 9 hours 45 mins, chris stephens x

Donation by kelly stephens on 21/04/12

£20.00

+ £5.00 Gift Aid

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Go Mark!

Donation by Thomas Dalton on 21/04/12

£20.00

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Good Luck Mark My prediction is 9 hours 55 minutes If you run at your usual football pace of 5 miles an hour with a sprint finish !

Donation by Dave Brigly on 21/04/12

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

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Hi Mark All the best for Sunday. At least you shouldn't have to worry about the heat!

Donation by Adam Stoddart on 21/04/12

£20.00

+ £5.00 Gift Aid

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Good luck Mark x

Donation by Monica Drummond on 20/04/12

£5.00

+ £1.25 Gift Aid

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Best of luck on Sunday morning! We think 8 hours 43 minutes. We will be watching out for you on the telly! Eloise, Glenn, Alex and Grace in Dublin

Donation by Eloise Heron on 20/04/12

£20.00

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Well done Mark this must be your 4th marathon

Donation by James Reynolds on 20/04/12

£20.00

+ £5.00 Gift Aid

Donation by Nigel Kilbane on 20/04/12

£50.00

+ £12.50 Gift Aid

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I can think of easier ways of celebrating 50 years. Good luck. I think you will do it in 9 hours and 40 minutes.

Donation by Dave Potter on 19/04/12

£20.00

+ £5.00 Gift Aid

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Fantastic effort Mark - I settled for 50 beers on my 50th - I only made 6 or 7 though. All the best.

Donation by Ged Keegan on 19/04/12

£20.00

+ £5.00 Gift Aid

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13 hours 41 minutes is my guess and by the way........nice action man pose!! :o)

Donation by Tim Embleton on 19/04/12

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

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Well done Mark on a Super effort, Anything under 10 hrs is a massive achievement so I'm going with 9hrs 50mins

Donation by Hussein Ozbek on 18/04/12

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

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Mark, I had no idea you had done so many athletic feats. Good luck, the weather looks good for a short run.

Donation by Denise Fulgoni on 18/04/12

£30.00

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Good luck Mark n Happy Birthday you old git

Donation by Jim Rasho on 17/04/12

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

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Hi Mark good luck for Sunday spoke to you at Charing X and on the way to my train asked some ladies to come over and say hello to you

Donation by kate gray on 17/04/12

£20.00

+ £5.00 Gift Aid

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Go for it mate well done Gaz

Donation by Gary Burchmore on 17/04/12

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

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Good luck mate, know you will do it, fantastic cause, be thinking of you.

Donation by John Reid on 16/04/12

£50.00

+ £12.50 Gift Aid

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Heya Malarky good luck! I predict your time to be 9hrs 39min and 13 seconds.

Donation by Francesco Saraceno on 16/04/12

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

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Mark, Once again that's a great effort from you. Hope you easily reach your target. Good luck at Charing Cross too. Time: 08:53:21

Donation by Michael Griffiths on 16/04/12

£50.00

+ £12.50 Gift Aid

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Brilliant effort-in 8:49:58

Donation by ian newman on 16/04/12

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Well done Mark - will look out for you on the telly. Time prediction: 9:13:17

Donation by Andrew Middlewick on 16/04/12

£25.00

+ £6.25 Gift Aid

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Good luck Mark, great effort...though hitting 50 must be affecting your brain doing that for your birthday!! Best wishes!

Donation by Stuart Griffiths on 16/04/12

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

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Donation by Alex Yates on 05/03/12

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

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Mark, Good luck for the marathon. Hope you are keeping up with the training !! Steve and Sheila Yates X

Donation by Stephen Yates on 01/03/12

£20.00

+ £5.00 Gift Aid

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Good luck xxx

Donation by Alex Yates on 29/02/12

£10.00

+ £2.50 Gift Aid

Donation summary

  • * Online donations£1,643.00
  • Offline donations£765.00
  • Text donations£0.00
  • Total raised£2,408.00
  • Gift Aid£370.75

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