On October 15th 2023, I will be running the Bath Half Marathon for the Bath Cats and Dogs Home, with the aim of completing the 13.1 mile/21 kilometre race in under 100 minutes.

A lot of you know that in March 2023 I started volunteering at the Bath Cats and Dogs Home, located just next to the University of Bath Campus, where I work in the eBay department, helping to raise money by selling the hundreds of donations we receive each week.

Since I started volunteering at the Cats and Dogs Home it's held a special place in my heart. It's a place where masses of volunteers and staff spend their free time giving hundreds of abused, abandoned, and unwanted cats and dogs a new lease on life. Responsible for the entirety of the Bath, Somerset and Wiltshire areas, it's a large scale operation that requires constant funding to continue to providing life saving support, rehabilitation and rehousing services for neglected animals.

I've never run a half-marathon in my life, in fact, before I started training a few weeks ago I hadn't even been on a run for almost 18 months. But, when I found out that the Home would be putting together a running team to run the 13.1 miles of the Bath Half Marathon to raise money for the vulnerable cats and dogs, I decided that I wanted try my best to give back and help continue the incredible work that the Cats and Dogs Home carries out.

The target of running the race in under 100 minutes would mean running at a speed of 7:38/mile or 4:44/kilometre which (and you'll just have to take the word of my more experienced and slightly bewildered  runner friends) is a very very fast pace for someone who doesn't run regularly. (The traditional recommended target for a fit adult wanting to push themselves and run at a fast pace is usually to run it in under 120). It's for this reason I'm hoping we can raise double the requested amount of £250 for the Bath Cats and Dogs Home, giving them the funds of 2 individual runners instead.

So that's it. My training plan is well underway, and I'm going to do everything I can to facilitate a Sub-100 minute Half Marathon time.

Any donations would be amazing, please repost the blog, let your parents or anyone you think would be interested in donating know.

Thanks for your time, and I'll see you on October the 15th!