Hi, thanks for taking the time to vist my 2012 Berlin Marathon JustGiving page in aid of the Sheffield Children's Hospital.

My aim...

My aim is to raise £200 in donations towards the great work that the hosiptal does including:

- Providing specialist facilities, such as a new digital x-ray suite, refurbished hydro-therapy pool, and a ground-breaking surgical navigation system (see http://www.tchc.org.uk/our-work);

- Opening new facilities, and;

- Funding vital research.

For more infomation on the work of the charity and projects they are currently working on, see http://www.tchc.org.uk/projects.

Why the Berlin Marathon? Am I crazy...

Over the last few years I've done loads of races including the Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Silverstone circuit half-marathons, plus lots of 10km and 5km races. However this year I was looking for a new challenge, and there was no way I was going to compete in the Oxfam TrailTrekker race again (100km hike in 29 hours straight, never agin, at least not until next year!) Also I've never ran a race in aid of a charity before and the Sheffield Children's Hospital is a great cause.

When did you decide to enter the race?

In November last year, me and both Andys had just finished watching Ash perform through their classic album 'Free All Angels' (setlist here: ) at the Manchester Ritz, and were enjoying a few post-gig pints in the Salisbury pub. 1am and a few pints of Old Perculiar later, Andy R and myself came to the agreement that entering the Berlin Marathon on 30th September (followed by the Octoberfest in Munich) would be a great idea... A few days later I completed the online entry form and starting checking EasyJet for flights.

So my entry is in, the flights and hotels have been booked, and the training plan has been mostly completed (excluding a few relaspses). My target time is under 4 hours but I'd like to hit my age-adjusted time of 3 hours 45 minutes.

Please help out with any donations you can spare - Just Giving allows you to donate any amount and this can be done by Debit/Credit Card and Paypal.

Cheers

Richard

The technical stuff...

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 and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.