However during a moment of complete madness in October 2008 (after several glasses of Aldi’s finest white wine ) my sister-in-law, Rebecca and I decided we should stop moaning about our ample figures and set ourselves a challenge to get fit and lose weight.
That evening it seemed like an exciting idea but two days later I visited a gym for the first time ever and collapsed in a heap after only managing 3 minutes on the treadmill. Marathon Madness !However having already told lots of people that we were planning to run a marathon, it would have been far too embarrassing to give up on this plan. As an aside, telling people that you are going to run a marathon generates varied responses such as “that’s fantastic, go for it” or “you must be insane” or “how far is a marathon” or “why don’t you do a half marathon instead” or “you’d never get me doing that”
Well Rebecca and I are doing it ! – it’s not been easy so far – life gets in the way of training and the biggest challenge is generally “mental” rather than “physical”. However after lots of stopping and starting in the training “plan”, we are getting up to 10 mile runs and have our places booked at the Adidas Dublin Marathon www.dublinmarathon.ie on Monday 26 October 2009. The Dublin Marathon is internationally known as The Friendly Marathon and we are very focused on dragging ourselves over the 26 miles and 385 yards and enjoying several friendly glasses of The Black Stuff in a friendly Bar !What keeps me motivated when my still “ample” body does not want to keep going is thinking about the strength of a person that very much inspires me.
Dianne Stracey is the mother of my long term partner and has always been my “second mum”. For a number of years now Dianne has had leukemia. Her condition is AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia). She attends hospital on a weekly basis and is continually having platelet transfusions and has recently embarked on some chemotherapy treatment .However despite all this she is the most upbeat, caring and positive person I know. She has never once complained, is always smiling and is constantly more preoccupied and interested in the welfare of others, rather than thinking about herself.
Dianne has invested lots of time in supporting and raising awareness for Addenbrookes Hospital, Blood Transfusion Service and Macmillan Nurses. However her favourite charity is the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity www.arhc.org.uk . This hospice provides specialist care & support to adult patients, family, friends and carers.The honest assessment is that I decided to run this Marathon for my own selfish reasons but I have since become aware that I am now running this Marathon not for me but for Dianne and the Charity that she is passionate about. When I feel weak and consider giving up I think of Dianne, her daily struggle and her great strength and she keeps me motivated.
We all know people whose lives have been tragically affected by leaukemia and other cancers so please dig deep and help The Arthur Rank Hospice continue providing this invaluable service.Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
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 make a difference and donate now.
Thank you in advance for all your support
Taryn
