Thank you for visiting my fundraising page. Please sponsor me online.

I'm going to be doing a series of runs upto and including the Great North Run, a half marathon of just over 13 miles on 5th October 2008. I hope to run in total further than a marathon in official regulated events. All entry fees, including that for the Great North Run, will be paid by me personally so that ALL sponsorship received goes to the RSPB.

My first official run is going to be the Durham University Fun Run, tomorrow, Saturday 9th February. It'll be a  good race to gently introduce me  to race conditions and to give me some idea as to how my training so far is going.

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: RSPB will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

Please sponsor me now!

Many thanks for your support.

I'd also like to thank Ged Shaw who's pledged to donate £50 if I complete the Great North Run in less than two hours.

I'd also like to thank everyone who has donated online so far and Archie, Allan, Dad, Jean, Maria W, Mo & Sarah, Damo & Shaunagh, Judith, Pat, Tommy, Karen S, Jillian & Joe and Neil T  for donating Offline.

Update Monday 11th February 2008

On Saturday 9th February I completed the Durham Charity Fun Run
http://www.teamdurham.com/index.php?page=287

I was very pleased with my time of 24.49 as I had an objective before the race to complete it in less than 25 minutes.

Update Friday 22nd February

I now definitely have a place for the Great North Run courtesy of the RSPB.

I have also applied for the North Tyneside 10K on 23rd March (Easter Sunday)
http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/leisure/sportsdevelopment/news.shtml?p_ID=19548

Update Thursday 6th March

I have also applied to do the world famous Nike Blaydon race on Monday 9th June.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/articles/2005/06/07/blaydon_race_feature.shtml

Update Sunday 9th March

I have now recovered from my toe injury and have posted a PB this morning for a 6 mile run of 51.39!

Update Thursday 20th March

Another PB, 51.12 last Wednesday night and 51.45 last night.

Looking forward to the North Tyneside 10K this weekend.

Update Monday 24th March

North Tyneside 10K completed in 53.24. Very pleased with that as it was very cold and the last two to three miles were straight into the wind. Am just getting the sand out of my nose and eyes now.

Official results - It took me over a minute to get to the start line. http://www.northtyneside.gov.uk/leisure/docs/NTC10KALL.pdf

Update Friday 18th April

Starting to get the hang of this. 4 PB's for the 6 miler on the bounce now and am down to 48.06. Looking forward to the Blyth Valley Transped 10K a week on Sunday and am aiming for a sub 50 minute time.

http://blythrunningclubxtra.mysite.orange.co.uk/page4.html

Update Monday 28th April

A good run yesterday, 48.42 by my watch although the official time was 49.01.
Not sure where the discrepancy comes from. Still a 10K PB though.
Full results below. I finished a creditable 244th of 397 finishers.

www.dur.ac.uk/a.n.robson/BV10k 2008 results.pdf

Update Monday 19th May

Have been suffering with a heavy cold all week so was glad to finish the Pier to Pier race in less than an hour. I managed 58.45 by my watch and 58.54 by the official timings. Found the first half OK but the second half absolutely shattering and just had no 'finish'

www.sunderlandstrollers.co.uk/p2p2008.txt

I have the Clive Cookson 10K on Wednesday night so am hoping for a better performance then.

Update Thursday 22nd May

Finished the Clive Cookson 10K in 48.45 by my watch. Was very hard but am just about through the worst of this cold and should start improving again soon.
Official time was 49.00 so I have a new official 10K PB!

http://www.nspoly.co.uk/Clive%20Cookson%202008/Cookson%2010K%2008.html

Have received my race number for the Blaydon race and entered the Newton Aycliffe 10K on Sunday 15th June.

Update Tuesday 17th June

Finished the Blaydon race in 46.02 by my watch but official time was 46.14 and 899th of 3435 finishers which I'm overjoyed with.

http://videos.icnetwork.co.uk/nejournal/blaydon2.pdf

Also finished the Newton Aycliffe 10K with an unofficial PB of 47.36. Official result will be posted here as soon as I know it.

Update Monday 23rd June

Official result for Newton Aycliffe 10K was 47.50, 132nd of 263 finishers

http://www.ukresults.net/2008/aycliffe10k.html

I have entered further 10K races at Croft on July 9th and Darlington on August 10th and hope to complete the Beamish Beat The Tram 10K this Sunday 29th if I can get a place on the day.

Traning is going well and I'm regularly completing a 8.5 mile circuit.

I've also obtained a GPS tracking device so I can more accurately gauge distance and speed.

Update Saturday 5th July

Official Beamish results are at
http://www.beamish.org.uk/documents/200810kresults.xls
49.43 and 82nd of 180 finishers - It was really tough. Next up is Croft on Wednesday night. 3 laps of the famous motor circuit.

Many thanks to everyone who has sponsored me so far and helped me raise my initial target of £300. I'm now going to up the target to £500.

Update Monday 10th August

I have been back from my holidays for a week now, so a long overdue update. First I got a PB at Croft. http://www.dur.ac.uk/a.n.robson/pitstop2008.pdf 46.13 and 50th of 91 finishers.

Straight after my holiday (got back on Sunday, race on Tuesday night) I had the Morpeth 10K which I found very hard after a couple of weeks out of training. I ran 49.17 and finished 218th of 313 finishers.
http://www.race-results.co.uk/results/2008/mor10k08.htm

Yesterday I did the Darlington 10K, which was a much better race especially the first half. It was also a big field which is good preperation. 48.11 and 366th of 958 finishers. (155th of 308 in my category).
http://www.ukresults.net/2008/darl10k.html

Update Friday 12th September

OK a few updates, first three weeks on Sunday, Gulp!

I finished races of 5K at Newcastle Exhibition park, 10K (and the rest) at Jarrow and 10K again at Hetton. I was very pleased with all times. I will now be putting race details and results up here as it gives many more details

http://www.fetcheveryone.com/userprofile.php?id=19490&show=races

I have also regularly now been running in excess of 10 miles and now have an 11 mile PB of 87.01 which I was very pleased with, given how hilly Durham is.

If anyone is interested, the 11 mile route that we (Neil, Alex and I) are currently running is here

http://walkjogrun.net/routes/current_route.cfm?rid=55FF5EA4-D0FA-0FAB-892C0E84C6F86829&success=2

Update Saturday 27th Sepember

I have completed 10K races at Billingham and Middlesbrough both with PB's the latter an official chip time of 44.17. Steve Cram ran the same race and was only 3 minutes faster. Full details at the above fetcheveryone link.

I did an 11 mile run on Wednesday night but that will now probably be my last run before the Great North Run as I have picked up a cold.

I have reached my second target of £500 which is a mind boggling achievement. Thanks so much to everyone who has donated.

I will be in pen C for the Great North Run (elite athletes in A, Club runners in B, then us) so am hopeful of a good time. I'm aiming for between 1.40 and 1.45 which considering my initial aim was just to beat 2 hours I think is pretty good.

I have now completed 16 official races with a total mileage of approx 92 miles!I think I've run 3 or 4 times that in training for the event.  I feel as fit as I ever have done and am confident and ready to go.

I will be in the New Inn from about 3pm on the afternoon of Sunday 5th October if anyone wants to pop in and buy me a beer!

Update Monday 6th October

Done! Finished in 1.46.53 so didn't really get close to my target of 1.40, but I found it very hard indeed. I remember now why I haven't done it for 19 years...
The first half was fine, but with the benefit of hindsight was too fast - I went through 10K in 47.14 which I think is my 4th or 5th best ever 10K time, and from then on it was downhill, metaphorically if not literally. Second half was correspondingly slow. 20K time was 1.41, so a race of two halves. Many thanks to everyone who has already sponsored me, this page will remain open to donations until 5th January to give me the best possible chance of raising as much as possible.