Welcome to Robbie, Stu and Scott's official fundraising page. We have been inspired to undertake 3 tough running challenges, each one longer and more gruelling than the last.

Over the past 12 months, each of us have been close to people who have suffered from Cancer.

A close friend and colleague to many of us, Dave Searle sadly passed away earlier this year and will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

Stu's brother Tony, at the age of 37 was diagnosed with Stomach Cancer last year. After chemotherapy treatment and a major operation, he is now doing brilliantly and is even back at work.

So, by doing our 3 challenges, we hope to raise some cash for Macmillan and in doing so, help to care for and support people suffering from all types of Cancer.

What we're doing and when....

Sunday 8th March 09:  Gloucester 20. This is a 20 mile flatish run in Gloucester.

Sunday 26th April 09:   Stratford (Rotary Shakespeare) Marathon. 26 miles.

Saturday 6th June:        Dartmoor Discovery Ultra Marathon. 32 Very hilly miles.

Entry into the Ultra marathon is subject to finishing the Stratford marathon in 4 and a half hours or less.

Now thats a lot of miles, so please give generously and we will do our very best to complete the runs in a quick a time as possible!

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor us: Macmillan Cancer Support gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

Thanks for your support!!

****Gloucester 20 in the bag*******

Well, the first race is finally over. Unfortunately Scott couldn't run as he had a throat infection, but myself and Robbie had a successful day. We beat our target time of 3 hours by a few minutes (2:53 and 2:57 respectively). The weather varied between extremely unpleasant to just a bit grim, during the event. At one point we had to shield our faces as we were battered with icy rain and howling wind. Thank god that didn't last very long, but every time we started to dry out, the rain would come down again. Oh well, all part of the 'fun'. We finished with achey legs and wondering how the heck we are going to run 26 and then 32 miles in a couple of months time! I think we may need to step up the training and put in a bit of gym work. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far and I promise to write an update after each event so watch this space! Cheers, Stuart.

******Training has peaked before Marathon. Good Friday******

Our training has come along nicely we think, and today was our last big run before the Stratford Marathon. We did 19 miles which followed a 21 miler last Saturday. Scott quite literally went the extra mile this week, and actually did 11 miles last night before the 19 this morning! Me and Robbie can't decide whether that's amazing or stupid!. Impressive, however you look at it. Today Robbie was sporting his new 'Skins' which are basically expensive tights - but they sure seemed to work. He was off like a whippet ,and all me and Scott saw all morning was his back! Maybe we all need a pair! We will now be going a bit steadier for the next 2 weeks as we have to taper off to make sure we have the energy for the 26th.  Bring it on!!!

More soon....Stu.

*****We survive run number 2 - Stratford Marathon*******

 Cor, what a tough run! For one reason or another, the Stratford marathon turned about to be a real test for the three of us.

Having camped the previous night in a nearby camp-site, Robbie and myself were questioning the decision to spend the night under canvas. It was so cold, there was ice forming on the inside of the outer flysheet and we both shivered all night and got precious little sleep.

We met Scott at the start line who had driven up that morning after a 5am wake up call. Fortunately the anticipation (or fear) of the run didn't allow any feelings of tiredness and we chatted cheerfully, thankful that the sun had come out and the location was pleasant, on the banks of the river.

The starting gun went off and we set off in standard style, shuffling slowly to the start line as we were herded through the narrow street to the cheers of the supporters. We were finally under way, all three of us together, after all our hard training.

The desired target for all of us was 4 hours. During our training runs, Scott had even suggested that we could do a 3:50, which to be honest, seemed quite achievable as our training runs were going well and we were including plenty of hills to make us stronger and improve our endurance. So the first few miles passed, I kept an eye on my GPS watch, making sure we were keeping to approximately 9 min/miles. Everyone was comfortable until without warning, Robbie blew up. This was at about 14 miles. Only another 12 miles to go then! He was suffering badly from the heat as it had turned into a very warm day. This couldn't be right. We'd trained upto 21 miles on a hilly course. How could Robbie be suffering like this at this early stage? Well, we talked about it, we discussed our options as we plodded along. We were a team. We'd conceived this whole 3-run fandango together, we'd trained together, we'd worked together to get us all to this point, so what should we do??

That's right, we left him.

So as me and Scott trotted on ahead, shouting back nougats of advice like 'just keep going mate', we hoped that Robbie was going to be OK and wondered if this wasn't just some big ruse to get out of doing the Dartmoor run in June.

So, with guilt weighing us down, Scott and myself tried to increase our pace to make up for a slow mile, the GPS was showing we had averaged 9:07/mile. Now, to finish in sub 4 hours, we needed to be 9:09/mile pace or faster, so we were very borderline already.

Anyway, at the 16 mile marker, I started to feel very heavy in the legs and all my 'spring' had deserted me. Everyone expects to be shattered towards the end of a marathon, but this was just so early. Was it the heat or the bad night in the tent? Whatever, I started to feel rubbish and the enjoyment factor had all but disappeared. Scott was encouraging as always, so it was difficult to gauge how he was feeling. I think it would be fair to say that Scott trains harder than myself and Robbie so he certainly deserved to be going stronger than us, and showed no outward signs of 'weakening'. To cut a long story short, the last 6 miles or so was just a painful blur as we trudged up an arrow-straight cyclepath under, what felt like, a blazing sun. I blindly followed a few feet behind Scott, keeping an eye on the GPS which we hadn't managed to budge from 9:07/mile. A few calculations told me that we should make our 4 hour target. Just. As we came into the pleasant park by the river, we turned a corner and headed up the last 100 meters of spectator lined course. Once we heard our names over the PA, we both broke into a full-on sprint trying to pip the other to the post, running on nothing more than adrenaline. We crossed the line and stopped, stooped over, hands on knees, panting at the grass. The ring of spectators were then treated to a lovely image of Scott chucking up fizzy white fluid onto the grass in front of him. Brilliant! I'd made him sick! Sorry mate!

The final sprint certainly took it's toll and I collapsed next to my folks who had come up to see us. I just had to lie down and close my eyes. The nausea was horrible! We all wandered over to the edge of the finish straight, where I saw Robbie sprint across the finishing line before I laid back and closed my eyes again.

Our final times were not as good as we wanted but we all gave it everything. Robbie had a 4:30:17, and Scott and myself had a 3:59:52. Now that was close! For whatever reasons, we had struggled on the day and we know we'll need to up our game considerably if we're to finish the final Dartmoor run in daylight hours!

If anyone is still reading, thanks for all your support and if you haven't sponsored us yet, now is the time. This is when things get really interesting....

Stu.

PS. For anyone considering doing this run, we thoroughly recommend it. There was plenty of marshals, brilliant signposting and more drink and sponge stations than you could possibly want. Good crowd support too.

~~~~Discovering Dartmoor~~~~~~

FOR SALE: 3 X Running gear. Everything needed to get started in running. May swap for wheelchairs.

Phew, thank god that's over!

As you can imagine, leading up to a big event, we were eagerly watching the weather hoping for a cooler weekend than the previous one which reached the high 20's. That temperature would have certainly made this run a lot harder, but did it really have to go quite so far in the other direction?

Off we went from work on Friday night, down to Dartmoor. We were booked into a bunkhouse for the Friday night. As we left it so late to book our accommodation, we were left with a choice of the bunkhouse at the Plume of Feathers pub, or camping. After our chilly night under canvas at the Stratford marathon 6 weeks earlier, we decided camping was not an option. Instead of cold, we got a rather warm, snug dorm which the 4 of us shared with 6 others. Our 4^th member of the team was Shaun who had kindly offered to act as support crew and videographer. To say we slept well would be a fib as sleeping in a small room of 10 people, each rustling and getting up to the loo throughout the night, takes a bit of getting used to. However, we made it down to breakfast and met the first self proclaimed legend of the weekend. Jim was 70 + years old and had been hitting the sherberts big style the night before. “You can't run this race sober” was his motto and by the look of him, sober he certainly wasn't. However, he was a proper character and had been granted special permission to set off an hour earlier at 08:30 along with a couple of his friends. A veteran of many ultra marathons, we believed he would finish this one (one year he had to be pulled out of the river but that's another story).

So as we sat and listened to Jim, Raph who had joined us as chief stills photographer, snapped away at just about everything in the pub dining area. I think he got an accurate photo record of every inch of that pub – anyone would think he'd never been to the countryside before (which isn't far off the truth as it happens, eh Raph?). We all drunk our tea and as someone commented, we looked like condemned men, which is basically how we felt.

Nine thirty came and we all set off – Shaun and Raph some distance ahead to capture the action. It felt a bit odd to start with as we forced ourselves to run at a very steady pace, knowing that even though we could have run at 8 min 30 pace, that would have been suicidal as we would need all our energies for later. As anyone who knows Dartmoor will know, it is at best undulating. The first major hill came at about 5 miles and carried on until about 6.5 – a definite walker! No doubt the top runners would have ran it, but everyone around us was reduced to a walk and even then we were puffing quite hard.

And then, basically, we finished.

Yes there was 25 miles I haven't described, but that would bore everyone rigid. All I remember was the rain that started at mile 7, just kept on coming for the rest of the day (albeit a 10 min let-up in the middle). The rain came down, the hills came at us with depressing frequency with every bend we passed. Shaun flashed past on his push bike, equally miserable as us. Raph was there every few miles shooting from the cover of his Polo like a demented paparazzi (sorry Raph!). Somewhere I had a soggy jam sandwich. The side of the roads were gushing with torrents of water and I for one was shivering as I ran – a first in my running 'career'. I didn't look at my watch, I couldn't be bothered with energy gels and I hardly drank. Misery enveloped us like a big, wet, dartmoor shaped soggy blanket.  

Pay back time for Robbie.

For anyone who read the previous blog about the Stratford Marathon, you will know about how Scott and myself 'abandoned' poor Robbie at 14 miles. Well they say an Elephant never forgets and every dog has its day. Well this elephant-dog's day was today! Sorry mate! :-) Somewhere in the last third of the race, I suffered a catastrophic blow out. An event so distastrous, it handed victory to Robbie on a plate complete with napkin and cutlery. My lace came undone. With fingers that hadn't worked or moved for the past god knows how many hours due to numbness, Scott had to tie my laces for me. How humiliating – but thanks a lot mate! And that's when Robbie's turbo kicked in. Sensing victory, he got his head down and gradually pulled away from us. Scott and me were plodding at full steam (10:30min/mile pace!) and were stuck in that painful place where everything hurts and nothing matters except finishing. Speeding up just wasn't an option.

As we topped the final hill and trotted (no sprint finishes this time) towards the finish, Scott's wife – Ro, young son - Alfie and Step Dad, were the sole supporters (that I noticed) cheering like mad for us as we crossed the line. Shaun was there filming, Raph was clicking away as we were enveloped by the warm competitors tent, handed a blanket and plied with sandwiches, tea and cake. I sat there shivering, listening to other runners chirpily chat about their run as I silently slipped into a hypothermic coma. Well, nearly.

As for Jim, well he gallantly had to pull out at Ashburton, 13 miles into the race. At least he didn't fall into the river this time!

If you're still reading, thanks to everyone again who has generously donated money to Macmillan – we've been amazed by how much has been raised. Brilliant!

Stu.

PS. We met so many runners who had done so many amazingly hard runs, when the suffering of this race fades, we may even pick up the gauntlet and do something tougher. “Comrades” 56miler anyone? Mmm, maybe not.

PPS. Our official race times were Robbie – 5hrs 39mins. Scott and myself – 5Hrs 44mins.

There were 118 finishers out of 175 who entered.

Raph's photos can be seen here:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Minus1Kidney/090606DartmoorDiscovery2009RobScotStu?authkey=Gv1sRgCOTvpOuMwtXMmwE&feat=email#