Ok So why am I doing this?

a/ cos I'm mad

b/ cos I enjoy the pain

c/ cos I enjoy being beaten by people twice my age running in half the time

or

d/ All the above.

Seriously though,

I'm running the London 10k as a prelude to the Great North later this year and I am running on behalf of RABI, which is a charity AGCO supports.

RABI ( Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution) supports members of the farming community who are facing need, hardship or distress. RABI was founded in 1860 and has an unbroken history of providing both long term care and emergency help.

RABI is 150 years old this year and as such is entering 150 runners in to the London 10k. The London 10k has around 27,000 entries and is a brilliant route starting at Hyde Park Corner, passing St James Palace, Trafalgar Square, St Pauls Cathedral before coming down the Embankment, past the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and finally finishing at the House of Guards!

I want to put in a reasonable time, certainly sub one hour, and over the coming weeks will keep you updated with my training and a better indication of timing.

As you can see it's quite a trek and is for a great cause so your sponsorship is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for visiting.

Gary

Update 4th May

So after a few weeks of being a lazy lard ass this weekend was time for me to start getting back in to the swing of things. Sunday was a 4.5 miles jog around the local villages, Monday I dragged Jo (my better half) out in the rain and hail for an 11 mile bike ride and this evening I managed another 4 mile jog.

It all sounds a lot and believe me my muscles right now would agree, but if I'm to get my speed up to 45 mins for 10k then I need to get fit again!

Keep the money rolling in and I'm sure it will keep me motivated!

Thanks, Gary

Update 10th May

Ok last week was a good start. After Monday's bike ride I managed a 4 mile jog on Tuesday.

Wednesday was an education! I decided do to do 2k warm up followed by 1km at race pace (4.5mins), 1/2km recovery and another 1km race pace before a 1km slow cool down. - Well I managed about 1/4km at race pace - Four and a half minutes for a km is very fast!!

Thursday - 5km slow run before a rest on Friday. Saturday morning was lovely - windy, 6 1/2 degrees and raining!! But I still managed to do 10km in 60 minutes - only 15 mins to shave off before race day!! Ouch

Sunday was a rest day after my 10km on Saturday. Monday 10th has been a 5miler (8km) in 45 mins.

The next few weeks will be aimed at getting the miles under the belt to get the fitness levels up. Then I can aim to improve the speed.

Thanks for visiting and a BIG Thank You to everyone donating.