Cold, windy, wet, muddy, slippery, demanding and strength sapping, are some of the words that could describe The Grizzly Run which really does go cross country as well as running along shingle beaches for a distance of about 20 miles.  Knowing all this, why have I volunteered myself!

I primarily decided to run for three reasons; one is the Sanctuary needed someone to do it to raise awareness and hopefully some money, secondly I have always tinkered with the idea of running the Grizzly and this opportunity seems to have presented itself in several ways to a point where I finally couldn’t say no, and thirdly, having visited Egypt and written about my experiences there I realise this would be an opportunity to perhaps put something back, more than just working for the Sanctuary but raising awareness.  I will also be running for our Sanctuary from Suffering Campaign being launched later this year and I feel that I will be walking the talk … trying to make a difference and doing some suffering of my own.

In terms of my preparation; I have not done any because I wasn’t aware that I was going to be running in the Grizzly, so I have 6 weeks to reach a level of fitness that will prevent me from dying on the course, which is adding to the challenge and hopefully with make people realise their sponsorship of my ordeal is well worth while, as this is not going to be an easy task or event for me to complete.

I have, thus far, having made a decision to actually complete, created my training plan and training will start on Saturday.  I have previously run in the Seaton Half Marathon and the Great North Run and even the Great South Run but I have not done any serious running for the last 18 months.  I guess, sometimes in life you just have to go for it and considering the suffering of the donkeys that many of our overseas projects endure, a few hours of pain myself seems a worthwhile exchange in the hope of raising some money and awareness of our work overseas.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll give you an update of how I’m getting on in preparing myself for the big run on my Donkey Sanctuary blog, so please do  go and visit at http://drupal.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/blog/13

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