On Sunday, July 13th, I will be competing in Ironman Switzerland.
So at 7:00am, as you are still snoozing in bed, I will be entering the waters of Lake Zurich to take on a 3.8km swim, followed by a 180km bike ride round the surrounding hills before donning my running shoes and finishing off with a full marathon.
And yes.........it's gonna hurt!!
To see a short trailer about the event follow ths link:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GYrvH03yQTA

For those of you who would like to know more about the charity I'm raising money for, and why I'm doing it, please read on. For those of you who can't be bothered click on the link above and sponsor me now!! 

Ashgate Croft Special School caters for children with severe learning difficulties. My niece, Yvette, has attended this school for a number of years, as she has Severe Learning Disability. In order to understand a bit better how this affects her, I asked my sister to write a few words explaining: 
"Yvette is 18, but has a development age of about 3. This leaves her incredibly vunerable in today's society and prevents her from doing anything that a normal 18 year old would do. She will never be able to work and it is unlikely that she will be able to live without a full-time carer. Imagine a 3 year old toddler in age 18 size.....you can't leave them standing outside a shop whilst you pop in and get something, you need babysitters each time you go out at night, they have enough understanding to want to do things for themselves but aren't always able to do it, she can't pick out her own clothes, get herself dressed, prepare meals for herself, etc.... If you imagine all the 'personal' things that an 18 yr old has to do, shaving, showering, etc.... these all have to be done for her as she doesn't understand.
Yvette's main schooling is now centred around 'independent living' to try and develop her skills in this area as much as possible. Children like Yvette cannot learn from a white board or reading instructions in a book. They need to experience the actual event in the correct environment and repeat it hundreds of times until they perform it automatically. For people with no experience of special needs children, it can be hard to understand why you would get so excited about a child opening a drawer or picking up a sock to put in a washing machine. This can be the culmination of months of hard work by their parents and staff at the school.
There is no suggestion that Yvette will not have full longevity of life, so it is essential that she learns thse basic skills as we won't always be around to look after her"
 
The money I am raising is going towards building and furnishing an 'independent living skills' unit at the school, where the children can spend prolonged periods of time in a safe environment, practicing these everyday skills that we all take for granted.

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Ashgate Croft Special School 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.

I trust that you will agree this is indeed a worthy cause, and I hope you will dig deep to sponsor me in my Swiss challenge.

If you want to follow the ups and downs of my training, follow this link:
http://www.attackpoint.org/weeklyactivity.jsp/user_3235

Mike Jubb