Story
So I have exceeded the £10,000 target and I am still expecting further sponsorship. Thank you all for immense generousity. I will let you know the final total at the end of June
Paul
It gives me great personal pleasure to announce that I finished the London Marathon in 4 hours, 4 minutes and 54 seconds, having run the whole distance. Sadly – along with Gordon Ramsey - I did not come within my planned time of 4 hours, the heat and the slower runners put pay to that attempt but it leaves me something to achieve on a future occasion.
To date, including Gift Aid, I have raised well in excess of £9,000 from over 150 sponsors and I hope to exceed my £10K target by the end of June. Your generosity has been overwhelming.
MSRC is a wonderful charity and many people benefit from their work. The support given by the charity and their army of helpers on Sunday was wonderful and they deserve every penny they can get for their effort during this event and their year round work.
Last week, I was honoured to attend a dinner attended by guest Speaker Alistair Hignell. Alistair played rugby for England, first-class cricket for Gloucestershire and then went on to commentate for the BBC until his own Multiple Sclerosis - diagnosed in 1999 - forced his premature retirement last year at the age of only 52! Alistair is a complete inspiration to all and is a public voice for the 85,000 MS sufferers in the . I met Alistair again on Sunday as he insisted on standing (with immense difficulty) to congratulate every MSRC runner who finished theMarathon. For me to run 26 miles and then get on with my life is a small challenge compared to the suffering which is endured daily by those afflicted with MS, so your generosity has really helped a worthy cause.
Thank you again for that generosity and for helping me to achieve my challenge during this period so regularly highlighted by bad news. Thank you also to all of you who took such an interest in the run and for those of you who came to London to join the million plus supporters who lined the route, making this one of the most memorable, agonising but fulfilling days of my life.
I may be back to run on a future occasion, so please forgive me if I ask you to donate again, but you know it is for a worthwhile cause and your donation is a small price to pay to compensate for the hours of training required to complete the course.
You are still able to sponsor me using this site untel the end of June, so if you have not already done so, please give generously?
21/4/09
Well, I am now only 5 days away from the big run and eating like a horse, drinking lots of water and sleeping as much as I can. All of the training runs are behind me and it is now all down to me on the day.
I am well on to achieve my £10,000 target and now hope to exceed it, so I thank alll of you who have sponsored me to date and those who still wish to sponsor me.
If you are coming to watch, my run number is 47542 and I hope to come in about 4 -4.15 , so crossing the line at 1.45 - 2.00.
If you are really keen, you can text the word ‘RUN’ to 83040 andAdidas will connect you to their WAP mobile tracking service, which will tell you the times that I run past each 5k stage.
Jackie will be coming, so if you want to link up with her and the family, let me know?
Wish me luck and I hope it will not be this warmJ
Paul
Well friends, this is the big one. At 50 I have agreed to run my firstLondon Marathon on the 26th April! The decision to run again will be based on whether I can walk on the 27th.
Where better to run than in my home city of London and who better to run for than Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre (MSRC). There are 107 of us in the team and between us, we are hoping to beat last years’ wonderful fund raising achievement of £328,468! In this financially challenged environment, meeting that target would be wonderful, but I hope that with your help, we can exceed it.
Those of you who sponsored my first half marathon two years ago may recall that I raised over £6,000. I hope to better that this time. Since then I have competed in at least three half marathons, many 10k's and two Grim Challenges, but 26 miles just seems like a very long way. So I hope that you will support me and help me raise much needed money for this wonderful cause. For further information on MSRC, just visit www.msrc.co.uk.
If you would like to sponsor me, but prefer not to do so through Just Giving, please email me and I will send you a form to complete.
If you would like to come and watch the race then I will let you have details of which ambulances I intend to stop at nearer the time:-)
Thank you in anticipation for your generosity and I look forward to reporting that I reached the finish line in a respectable time.
Regards
Paul