Having reached my fortieth birthday, I decided to challenge myself to an event that I had never previously done and something that would push the limits a bit, at the same time raise some money for the charity ‘Cash for Kids’.  After having so many ideas and suggestions, I have picked one event for each decade I have been on this planet, hence the ‘4 for 40 Challenge’.  To add a little extra to the challenge, all will be completed within a 4 month period.  The events will be:

Edinburgh Marathon 31 May 2009

I had been training hard for this one hoping to finish in a respectable time of under 4 hours, however, having picked up an ankle injury which stopped training for a couple of months I’ll be glad just to finish.

Coast to Coast Cycle 4 July 2009

Being a keen cyclist, I kind of already knew I was capable of doing the coast-to-coast route form Cumbria to the North East (approx 130-140 mile) over 2 or 3 days, so to make it more of a challenge I’ve decided to try and do it on one day in less than 12 hours. 

Ben Nevis Climb  1 August 2009

As I will have run and cycled, the next challenge was to go upward and as Ben Nevis is the highest Britain has to offer, then it had to be climbed.  As I am a novice at this type of thing, I’ve not set myself a target, therefore to get up and down in one day and in one piece will be enough.

Great North Swim  13 September 2009

I’ve never swam in open water and this one mile swim at Lake Windermere will present a number of challenges in itself, namely; the swim; the cold; not having lines or sides like the pools; not being able to see properly and most scarily, not knowing what’s beneath me.  I’m not the fastest swimmer but hoping to finish this one in less than 40 minutes.

Please sponsor me for these events, a little (or lot) for each event will increase my motivation for each one especially if you stipulate that I need to achieve a target within an event, or if you prefer, one sponsor for completion of all events.