May 2022

A week today I’ll be over halfway through (🙏🏼) the Pegasus Ultra Running Vale of Glamorgan Ultra. Delayed and deferred three times since my original plan to run it in 2020. Why are you doing that? I hear you ask. Well, I’ll tell you why :

Lee, Nic, Andy, Roz and Scott. Friends and kindred spirits, each tragically no longer with us, each leaving behind young children who will sadly grow up without continued connection to these fabulous humans. I wanted to do something in their honour. I wanted to raise some money for a good cause. I settled on a set of Ultra Races. Vogum on June 4th is a 40 mile run along the beautiful Welsh Coastal Path, finishing in Penarth, where I first discovered running though school cross country. At the end of July I am running the Lakeland 50, 50 miles across the Fells of the Lake District.

My friends all died of different causes, three of them knew each other, but the two others lived on different continents and there was no connection other than me. So I selected Child Bereavement UK, a charity that helps young people process their grief and move forwards after parental loss. I think the guys would have approved.

Actually there was a connection between my 5 friends. They were fabulous company, life lovers and the kind of people that you always wanted to hangout with.

Lee : my band mate and best man. We met as shelf stackers in Lewisham in 1989. A rock legend and successful Creative Director. Passionate believer in the extra terrestrial and brilliant songwriter.

Andy : Lee’s housemate at Uni. Briefly our drummer and all round great guy. Wrote a globally renowned denim blog in the nineties and founded a MarTech business in the dotcom boom. Fellow connoisseur of stadium rock.

Nic : HK based expat lifer. Skater boy, rockstar and Asian ultra trail scene pioneer. Another Creative Director, blogger and all round fabulous person

Roz : Tea drinking, Man U obsessive sports reporter, journalist, undisputed King of the Malaysian football scene, renaissance man for our times. Roz and I were at Crystal Palace when Eric Cantona did his kung fu thing.

Scott : Sports obsessive, son of Philly, legend of the Round Rock little league scene. my boss at Unisys about 15 years ago. Work hard, play hard. Ring leader of an unforgettable bar crawl around Austin, Texas that led to one of the worst hangovers I have ever had.

I miss these guys. I have an 8 hour playlist crammed full of stuff they liked to help me along the path. Only Nic would have appreciated the running, the other 4 would have rolled their eyes and said ‘Chealie, what the fuck?’ Or something similar.

So this run is dedicated to my 5 friends, and anyone else who has lost a loved one in the past few years. We miss you all.

Carpe Diem.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/john-cheal

UPDATE MAY 2022

Last year ended up a complete write off again - but now events are back in full force. VOGUM '22 is ON and it's on June 4th.

Sadly in the meantime, two more good friends have passed away leaving children fatherless. So this run will now be dedicated to 5 dear friends and in support of a charity specifically set up to help bereaved children process their grief.

I'll post a short piece on each of Lee, Andy, Nic, Roz and Scott in the coming days.

If you donated before, thank you - this is an update in case you were wondering whether I was ever going to actually do the run. If you haven't donated and would like to, please support this really fabulous cause. 

UPDATE MARCH 2021

The 2020 event was delayed, then cancelled. It's re scheduled for 5th June 2021. 

In the mean time, my good friend Andy has passed away and left two boys, Theo and Felix. So now I'm running for three families.

THE WHY

Lee, Andy and Nic were friends of mine. All gone at around 50. 

They were awesome, gregarious, 'live life to the max' people. Between them, they leave six children behind without a father.

I wanted to do something in their honour, Nic was a keen ultra runner, Lee and Andy just would have found the idea ridiculous. 

I think they would approve of Child Bereavement UK and they'd want their kids to have somewhere to turn if they needed help. Please give generously.

Many of you will know I am a keen runner, what you maybe don't know is that long distance is my kryptonite and that this is a massive undertaking for me! so please don't think that this is a walk in the park. I'm hurting just thinking about it

THE EVENT SITE with details of the route et al in case you are interested !

https://www.pegasusultrarunning.com/the-vogum/