Jane Ring
Neil's London Marathon 2022 page
Fundraising for LOOK UK
Story
Hi everyone!
I am writing this to say a huge thank you to all the generous sponsorships you gave to me on behalf of LOOK UK to take on the challenge of the London Marathon. We smashed the fundraising target and as a small charity I know the good folks at LOOK are very grateful for every penny raised.
Throughout the last 6 months of training I used your donations as motivation to get out and train, I didn’t want to let anybody down by not giving it my best effort and commitment. So a combination of this and a personal promise to myself got me to the finish line of what was an absolutely amazing experience!
The race itself started for me at 10.05am from Greenwich park, I set off alongside my two brother-in-laws Dougal and Fred and Fred’s brother Pat. Fred and I ran alongside each other until over half way where the tough miles began to kick in. When we passed the Cutty Sark the crowd noise was incredible and it really made the spine tingle!
The approach to Tower Bridge was where my family were waiting. I was looking out for them along the way and then I spotted the LOOK banner, but to be fair I heard them too! After the bridge was a long 8 mile slog around Canary Wharf and the Docklands so when i got to Limehouse (mile 21) and the second prearranged spot for family to be I was in great need of a pick me up. I thought I’d missed them when an even bigger cheer than the first time gave me a huge boost, I felt on top of the world then as it was at that moment that I knew I was going to complete a marathon for the first time. I don’t know if it was the adrenaline or the haribo sweets I was scoffing but I feel like I flew over the last 5 miles!
I crossed the finish line with a time of 3hrs 59mins 06secs a time I was over the moon with!
After collecting my medal and goody bag I slowly made my way over to where the guys from LOOK had set up camp, I was greeted with a huge cheer, hugs and food and drink. I also had a much needed leg massage, thanks Andrea!
Quite a few of you that sponsored me have done this same event and have given me great advice and tips , one thing you all had in common was to enjoy it. I believe that I couldn’t have enjoyed it more and I put that down to completing the training, my family, my fellow LOOK runners, the crowd on the day and the knowledge that none of you lot would get the opportunity to ask for your money back!
Once again a huge thank you to all of you from me and LOOK UK for giving me a real bucket list experience, who knows maybe one of you will be running the London marathon one day.
Neil
13229th placed “athlete”
A bit about the charity:
Chloe and Jane went to a wellbeing weekend run by LOOK UK 4 years ago. It was brilliant for Chloe's confidence and it was there she met Andrea, her mentor, who is also Deafblind. Andrea has helped Chloe deal with the move to senior school, lock down and navigating the world when you have very little vision and find accessing busy, noisy environments challenging. Andrea has offered solutions, shared her own challenges with Chloe and shown her that there is always a way round the issues she faces everyday.
LOOK UK is a small but mighty charity that makes a real difference to the children, young people and families that they support.
To find out more about what they do please follow this link: https://www.look-uk.org/about-look/
LOOK UK have helped the Ring family so much. We have found friendship, work and a community where we feel welcome and supported.
This is my first marathon and I only took up running in Lockdown. It will be a challenge but I am determined to get to the finishing line.
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
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