Never joke that you can beat someone’s time!

My sister completed a 10k run in our town in 2022. As a brother, I joked I could thrash her time next year. She laughed! I’m overweight and unfit, but I cannot let her have the last laugh. Never ran in my life, I have a year to train. I leave it until 5 months before to begin. Idiot, I know. However in that 5 months, it took someone who hated the thought of running to hating the thought of not running. Whilst I’m not the quickest, completing the 10k in 1:15, I beat her! 

What next?! 

I thought about upping the ante to maybe competing in a half marathon, but I don’t do things by half. So why not go big or go home. So, London marathon it is! It’s only 4 times (and a bit) more than the longest run I’ve done so far. 

I’ve got weight to lose, time to make up, and stamina to build. But raising for a charity close to my heart and seeing your donations coming in, that’s going to keep me going over the next 39 weeks. 

So why the Norfolk hospice? My uncle Stephen spent time here whilst he was unwell in 2017. Before this, I never truly knew what a hospice was and what they did. Whilst visiting him and my aunty Sharon who was by his side during his time here, what I witnessed from tapping house was beyond anything I could have expected. The staff made every single member of our family (and there’s a lot of us) all feel so welcome whilst visiting. They would do absolutely anything they could to make uncle Stephen and aunty Sharon as comfortable as possible, and the absolute compassion the staff showed us all on the day he passed away will always live with me. 

Since that time I’ve wanted to raise money for this AMAZING organisation. Before now, I’ve had nothing to offer. I wasn’t active, I have zero skills worth donating to. So now I’m “a runner”, why not donate to this chubby small man trying to run across London? 

I plan to post regular updates on my progress over the next 39 weeks! Please, donate what you can, little or large. And if you can, please make your way to London in April 2024 to cheer me on along the route. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need the energy! 

Thank you in advance for reading my essay, and donating.