I have always wanted to run a marathon.  For me, its the ultimate running goal.  26.2 miles is a seriously long way.  After watching a lot of friends complete the Virgin London Marathon in 2010 (and having played with the idea for about 4 years) I have finally entered one.  The furthest I have run before is 16 miles, so this is a huge challenge for me: If I can make it to the finish line, in one piece, I'll be happy.  If I can do that in under 4 hours 30 mins, I'll be ecstatic.

 

I will be updating my page as much as possible, but you can follow my training here at Dailymile.  The races I'm entered for are as follows:

26-09-10:  Run To The Beat Half Marathon - (13.1 miles) : TIME: 2:16

20-02-11: Race Your Pace Half Marathon - (13.1 miles) : TIME: 2:00:29 - WOO!

06-03-11: Silverstone Half Marathon - (13.1 miles) : TIME: 1:59:40 - SUB 2! :)

13-03-11: Surrey Spitfire 20 - (20 miles) : TIME: 3:20:36

27-03-11: Wholefoods Kingston Breakfast Run - (16 miles) : TIME: 2:32:10

10-04-11: Brighton Marathon - (26.2 miles)

 

Running for charity is an even bigger commitment. 

 

After seeing what Shooting Star Children's Hospice are doing first-hand, I knew I wanted to help, as they receive no other funding whatsoever aside from charitable donations.  Before I met Zoe's mum, Britt, I thought hospices were places where people go to die when the medical profession were unable to do any more.  Shooting Star could not be more different; it is a place centered around fun and activities for the child in a safe and medically equiped environment, as well as offering invaluable support and respite for parents of those children who have life-threatening or life-limiting conditions.  It is a very positive place, who's tagline is absolutely true: Enhancing quality of life, when every moment counts. 

 

Shooting Star also has an outreach support programme where nurses and carers are able to visit families in their own homes, essential support when dealing with life-threatening or life-limiting conditions.  In the heart-breaking situation when a child is terminally ill, Shooting Star help to make the child as physically comfortable as possible and provide a number of complimentary therapies, for both the child and the families, as well as emotional support and counselling.  After seeing a close friend lose her baby, and the effect it has on a family to lose a child, I can see how services such as counselling are absolutely invaluable and I wish I'd known about the help available from the charity at the time.

I hope to make more people aware of Shooting Star Children's Hospice, the services it provides and how to gain access to it,  should someone, their friends or family be unfortunate enough to find themselves in such a difficult time, when they need it most.

I appreciate raising money in such cash-strapped times is hard but if you can spare anything (one less bottle of wine this week?!) I will be so grateful and it sincerely WILL make such a difference to this charity and the families helped out by them.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.