Helllooo! I’m Steve!

I do love a good challenge, but these generally involve hiking and mountains…not often running!

For those who haven’t had the pleasure of hearing me moan about my legs recently, you may not realise that for the past 4 months or so I have been quietly training away for probably one of my more intimidating challenges: running my first marathon!

This will be the Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon next Sunday on the 12th May.

This page is definitely a bit late going up, but I would love to turn some of those hard-fought miles into money for a great cause and that pressure will definitely give me extra encouragement to get over that finish line in Leeds!

To an extent, a big part of this challenge has just been the gruelling nature of Marathon running training which, I’m not going to lie, has been a real struggle! Having to get up every weekend for a “short” …16km is short now… run on a Saturday, just to wake up the next morning and have to go running twice that distance again in the rain has been rough at times. Trying to juggle the four runs a week (as much as I could!) during those dark winter nights between a full-time job, life commitments and fitting in a new relationship without boring her to death with my running chat has been hard and at times a real mental challenge to get out there. But I’ve kept going with it and the training has certainly been paying off slowly.

So the cause? Wenlo RDA (Registered Charity Number: 1191961)

Wenlo RDA is a local Riding for the Disabled Association group which I’ve watched be such a big part of my sister Kirsty’s life over the years. The difference that this organisation makes to people with disabilities really can’t be overstated, allowing them to be part of an accepting community and develop their confidence, fitness and skills through sport. And the only way these organisations across the country can keep going supporting people of all ages with disabilities is the volunteering and donations to fund the necessary equipment and training.

Horse riding for Kirsty has become such a big passion and has been a place where she has managed to develop and overcome her physical challenges when she was young and develop her confidence in a place where she is properly accepted as she has grown up and can get truly excited about competing. I’m never a prouder brother than when I get to watch her excitement at competing in competitions like the RDA Nationals or Special Olympics, or even just when she confidently controls the horses around in the yard telling me an endless stream of horse facts. So the best person to tell you about the cause is my awesome sister Kirsty:

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I started to ride at Wenlo Riding for the disabled (RDA) based in Normanton-on-Soar near Loughborough with Dawn Whitmore-Kirby in 1999 at the age of 5. During this time the RDA and Dawn has helped me to become more confident and to understand that my ability is greater than my disability. They offer people of all ages, with a huge range of disabilities, the opportunity to improve their coordination and balance by riding or carriage driving. I am now severely sighted but this didn’t stop me from being able to compete in different RDA Competitions.

During the Covid pandemic I was able to spend time with the horses which helped me when I was feeling very scared and struggled with understanding my own emotions. The RDA relies heavily on volunteers and fund-raising activities to help with the daily running of the yard. The RDA Group provides horse riding sessions, horse care & stable management opportunities, endurance riding but for me it is a place that I can go and just be me.

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So please donate what you can so that others can continue to get similar opportunities that my sister has!

And if you want to see progress and my broken body cross that finish line – I’ll add some updates to @stevelaing16 on Instagram.