Story

Many pairs of running shoes, lots of brightly coloured reflective running kit, a state of the art GPS heart rate monitor(maybe?), Vaseline(!), God knows how many physio appointments, hundreds and hundreds of training miles and the mother of all training log spreadsheets. Not to mention ice baths, stretching, blisters, cod liver oil and pedicures (apparently!!)

Flipping heck! Not sure I fancy it so much having reread that first sentence! Anyway I'm committed (some say should be committed) now and just have to get it done.

Why? Are you insane? Have you looked in the mirror lately? You're not 21 anymore?....... Just some of the more positive questions/remarks so far..........and they're my best friends!

To paint a picture of why this challenge has come about..........

Imagine a special environment staffed by the most caring and compassionate people you could hope to come across as you spend your last few days slipping toward the inevitable end that terminal illness brings.

This place is the Sam Beare Hospice in Weybridge, where the mother in law (yes jokes acceptable as Mary liked a laugh but keep them clean please and give a little extra, especially if they're not that funny) spent her last few days. If everyone could spend their last few days in a place that treats people with such care and humility then we'd all fear that stage of our lives a little less.

Sam Beare is a hospice which operates from donations and other fund raising events, it is an AMAZING place and touched our family's life in April 2007.

All money will go straight to the Hospice so they can continue their fantastic work.

Please give as much as you can and also sign up for the Gift Aid which increases the amount received by the charity by up to 28%.

Much appreciated, Nick

Take a few minutes to read the updates below the following message, most recent at the top!............

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.

Update 8 – w/e 25/04 (It’s quite a long one so hope you’re sitting comfortably)

It’s official! I can’t get bloody comfortable! It’s 3.53am and if I had 30 minutes sleep so far I’d be surprised. Agony is too strong a word for it but I can’t lie in any position where my legs are comfortable.
Oh well, what else to do rather than start the final update.
Before I get into the day I’d like to once again thank everyone who has contributed to the cause. I hope you give yourself a pat on the back for making a difference to people’s lives. Families right now are going through terrible times as loved ones’ lives are coming to an end, the care that places like the Sam Beare Hospice provide makes this experience a little easier to bear.
It was just over 3 years that Sally, Catherine, Louise, Don and the rest of the family experienced what Sam Beare provide and it feels good to know that our little effort goes a small way towards making sure this can continue to be offered to families now and in the future.
So, what about marathon day?
Well, what an experience!!.... If a marathon makes or breaks you then I feel (despite the insomnia) that it’s done the former. I think I’m hooked. Is enjoyable a suitable adjective? Not sure, certainly parts were enjoyable, the support all round the course was amazing and for the first 18-20 miles I managed to take some of the atmosphere in. From 20 miles it really turned into a mental challenge and I just got my head down and grafted, there was a sense of the crowds but the noise seemed peripheral – slightly surreal then and certainly feels like that now – probably helped by the fact that I’m sitting on the toilet (lid down!) in the bathroom with the lights off typing away, don’t worry the Mac has a lit keypad – very cool but don’t get me started on that!
There were loads and loads of people everywhere, it didn’t really seem to thin out at any point which was good at the beginning, one of the last things I read going into the run was that the marathon is an exercise in restraint, when you can’t run any quicker because you’re boxed in from all sides then you have no choice but to be restrained. It got a little frustrating at times but probably helped in the end.
The first half was very steady, bit like at the Milton Keynes half if you read that update. Again it seemed that everybody was overtaking me for the first 10 miles but steady seems to work because from that point on it seemed to be my turn. The Garmin at this stage was a godsend, I kept thinking that I must be speeding up but the watch was telling me that actually my pace was fairly static so the others must’ve been slowing down. Bit like in Days of Thunder when Tom Cruise finally learns how to look after his tyres, half way through the race he gets a call from the pit lane telling him to slow down because he ripping through the field and Tom tells the crew that he’s not going any quicker everyone else is just slowing down– seen it??
Anyway I digress, Days of Thunder analogies….. Is this getting more surreal?
Highlight? Hearing “come on Sqarepants” screamed at someone behind me at about 20 miles! Either someone actually had squarepants on – unlikely! Or I had overtaken the legendary SpongeBob SquarePants – Yeeeeeeessssssssss! Not only had the pantomime horse been taken care of but S.B.S.P had also fallen by the wayside. Not bad for a first timer!
So once the final 6.2 miles had been taken care of the aftermath begins, and boy do the legs seize up quickly – within 10 strides I reckon. So in the time the last 3 miles were covered I made it about 600 yards to the meet and greet area where the rather emotional Mrs E was waiting. Poor Sally had been tearing around London all morning, communicating with the other supporters (thanks again to all those who made it up on the day, your support meant the world) and generally getting in a bit of a tizzy ever since the mile 1 where she waited with Don and the kids for 50 minutes to see me come through. Not sure how to feel about that length of time after 1 miles but as it turned out I’d got out of the park really quickly and had run passed them all on the wrong side of the road – dope!!
So, publicly, a massive thanks to the long suffering wife who puts up with a lot but always with a smile and enough enthusiasm for all 36,000 runners.
Lessons learned?
The training plan and the Garmin were worth their weight in gold. As it turned out stages of the training were harder than the marathon itself and the Garmin is a great bit of kit for maintaining a good pace, discipline and motivation.
1000 mile socks are an absolute must, once I started wearing them the blisters stopped overnight.
Cold baths. Brilliant for reducing pain.
Lots of exercise - excellent. You can eat what you want, guilt free!
Rubdowns. Couldn’t have done it without them, thank you Catherine. Went into the appointments walking like an old man and came out of them like a spring chicken! (maybe just a slightly younger old man then!)
And the power of the human spirit, there were hundreds of thousands of people out there yesterday. The atmosphere was incredible and so much good will come out of it for so many people – it’s truly humbling to have been part of it.
Once again thanks so much, if you’ve given thank you, if not and you fancy it, the page will be open for at least another month.
It’s going to be light soon so I guess I’d better call that a day for now – thanks for reading and speak soon.

That one was for you Mary, hope you were watching somewhere with a Gin & Tonic!
Nick

Update 7 – w/e 18/04

Hello
What a lovely weekend! Hope you were all able to enjoy it.
One week to go in the marathon countdown, the final run of any substance was chalked off this morning. A little 6 miler in glorious sunshine. It’s funny how training for a marathon changes one’s perception of runs. Six months ago a 6 miler would be a pretty serious run, now it’s a short training outing! Feels great to be thinking like this, I guess it won’t be too long after next Sunday until 6 miles feels like hard work again.
The training is pretty much out of the way, so what’s left? Well, a couple of gentle jogs, some ice baths, rub downs, good sensible eating and drinking not to mention plenty of rest (yeeeesssssss!)
It’s been a long journey to get to here. My training log started the week ending 18^th October shortly after getting the acceptance to run for the Sam Beare Hospice.
During that time over 660 miles have been covered. Running that far has burnt off more than 73,000 calories - the equivalent of a normal month’s energy intake! That’ll explain why the appetite resembles that of Giant Haystacks (or any other big bloke if 70’s/80’s wrestling wasn’t your thing) over the last few months, it’s been brilliant, massive portions, loads of snacking (some healthy honest Mum!) and 2 puddings - a sweet tooth seems to be a side effect of lots of running.
Several different outfits have been used, no huge caterpillars or Sponge Bob Squarepants but tights, shorts, skins, gloves, hats, fancy running socks, vests, t-shirts and of course the 2 pairs of running shoes (apparently you’ve got to alternate pairs, was that the best sales line ever??) have dealt with the varying weather conditions.
The Garmin GPS watch has been an absolute Godsend, I would hugely recommend getting one if you’re fancying some training!
Anyway, thanks again for all your support. At the risk of repeating myself again, it’s been really inspiring being involved in this effort to make as much as possible for the hospice and, I have to say, that inspiration has been like gold dust especially towards the end of the proper training cos at times it was actually quite hard!!
Speak soon
Nick

Update 6 – w/e 04/04 (actually w/e Tuesday 6^th April!)

Ola!
Greetings from Mallorca! Hope all is well with you, we’re here en famille to celebrate Mum and Dad’s 40^th wedding anniversary – having a lovely time!
The momentum on the Just Giving site is still with us, with gift aid our total is the right side of £4,700 – apologies for repeating myself but thank you all so much – we’re doing fantastically well and there’s still almost 3 weeks left until London!! So if you’ve yet to make a donation and fancy it?!.......You’ve all been incredibly positive with your comments too, thought there would’ve been more mickey taking or for that matter down right rudeness – not too late you know!
Am writing this as 5.25am in a rare moment of insomnia, you wouldn’t think that a 3h35 training run would lead to difficulty sleeping!
So that’s it, the final long run is in the bag, it was planned for Good Friday but the legs didn’t have it in them so it was postponed until yesterday which was the perfect day for it – cool, overcast with slight breeze – wouldn’t that be lovely on April 25^th?
It was a “kind of know where I’m going but don’t really know how far it is and how long it will take” type run. A lovely run along the seafront mixed with getting very lost around the streets of Palma - made for an interesting time with plenty of time spent on the feet. A tough run in parts too because of the really long straight segments that had to be negotiated. Two or three times, especially along the seafront, the route was disappearing over the horizon which of course didn’t appear to be getting any closer– quite a challenge to not get discouraged.
However there were distractions - interesting to see the different visitors at this time of year, during the summer the area would be over spilling with young pups on holiday/monster drinking session, partying, sunbathing and picking their meals off those menus with just pictures and prices (you know the ones, where the photographers do an amazing job making the meals look so accurately unappealing!)
Yesterday I was the young pup amongst the more mature holidaymakers taking relaxing strolls or bike rides along the promenade, actually spotted the odd pink rinse or two down the playa de Palma stretch as well! The lads who attended one (or both!) of the stag dos in Benidorm will be able to picture the scene perfectly!
Can’t say I’m disappointed to reach this stage of training, covered about 65 miles in the last 3 long runs and getting up for going out for that length of time has become a bit of a challenge but the bulk of the training is now completed. The training now enters a tapering phase over the next couple of weeks or so. 1h45 on Sunday will be last significant time spent running then the time on the feet will really reduce as the body gets some rest in preparation for the big day. Training runs during this period will be significantly shorter but quite quick to maintain intensity before the big day

Anyway, think that’s enough for this morning – thanks again for your generosity and support
Adios

Update 5 – w/e 28/03

Wow!!!!........ What a week, we’ve passed the £4,000 mark!!!!!!
Brilliant! Can’t begin to thank those who have and those who will (and there are plenty of those still out there – they may not know it yet, but they exist!) donate.
What an effort, I hope you all feel good about your contribution – we’re making a difference!
So, what kind of week? Pretty easy really - just 2 runs! One of those was only 5 miles too. Yesterday, however….. a different story!…………..
The plan was to do 3 long runs before tapering down, ie resting, contemplating, thinking up excuses to get out of it etc, etc
Last Sunday was the first and yesterday was the second of the long ones. There was a plan too… Go out at a reasonable pace for the first half and then go slightly faster for the second half, something I’ve discovered is called, in the trade, a “negative split”
All went very nicely for the first half, in fact for the first 13 or 14 miles the pace was better than planned and all was great, until at some point during mile 15 it seemed like the anti exercise demon got up and smacked me hard in the emotional and physical bits. I’ve never experienced anything like it, every part of my body hurt, I’d spilt energy gel everywhere, my head was all over the place - no exaggeration when I say, right then, I could’ve quite happy rolled up in a ball and cried myself to sleep – extraordinary! (to coin a Maughanism)
Anyway, managed to carry on, of course the “negative split” became a fantasy but managed to get through it. The good news is that there’s “only” one more long run planned, a cheeky 24 miler – on Good Friday ironically – prizes for those that use a quote in their donation comments.
Four more weeks to go and over four grand in the Sam Beare bank – thanks again and speak soon.

Update 4 – w/e 21/03

As understatements go Ouch was up there! If you ever hear ITB, deep and massage in one sentence just….say……..no!!!!!!

Catherine’s physiotherapy during the last week has been as painful an experience as I have ever voluntarily endured. It has, however, done wonders for the old knee and a fairly trouble free 20 miles on Sunday bear testament to that – so once again, thank you Catherine

The plan from now is another 2 weeks of reasonably heavy training, with 22 miles on Sunday and about 24 miles on Good Friday. A rest day following every session is a new addition – more good advice from Catherine.

Confidence is a fragile thing isn’t it?! 2 weeks ago training was going really well, a PB in the MK half marathon and all looking great. A short time later, serious doubts begin to creep in as to whether I’ll be able to get my dodgy left knee through to the half way stage let alone make the whole distance in the goal time.

Then after the treatment and a revision on the training schedule the knee feels OK, another decent long run is in the bank and the confidence is starting to go in the right direction.

However one thing that is definitely not good for confidence is “Runner Envy” a condition where every runner appears to be a local version of Paula Radcliffe or Steve Cram (it’s a bit like that condition you suffer from in the changing rooms Nicholson!...... But that’s another story – too late to cancel the cheque now Matt so don’t bother!). There you are running along minding your own business, pretty content with the pace and how you’re feeling when all of a sudden along comes some bloody Seb Coe reincarnate hoovering up the ground like a Dyson on legs.

Disconcerting and intimidating but on reflection probably pretty irrelevant on the day as all those super fit guys will be long gone and the main challenge will be dodging the Gorilla, Spiderman and Sponge Bob Squarepants* characters!!

* thanks for advice Polly!

Ciao for now and more news after next Sunday

Update 3 – w/e 14/03

Ouch!! Just returned home after physio session – thanks Catherine.

Put in biggest training week so far this week, 43 miles, unwisely 38 of them in last 4 days and it’s taken its toll. A tight ITB (Iliotibial band) has lead to some knee pain. Anyone seen Eddy Izard’s marathon show? Same injury.

Catherine has given some great advice, Amazon are sending me a foam roller to loosen ITB, more ice baths are in the pipeline – hopefully all of that will do the trick!

Anyway, enough of that! Given that it was Mother’s Day yesterday thought maybe a brief reflection on the recipient of all your kind donations. Almost 3 years ago Sally’s mum Mary spent her last few days in the best possible place and under the care of the best possible people during a devastating period for all involved.

Sam Beare hospice in Weybridge is a remarkable place, dealing with incredibly difficult circumstances on a daily basis with amazing compassion. Unbelievably the hospice is totally reliant on private funding/donations. This makes the whole operation even more awe-inspiring. All your kind donations (the response so far has blown us all away) make this service viable for future families in similarly difficult situations.

So on 25^th April, 3 years to the day that Mary passed away, thousands of runners will be running for charities close to their hearts. My charity of choice is the Sam Beare hospice and we’re doing brilliantly already, we’re nearly at the minimum amount required but there is no reason why this total can’t be smashed.

I don’t want these updates to become too cumbersome or sad for everyone reading. To that end I’ll try, in the rest of the updates, to keep you in the picture of what’s been happening without trying to pull on those heartstrings too heavily! In return please feel free to email, text, put comments on the site - with your donations! ;)

It’s amazing getting the emails from Just Giving when another donation and message has been processed. They really help with the motivation and I’ll need as much help as possible to get through what promises to be a tough 3 or 4 weeks of training before the tapering begins.

Speak soon

Nick

Update 2 - w/e 07-03

Hi Everyone!

Wow! What a response since the last update email! Well on our way to smashing our donation target to Sam Beare Hospice. Can’t begin to tell you how grateful we are. Promised weekly updates so here goes!!

Just completed my first race since cross country in the 3^rd year (1987!). The MIlton Keynes Half marathon

Here’s how it went:

Got to the start line early, felt like a bit of a spare part spending the next 15 minutes looking around at the incredibly fit looking individuals gathering. Decided to do that bouncing on the spot thing that proper athletes do, seemed to work well until I actually bounced onto a proper athlete’s foot. Not sure how he did but probably worse than predicted!

The starting horn sounded and we started running. Felt like the pace was relatively quick for the first mile except only problem was everyone was overtaking me! Spent the next 3 miles running well and being mown down by everyone!!..

17 stone Johnny and 67 year old Molly….. Everybody who could stand up was passing me by – pretty intimidating for a first timer….

Just about managed to not run off the course during the next 4 or 5 miles and then those fast starters came within range. Then the runner with limited talent and even less experience started to pick them off!!!

It was like a silent assassin, my pace picking up as theirs seemed to drop – in fact some of them were walking come the end!! My spirits were lifted further as Mrs Elliott came into view at 9 miles with the secret weapon, chocolate covered espresso beans! She appeared again at 11miles, not sure how but somehow she made her presence felt! – My spirits seemed to lift even higher following her subtle encouragement and the runners within range didn’t stand a chance from that point on!

Aiming for sub 1:45 a miraculous 1:40.55 was achieved. Felt great until the running was over and then left knee went into meltdown. Spent the next 15 minutes outside Iceland with a pack of frozen peas (£1 from aforementioned store! Apparently you can buy 50 sausage rolls for a pound too?) strapped to my apparently paralyzed knee as several fellow runners sniggered their way passed.

Limped our way to the car and made our way for post race cool down lunch lovingly prepared by Nev and Swifty. We had a top meal, somehow the knee freed up, the kids were very entertaining and the red wine was delicious! Thank you to the Joneses and the Fords for a lovely Sunday afternoon.

All in all a pretty good marathon preparation day!!

Recovery starts tomorrow!......... Will let you all know how that goes next time!!

Until next time

Nick

Update 1 - w/e 28-02

Hi Everyone

The weekly updates (pestering!) start here.

Firstly, thanks very much to those of you who have already donated - much appreciated, it's got us off to a great start!

Secondly, thank you to those who have promised to donate - again much appreciated , site details below for when the cash is burning a hole in your pocket and you feel it's time to make good on your pledge!

Thirdly, thanks to those who are holding out hoping for further grovelling before parting with your hard earned dosh. Frankly, don't blame you but will be definitely be doing my best to persuade you that it'll be worth it!

For those who need more convincing here's what I'm thinking

1) Weekly update emails. Like the marathon itself, sure to start strong but soon becoming hard work and a little tedious

2) Personal contact - surely you all would rather avoid that!

3) Personal contact from the wife - you really want to avoid that!!!.......

So we're on! The journey continues, done a fair bit of training so far and half marathon in Milton Keynes coming up this Sunday!!...... More updates to follow

Hope you're all well - Here's to April 25th and Sam Beare getting a healthy chunk of cash to continue doing what they're doing. Please see link below for the Just Giving site

Adios

Nick

Nick's page

Story

About the charity

Donation summary