Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Why am I fundraising?

I am raising funds for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in my father-in-law, John Langrish's memory who passed away on 12th October 2020 aged 101.  John had progressive macular degeneration and at approximately aged 86 had what was deemed pioneering surgery at the time to insert a glass prism into one of his eye's to try and improve his sight.  However, this was ultimately unsuccessful and contributed to him having two local strokes and some facial paralysis which made speaking and swallowing extremely difficult as the years progressed.

In his latter years when he was almost completely blind and couldn't leave the house due to his frailty; he relied heavily on the support of the RNIB who were fantastic and sent him audio books on a very regular basis that used to keep him entertained for hours.

They do fantastic work in supporting blind and partially sighted people with practical and emotional support to live their lives more independently and I would love to give something back to them for the support they gave to John.

https://www.rnib.org.uk/about-us

What is my challenge to raise funds?

My challenge is December 2020 calendar miles where I will run/walk the number of miles for the respective day of the month that it is.  i.e. 5th December = 5 miles, 20th December = 20 miles.  This means I will cover 496 miles in 31 days with 196 miles being in the last 7 days (Christmas Day - New Year's Eve inclusive).  I have wanted to do this calendar miles challenge for a few months now since a lot of running friends did the "Accumulator" virtual race in May and I liked the progressive nature of the mileage building each day.  Though in my challenge I can split the miles up however I like across each day as long as I get the minimum number of miles covered for that respective date.  I thought December is an ideal month to do so when the weather and daylight hours are against you for an extra challenge! 

Yes I am a keen runner and prefer to run long distances but this is by no means an easy task at all!  Firstly because I have had a calf niggle for 2 weeks leading into the challenge; but am still committed to doing this challenge as I committed to this mentally once John passed away so there is no backing out now just means it may be a walk/jog mix until I get physio apt on 7th December!  Whilst the challenge should be relatively straight forward in the first week or two, the miles required will progressively increase without any rest days at all.  As the days progress and the miles increase this will inevitably take more time which means less recovery time before I have to go again the next day.  It will be a hard balance to strike especially in the second half of the month of making sure I get enough fuel in and sleep/rest before the next day as well as making sure I manage my body to prevent/manage any niggles that arise with no rest time to help them heal!

Now I know social plans are uncertain in December and we may not be meeting up with that many people across this time anyway; but even so it's still going to be pretty hard going to do 25 miles on Christmas Day instead of a normal 6/8 miles!!  Then 26 miles the next day and more than a marathon again for the subsequent 5 days!!

My initial fundraising target was set at £496 as I am running 496 miles across December but due to everyone's fantastic support I reached that target in 11 days!  So I then increased my target to £1000 which was met in 20 days due to your fantastic support which I'm so grateful for!  However, I would like to push on and try and raise as much as possible for this fantastic charity!  I had an email from the RNIB the other day and they were so appreciative of the funds that have been raised to date and mentioned that the fundraising is so valuable especially at the moment as like a lot of charities; they are stretched even further due to the additional support they need to give partially sighted and blind people due to the changes and restrictions of Coronavirus on day to day living.

I will be working very hard to complete this challenge to help raise funds to support the work of this fantastic charity RNIB.  Completing the miles is hard enough especially in the latter stages when the runs (or if I have to walk) could be 6-8 hours per day on my feet.  Then it's an ongoing daily cycle for me to do everything I can to get recovered again for the next day which can take as much if not more time than the runs/walks!!

** 496 miles in 31 days

** 196 miles in the last 7 days

** A marathon or more per day for the last 6 days

** Almost 19 marathons done across the 31 days

Couldn't have given any more, couldn't have done any more.  That took everything I had to complete this challenge especially the last couple of days the pain was immense.

Thanks to everyone that has supported me with kind messages, driving past me on runs to keep me going and all the generous donations you have given.  As of 1st January the amount raised is sitting at over £2450 so I'm sure the RNIB will be so grateful with how many partially sighted and blind people can be supported with this funding!!

Thank you for reading this and following my challenge.  If you are able to, please support the fantastic charity the RNIB in John's memory.  All donations are important no matter how much you are able to contribute!  £1 or £2 donations add up!

Thank you Rachel 

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