Your kind donation will providing training and equipment for lifeguards on beaches in England and Wales for 2010. As the RNLI is funded entirely by voluntary donations, please dig deep. The more we can raise, the more we can help save lives.

Training through next few months of evil winter weather is nothing compared to what volunteers of the RNLI will go through when they are called out to rescue helpless and stranded seamen. Help me make a difference as I raise £500 for RNLI

I hope you will enjoy following my challenge over the next few months.

About the RNLI

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the British Isles, as well as inshore. It was founded on 4 March 1824 as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, adopting the present name in 1854. It now operates as an international service to the peoples of the UK and Ireland and has official charity status in each nation. The RNLI operates 444 lifeboats (332 are on station, 112 are in the relief fleet), from 235 lifeboat stations around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Since 1980, lifeboat rescues have doubled. The RNLI's lifeboats rescued an average of 21 people a day in 2008. They saved 288 lives in 2008. The RNLI Operations department defines 'rescues' and 'lives saved' differently.

About Just Giving:

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.

The training:

Mike will be making regular updates on this site as the training steps up. He will be obsessively data logging the runs, and uploading results on mapmyrun.com and also nikeplus.com.

Despite not running a half marathon before, he's aiming for a sub 2hour run but would be happy to run the half in 2 1/2 hours.

My Profile at Map My Run

20th December 2009 

3.3 km

28th December 2009

4.8 km

31st December 2009

5.15 km

3rd January 2010

5.26km

6th January 2010

5.03km

10th January 2010

5.00km

12th January 2010

5.07km

17th January 2010

10.03km

19th January 2010

5.05km

24th January 2010

10km

New 10km route up to Clifton over the bridge and back again.

26th January 2010

5km

Route round Ashton Vale and Winterstoke loop.

28th January 2010

10km

Ashton to Clifton on the Bridge loop

31st January 2010

10km

Ashton Vale, Gate to Long Ashton down Yanley Lane up to A38 and back again. Ernie chose this route. Didn't plan for this hill 5km in with ice and occasional traffic.

2nd February 2010

10km

Another run over the top to Clifton. Its a bit of a steep climb up beside Ashton Court and I've not quite cracked it yet. Getting a glance over Bristol on the Bridge is awesome.

4th February 2010

2 x 5km

Tonight I ran my Ashton 5km loop twice to make 11km in total. I've got to 100km in training as well which is about 60miles. Thats 2 and 1/2 full marathons in 5 weeks.

We're up to £130 now which is fantastic. Another run planned for Saturday with my brother Ben who is also running the Bath Half Marathon. We're planning on running Ernies Long Ashton Route.

6th February 2010

11.75km

Today i ran with my brother Ben - who's run a few half marathons before. As he's 5" taller than me, I had to get a bit of a leg on. As a result, i beat my previous 5km pb by 18 seconds and 10km by 8 seconds. That puts me at 4' 47" per km which is good for a sub 2hour on the half marathon.

7th February 2010

Stepped up my fundraising today by adding an event on Facebook. Am now up to £145 sponsored which is brilliant. Also as Nike is matching kms i've run this week to dollars, I've also raised $30 for the Help for Haiti appeal.

8th February 2010

5.05km

Ashton route tonight. Managed to run 5km at average speed of my fastest km at 4min 33s. Bit chilly out tonight so decided to take it a bit easier after the weekend run.

11th February 2010

5.05km

Ashton route again. Have been a little ill this week so am taking it a bit carefully today.

15th February 2010

10.54km

Reverse of Clifton route. An interesting run but not one of my fastest. Still an average of 5min/km was okay.

17th February 2010

10.54km

Ashton to Clifton route. Slowly up to the top of Rownham Hill and then back through Clifton to Ashton. Court a few runners on the way which gave me a speed up. Got pb of 4m 26s on 1km on the way back.

20th February 2010

18km

My longest run so far. This run is my brother Ben's favorite training route and has a lot of climbing to do. Had a bit of problem with data logging (Nike+ paused for 2km) but according to what i got was 1hr 26m which gives an average of 5m per km (or 12km/h average). As we didnt start from my house, there was also a 4.5km of warmup/down walking. This gives me race distance today. All i got to do now is not injure myself and let my muscles recover. Oh, I'll be out in the week again but won't run this long until 2 weekends time.

Sponsorship has been going good and have exceeded the minimum i needed to have raised to guarantee my race entry. Now its pushing on to getting my target £500 for RNLI.

22nd February 2010

11km

A variation on the an existing route, tonight's 11km route took on Rownham Hill, over Clifton Suspension Bridge and then down to Ashton via the Industrial Museum and toe path.

Seemed to make a good pace although the first hill is always a challenge. 4' 47" average km is a slight improvement over the long run we did on Saturday. Not many more runs before the actual race.

Thanks to those that have sponsored me. £230 raised now which is fantastic. See how much we can get for the Lifeguards in the next few weeks.

24th February 2010

Keeping it local tonight with an extended version of my 5km route around Ashton Vale, BS3. I started at the end of South Liberty Lane with a slight climb onto Winterstoke Road, down past Sainsburys and then back through Ashton Vale estate round about the houses. 

Thought it was a good run apart from being a bit achy still from the last few days. The nike+ chirped that i have beaten my pb for the mile - quicker by 1s to 7' 01". That meant I now have got my single km down to 4' 17" with an average pace of 4' 27" per km over this 6.03 km. My 5km pb has also improved up to 22' 18" which if recall is an improvement of around 30 seconds. 

A week and a bit away from the Bath Half, I'm excited waiting in anticipation. Sponsorship is going well, but we can do more to get to £500 before the race. Remember, money sponsored goes to the Lifeguards who look over you anytime you are beach bound, surfing or sailing. I hope never to have to call the Lifeguards but I know this will help them be there if you do. 

27th February 2010

A variation on my Long Ashton route produced an 11km with average 4' 45" km. I also got a personal best on a mile which brings me to just below 7min/mile. Much prefer running with another, which is handy as will be 15000 deep in runners next weekend.

Approaching £300 sponsorship now which is awesome.

1st March 2010
6.03km

Spring is just round the corner and so is the Half Marathon and I'm all excited. Bit of a shorter distance planned this week in preparation for the weekend, paying particular attention to not twisting ankles, pulling muscles or banjaxing myself. New socks bought on Saturday with silver in them no less. Check out http://www.x-socks.com/ for more info.

Tonight I ran a the extended version of my 5km route which I ran for the first time last week. I got a bit further down the industrial estate than previously which gave a climb of 2km / 30m on South Liberty Lane. I had a more stable feeling pace than last week which brought me another pb of 4' 10" km and 6' 51" on the mile. Average 4' 22" km which is 5 sec faster than just last week / 21' 52" - an improvement of 26s on the 5km = much pleased mike.

We've hit £300 sponsorship now! Many thanks to all who have donated so far - its much appreciated. If you've been thinking about sponsoring, please dip in your pocket to help the LifeGuards. The more we raise the more we can help save lives.

3rd March 2010
11.03km

All I got to do now is run that again, twice..

Tonight's run was a double run on the route I ran on the first, starting right down the end of South Liberty Lane. Made a running start the pace I maintained pretty well across the first 5km, even managing some precise road crossings down by Sainsbury on Winterstoke Road which kept the average speed up. Flew by my house for a mouthful of Lucozade cup on my front wall drink stop practice as I'll be doing on the half marathon. Overall run felt good and I managed to improve again on my personal bests (no big hills on today's route compared to running up Clifton). 

Today's results: 11km at average of 4' 26" (faster by 19s/km than Saturday), 5km at 21' 44" (faster by 8s than last time I ran!), and 10km personal best now at 44' 23" (faster by over 3 mins than my previous pb). All this equals happy mike runs.

Tonight we're approaching £350 sponsored for RNLI which is fantastic. I am properly thankful to all those who have supported me so far in my training and fundraising. There's a few days left for a big push to see if we can reach the target.


6th March 2010

In less than 1/2 a day, I'll be running the Bath Half. The product of 3 months and 220km of training runs, this will be my first half marathon appearance, and I await in in anticipation. There's little more now I can do to affect my time tomorrow other than eat and sleep well and make sure I get to Bath in time.

Many thanks to all who have sponsored me and helped me raise over £400 for RNLI. 

Will be thinking of you all when I am out within the crowd of 15000 other people on the start line of Bath Half Marathon. 

Be sure to give #15410 a wave when you see me tomorrow. 

23.5km

Yay. Back in 1hr 47min 40sec. Time to be confirmed when the Bath Half website is up again. I'm knackered so will update this in a bit.

Thanks to all who helped me with my fundraising. Much much thanks
mike