Just before Christmas our family said goodbye to a great friend.
Once met, never forgotten, Paula was a strong, fearless, loyal and generous person, and my wife's best friend. Her death has left a hole in all of our lives, and I want to raise money to honour her memory.
This year I'm going to undertake twelve tough sporting challenges, one each month. In this way I hope to raise a substantial amount for DKMS, the Delete Blood Cancer charity, to help them in their essential work.
Most will be official organised races, but some might be DIY ... but even in that case, they'll be significant. I'll update this page as and when I enter new races or decide on a challenge for another month, but as of now here's what I'm doing:
January - 50 mile bike ride - DONE
February - Hoka One One trail half-marathon - DONE
March - Monmouthshire Three Peaks, a 20 mile circular walk-run including 3 mountains, 5000 feet of climb, and navigating in between - DONE
April - for this month, the challenge is an ongoing one, in which I aim to ride at least 400 miles total on the bike throughout the month (I've reduced this from 500 to 400 miles ... I hate doing it, but the month's proven difficult in some respects, so I have. However... to make up for this, I'll be including another big challenge further down the line!) - DONE
May - Blaenafon Triathlon (legendary for its horrific hills) - DONE (tough one)
June - Cotswold 113 half iron distance triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, half marathon) - DONE
July - Velothon (90 mile bike ride) - DONE
August - EVEREST! Well, not the actual mountain, but my combined cycling and running elevation gain in August will be 29,029 feet or more. I'm hitting those hills!
September - Brutal Half iron distance triathlon (my main race for this year, including a half marathon run up and down Snowdon)
October - TBC
November - The Broadway Marathon, a full trail marathon in the lovely Cotswolds
December - TBC
TBC months, races and events to be added soon... (but rest assured they'll be tough)
Please sponsor me. It goes to a great cause. As Paula would say, "Bloody crack on and do it."
