Tuesday, 28 January 2014

The Cardiff Half Marathon- Doing it for Week On the Street!

So holy crap! It is actually official! The money is paid and there’s no backing out!!!

 My Bezzie Nicola and I will be running the half marathon in Cardiff in October! It’s suffice to say that I’m crapping my pants-not to mention the fact that people have told me they’ve crapped their pants before while running the marathon! I am a novice runner! In fact I’m probably less than that so I don’t understand the pooping while running thing??If anyone can shed light on why during a run your body suddenly develops the urge for you need to, well, do that I’d be very pleased to hear it.

I get a text a few weeks ago from my good lady Nicola Harper. She wants to do a half marathon. Now it’s not like she just comes out and asks me to do it, no, no. The emotional blackmail that came before the question left little if no chance of me saying no to her. The length of the text took up half my evening just scrolling to the bottom. The point of it was that not only did our friendship rely on us making it over the finish line together, but she also touched on the fact that our friendship has had to span hundreds of miles since I left our home town Llanelli, so she never sees me. So all wrapped up in guilt, there was never a question, it was just a statement! “Let’s do a half marathon.” Little did she know, I had been thinking about this the last month or so and was planning a text ambush like that on her. Like I could say no to this girl anyway, even if I wasn’t into it! We’ve been through years of her saying yes to the majority of stuff I’ve ever wanted to do, no matter how much she knew better of it. Well that’s kind of the point of friendship I guess.

So we’re kick starting our health and fitness regime by giving ourselves a little 2014 challenge. Training began 3 weeks ago so we’re well and truly on the way. I’m not doing too badly. I mean I got this little app on my phone and you can see me most days running along East Dulwich, usually shouting at thin air, telling my virtual trainer he’s crazy! It’s something I’m chuffed with though, even now at this early stage when there’s a long way to go, I’m happy and I’m enjoying the challenge it’s going to bring. The feeling of achievement that we’ll feel when we cross that finish line is going to amazing! Not only for ourselves, but with the permission of Tom Shaw we will be raising money for his charity Week on The Street.

Tom stirred up a huge amount of media, and public support when he took to the streets of London sleeping rough for a week to raise awareness for Autism. Since he began his journey Tom has raised thousands of pounds, and is now helping local families who are in the painful process of discovering their child has autism. He is now dedicating his full time to raising awareness for children with autism. Seeing what this man has achieved in such a short space of time is seriously inspirational. He is now organising more extreme fundraising which includes 3 cycling challenges, one of which is the John o’ Groats to Land End cycling challenge, one of the most difficult cycling challenges to be taken on.

Unfortunately I couldn’t commit to any of these which was extremely gutting, as I promised Tom that I would definitely be involved in his charity work in 2014. This is why Nicola and I are so chuffed that he allowing us to help in another capacity by running the half marathon. As two self-confessed unfit birds this is going to be a personal challenge for both of us, so please watch this space and help support us. We want to help Tom as much as we can, so help us help him!  Anyone who would like to join in with us in more than welcome.
For more information of Tom’s Charity work.



twitter.com/weekonthestreet


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