End of the year

I have to give a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this fund-raising endeavour. It's been a challenging year, but great to complete it.

I raced for almost 10 hours 40 minutes across the 12 events, climbing over 1,800m / 6,000ft during the 109km / 67.4miles of road, trail and fell (thanks to Saddleworth Rangers for the wine to commemorate my first ever fell race - I feel I earned it, Alderman's Ascent was tough). Within this I was hoping for a 5km sub-25 and a 10km sub-50... I set a new 5km PB, with 24m 33s during a virtual race, and set a new 10km PB, with 51m 7s during the Great Manchester Run (not quite to target, but close - I'll have it in 2017!). Finally, every single race I completed was a course PB! That's quite the year given I only started running with a club a couple of years ago. I hope you've enjoyed watching it unfold :)

Importantly, we have together raised £3,243 - a sum way beyond the £2,400 target, which is amazing.

Thank you to all the individual contributors, both in the UK and overseas. Thank you to my work colleagues for their support and to my employers, Sopra Steria, for providing fund-matching. Thank you to Seen Opticians who generously donated and from where I got my distinctive running specs. Thank you to my fellow runners in the Greenfield Greyhounds and in the other clubs near where I live (Saddleworth Runners, Oldham & Royton Harriers, Royton Road Runners and Hyde Village Striders to name a few), both for organising races and for being great running buddies and competitors.

Finally, a massive thank you to my family for all their support - for those that have come to races and have donated and send words of encouragement; for my mum and dad, who have attended almost all my races this year despite a busy work schedule; and for my lovely daughter and wife, who have put up with me being out training and racing and have also attended almost all my races and given me the support, time and encouragement I needed to get through it all. I love you all so much.

And so the challenge has ended. The races have been run. The money raised, 100% of which goes to the children I'm supporting in Zambia and in Haiti. It's been so important to ensure that these vulnerable children have food and drink, clothing and shelter and to encourage the workers that their efforts are noticed and valued. To ensure that the boys and girls in Zambia have the sustenance they need to learn well. To ensure the boys and girls in Haiti still have an orphanage to call home.

You can continue to donate to these worthy causes up until the end of January 2017 - if you were waiting for me to complete the challenge, now is the time to give!

Tired

Apologies again for the late post. Still very tired from work and other activities. Still not running very much right now.

I have decided to take a break from racing for a while. As you'll know from the race calendar, there are loads of races available. I had wanted to sign up for a couple in August, but I'm just too worn out to justify it.

I have completed 10 out of my 12 challenge races, so only 2 left. I've got the Zombies, Run! Autumn Race in October already booked and will look for a Santa Dash to finish the year in style. Beyond that I'm just going to get back to running for health, fitness and social interaction, enjoying it for what it is.

No specific race training, no putting myself under pressure to increase mileage. Just getting out there when I can, running with my Greyhounds and enjoying the experience. I need to get back into a rhythm of running again and slowly get back my pace. I fully intend to keep improving myself, just not focussing on that right now.

Also, I will reduce the amount of blogging I do for the remainder of the year. You've all read me waffle on long enough, I'm sure. I'll keep you posted about anything significant, but it will be nice to remove this little bit of weekly pressure to scribe for a while. I hope you understand and thanks for following me so far.

A little extra

Oops - looks like I forgot to post last week. Sorry about that. On Monday night I got a cold that came on very quickly and left me coughing and sneezing my way through the rest of the week. It's meant that I've not run since last Saturday's parkrun, so I'm now quite eager to get back on the road, but need to be able to breathe properly first! Hopefully tomorrow...

Something I discovered recently was a website called Running Heroes. I've signed up to see what it's like and a few other Greyhounds have as well. You upload runs to their website and get points in exchange that can be used to get discounts on running related products. They also have a variety of challenges that reward you with a prize draw entry e.g. run at least 20 miles in 1 week to be entered into a draw for new puma trainers. It's early days, so I've not actually won anything or purchased anything yet. There's also been a problem with me getting the referral bonuses from my friends (although they have them), but the support staff have been very friendly and are trying to work on it. Seems like a small team behind the site, so they've got a lot of work on their hands developing it.

Whilst doing that, another runner told me about Bounts, which is another website doing much the same things, but without the competitions. Seems to take a long time to accrue points, but again will see what happens after a few months. They both don't cost anything, so nothing to lose really.

The third thing I've signed up to recently is Run Britain. This appears to be a national home for British running athletes and allows you to track progress via a handicap scoring system. Accredited races (and all park runs) are valid to submit to your profile and it allows you to see your progress, which is interesting to follow. Unsurprisingly Mo Farrah is number 1 in the rankings! It tells me that my handicap after last year's Great Run was 22.4 and that today it is 16.7 - a good improvement over the year. I'm not sure I'll use it for much more than tracking that, but knowing your handicap is still interesting info.

Anyway, that's it for this week. Hope my illness subsides soon so I can get back on the training - only 2.5 weeks to go to the first race of the July Triple...

The double

Great Run start line

There have been a lot of runners raising money recently, hence I've not been pushing my fundraising as much. However, we are making great progress with just £845 left to raise and plenty of races still to sponsor.

Next up is what I'm dubbing 'The Double' - Great Run Manchester 10k on Sunday May 22 followed by Dovestone Diamond 10k on Wednesday May 25. Please dig deep to sponsor me for this gruelling week! I have set myself a goal of completing the Great Run in under 50 minutes. That's quite the challenge for me (my current 10k personal best is 51m 21s). For the Diamond, I'm just aiming to be better than last year's 62m 52s - it's a tough trail course!

I'm now on my taper week, so just a few short runs to keep reminding my body it's got to race soon, but without tiring it out or injuring it last minute. The two races next week will be my only runs, as the rest of the time will be rest or recovery or party (I'm DJing in Manchester on Friday May 27). Hopefully a race-free June will bring me back some schedule stability as I gear up for more new courses to race in July.

Ultra

There are obviously a whole variety of race distances available to run - I prefer the shorter distance 5k and 10k races (3.1 and 6.2 miles respectively, for those working in imperial). Many take on a half marathon (13.1 miles / 21 km) and quite a few even run a full marathon (26.2 miles / 42 km). These are very long distances that take several hours to complete and push the body hard. The physical strain of moving that long, the practicalities of giving your body enough fuel and liquid as you run, and so on.

Rapidly gaining popularity and renown is something called an Ultra. That is, any race of longer distance than a marathon. It's taking endurance running to a whole different place for body and mind. It most definitely should not undermine the shorter distance races, which test us in different ways. Nor should it go unnoticed that still comparatively few people ever run as far as a marathon. But I have to give massive respect to people who run Ultra's. And those like Eddie Izzard who undertake endurance running in all types of terrain and in all manner of distance configurations.

So it is with great pride that I can tell you the following Greenfield Greyhounds (some of whom also run for other clubs like Saddleworth Runners and Royton Road Runners) completed the very hilly 40 mile (64.4 km) Oldham Way Ultra yesterday, Sunday March 20th:

Simon Jump (8:00:00), Colin Green (8:25:10), Paul Simpson (9:22:25), Jason Wilks (9:27:44), Billy Hughes (9:55:58), Stephen Lee (9:57:38), Allan Parkin (9:57:38), Mark Crossland (10:20:30), Ian Taylor (10:20:30), Mike Marn (10:20:30), Phil Craven (10:20:30)

And of those, special mention to Paul Simpson, Stephen Lee and Allan Parkin who ran the 55 miles (88.5 km) Hardmoors 55 the day before!

That's a lot of running. I don't want to run that far.

Introducing a new project - Haiti

I am truly amazed by your generosity. In just 2 months you have donated over £1200, which already puts us half way to the challenge total!

I was expecting the fund raising to be slower and had planned to promote a different project every quarter to keep things fresh for supporters. But in response to this incredible start I am changing the approach. I hope you don't mind.

Everyone so far has donated in response to the Zambian project, so rather than the planned £600 Horizons will send them the £1200 raised to date - well done everyone, that's fantastic!

I will now introduce a second project and will champion that for the remaining £1200 target. You can find out more on the Supported Projects page, but I am going to run the remaining races to raise funds for an orphanage in Haiti.

There was a large earthquake in 2010 that killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. Out of that, the Loving Hearts Children's Home has taken in 28 now-orphaned children. They are a small organisation and often overlooked by charities, but we managed to find them.

They are desperate for the means to buy food and to keep their kids clothed. They struggle just to provide one main meal a day and 'sometimes' a small breakfast. What a travesty! Please continue to give generously to help these children have access to the basic necessities of life.

Think of them when you consider what you eat on an average day - how would it feel knowing you will only eat once today, may be a small breakfast if you're lucky?

Think of them when you open your wardrobe in the morning and wonder what to pick to wear that day - how would it feel to see just two t-shirts and two shorts/dresses?

What luxury we have!

One month in

As we start February, the weather has given us a taste of something cold, but I assume there's more to come. Your encouragement gives me the soul-warmth to keep going out there. Both Horizons and I are very blessed by all the support to date - every donation is significant, no matter how much it is and no matter whether it comes from individuals, companies or anonymous donors.

As January closes we have together raised £545 - thank you all! This means we will hit the target of £600 for the first project and be able to move on to the second project with our spirits high. That gives me great motivation to race well and race hard! I'd like to thank my parents for managing to get to every race so far to cheer me on - it's great to have friendly faces cheer you across the finish line.

Keen observers will notice I've now booked on two more races, taking my total to six. I will be racing as part of a works team in the Manchester 10k in May. I'm really looking forward to that - the event last year was my first ever race and means I've now got a time to beat (54m 26s).

In addition to that I've also booked on to the Mossley 10k. That's my home town, but I wasn't able to run it last year so I'm looking forward to getting that opportunity. Hopefully a few of the local running clubs will open some more of their races soon.

I'm definitely in the racing mode at the moment and feel like I could race more frequently. But I'm conscious not to overdo things and to give myself time to recover and keep improving through training. That said... April, May and July are all looking fairly busy months.

What next for Q1?

As you now know, I had a great start to the year with Hit the Trail 5.

What's next? A bit more mud, I think :)

I've now got the races for the first quarter of the year locked:

• next up is Lyme Park Nightrun on Jan 23, which I'm expecting to be very similar to Hit the Trail 5 (tough, muddy, watery in places and a bit hilly), except run in the dark!
• after that is the Huddersfield 10km race on Feb 28, which I'm expecting to be rainy, cold and very hilly (likely to be more than double the climbing of Hit the Trails 5!). It's the first road race of 2016, so not as muddy as the other two (although there could well be snow instead).

I've made a few other changes to the race calendar:

• added Black Knight Charge, which I found out about from a fellow runner last week - a race around Daisy Nook Country Park, which I'm familiar with from travelling through for many years to get to school
• swapped Salford 10km for Huddersfield 10km to have a better break between races, even though Hudds is much more difficult (I assume), although I may still have a go at the Salford 10km...
• I've also decided to no longer consider the Mad Hatter race in May, which looks to cover similar terrain as Hit the Trail 5 and May is already busy with Manchester 10k and Dovestone Diamond.

The new year is still very new, but Horizons has already had £130 of donations - thank you very much to those first few for a great start. There is still a long way to go and I need your help to reach £600 from these three races. The fund raising from this first quarter of races will go to feed school children in Zambia, so please give generously to help that next generation study well.

On your marks...

Thanks for coming over to have a look at the blog - take some time to look through the static pages (you can access them from the menu at the top). They tell you more about who I am, what I'm doing and why; they tell you about the projects I'm raising funds for; finally, they also summarise the races I've thought about as well as my progress through those I book.

I'll use the blog to talk about my experiences and how the fund raising is going. I'll also give you news about race bookings and provide some brief reports of the races I complete.

I hope you find the challenge interesting and will keep coming back for more updates. I'm looking forward to the year ahead and to sharing my journey with you. Most of all, please donate generously to Horizons International and the projects I'm sponsoring - thank you in anticipation :)