Just a week away until the big run, London Marathon 2018
and I am excited!
I have my number 45044, and off to London Excel on Wed to get my
paper number with starting instructions etc. I already know I am starting in
the red zone in Greenwich.
I have my T-shirt from ‘ORCHIDS Fighting Male Cancer’
with my name bodily printed front and back.
I have my head gear – you won’t miss me now!!!!!!!
Training pre-Christmas was going well and I even did a half marathon running around Snetterton race course, after being talked in to it by Roger (brother-in-law)! Training post-Christmas has not been great for a variety
of reasons of life impacting events: moving into the house, changing my job, both limited me for some weeks, as a consequence the only running I was doing was my
long run on Sundays. Then the weather has been really awful. Combinations of
lots of heavy rain and the temperature dropping hence icy conditions, followed by all
that horrendous snow. I was for a number of weekends running over snow drifts
or thorough flooded roads. A slog of an experience, so my London Marathon is
going to be about getting round the course and getting my medal, the time I do
it in has no bearing on my outcome.
The fundraising has gone exceptionally well, to date I
have raised almost £3,500 with two collection pots to come plus whatever I may
gather on the day itself.
I am very humbled with the generosity people have donated
to both me and on my virgin money giving page, so if you have not given yet and
would like to this is the link https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fightingmalecancer.
A lot of the monies raised has been through fundraising,
at
·
The Cherry Tree pub in Wicklewood
·
Wicklewood school where Dylan got involved in
counting the money as it came rolling in over a few weeks
·
Hingham Church collections in February
·
Donation of a chocolate Santa at Christmas and
an egg at Easter from my friend and colleague in Bexley. Her dad is a
chocolatier and in his time has made chocolate treats for the Queen whist also
worked with Wall’s in the manufacture of ‘Vienetta’ and Baileys in the
manufacture of ‘Baileys chocolate liqueurs’.
The fundraising began in the Cherry Tree when a pub regular
donating two giant peanut squashes, so over a couple of weeks people paid to
guess the weight of each vegetable. One of the winners was our very own Milo,
he donated his winnings to his vegetarian grandparents who enjoyed many meals. This
raised £35.
The pub then donated one of the monthly Coffee Mornings
for me, so we spent a Saturday afternoon posting notices through letterboxes
all around the village which resulted in a nice crowd attending, this raised
£216.70. It is from this event when Hingham Church requested to also support
our cause donating all church service collections in February, this raised £40.
The next event was with the local school where Dylan
attends. The fundraiser activity was to collect coins in a ‘Smarties’ tube,
which starts with us giving all the children a tube of smarties in the hope
they will return the tube filled with coins. Dylan was involved in counting the
many 20 pences collected and would keep me updated on how things were
progressing, this raised £240.
Quickly followed was a Family Quiz in the pub with raffle
where I did lots of requesting prizes for many of my regular shopping places,
which raised £270.
 |
| The Teams |
To my surprise one of the ladies in the pub wanted to
organise a clairvoyance evening and ‘Julia Edge’ the clairvoyant agreed. What
an interesting experience having never been to anything like this before. Julia
did extremely well with an element of heckling and background disturbance, a
lot of people were acknowledged from ‘the other side’ including my own mum who she was thrilled! This raised £255.
 |
| Line up is left to right - Me - Julia the Clairvoyant - Julie the Landlady - Margaret the person who had the idea! |
Last fundraising event was a Poker Tournament with a few people including Jerry, I attended the beginning and end of the event, I got the impression all enjoyed the tournament although tolerating the winner being the landlord! This raised £142.
The last monies to be collected are in a couple of
charity pots:
·
one at the pub and
·
the second with my lovely sister-in-law at the
opticians where she works. She tells me for all those little twicks some time
required for your glasses, being part of the customer care, the charity pot is
offered if the customer wants to acknowledge the service delivered.
So feeling hopefully these pots will have a few more
pennies to add to the grand total too.
Finally for those of you who want to follow me on Sunday
22nd April there is an app you can download and follow my progress
and perhaps look at the TV as I may be coming up to where the coverage is – you
never know you may see me!! The links are as follows:
Android:
Apple:
Go to App Store on iPhone/iPad and search for 'London Marathon'. Install
App called 'London Marathon 2018'.
Looking forward to Sunday and sharing my experiences. Speak soon :).
