Category Archives: Ealing Half Marathon

Centrepoint, Ealing Half Marathon, Macmillan Cancer Support, News & Updates, Running

August training update Eaking half marathon

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A quick update…with just under seven weeks until race day the training is steady as they say. Still now it’s the summer holidays my daughter is on the case and cycling along to keep me running further 🙂

My work colleague will also be happy as Macmillan Cancer Support provide up to six iron on letters for your running top and there could only be one choice…Sparky! Good as well as keeps my Stoke City theme going which I manage to sneak in most races I do. Once I have received the top and fathomed out how an iron works I shall post a picture.

The charity I am running for on the 28th September is Macmillan Cancer Support whose nurses (along with their help line) do sterling work helping those with cancer and supporting their family and friends:

https://www.justgiving.com/ealing20142/

PS there is also Centrepoint who I ran the Dorney Dash 10K for. They are the UK’s leading charity for homeless young people. It supports over 6,000 16-25 year olds into housing and employment every year. Working directly in London and the north of England, Centrepoint also partners with other organisations across the UK and gives homeless young people a voice through the Centrepoint Parliament. It conducts research and influences government policy with the overall aim of ending youth homelessness.

 

https://www.justgiving.com/ealing2014/

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Centrepoint, Ealing Half Marathon, Macmillan Cancer Support, News & Updates, Running

Dorney Dash completed…in under an hour :)

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Despite my best attempts to injure myself the night before the race by dropping a fridge magnet on one of my toes, I lined up at the start of the Dorney Dash 10K on a very hot morning. The course is a lap and a half of the impressive Dorney boating lake, used in the 2012 Olympics and owned by Eton College.

It is a flat course but on a sunny day like the race day there is little shade and it was tough going. Despite this (and I think spurred on by the fact I was keen to be reunited with my children and shade at the finish line) I beat the one hour mark with a chip time of 59 minutes 40m seconds, the first time in over ten years!

I would highly recommend this as a 10K race for either a PB or for a first time/beginner as it is flat, lovely surroundings and extremely well organised.

I ran this race for the Centrepoint charity and next up is the Ealing half marathon when I will be running for Macmillan Cancer Support

Centrepoint, Ealing Half Marathon, Macmillan Cancer Support, News & Updates, Running, Start page

Why do I fundraise?

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A question I have been asked a few times down the years (I’ve done at least one charity event every year since 1985) and the main reasons are the charities are personal or ones that support/help young people, like this year’s one the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Plus I love helping others as much as that sounds like a Miss World reply!

It is always hard coming up with a novel idea for fundraising be it Forty Nights for my fortieth birthday where I held a charity gig at Brentford FC and got a whole host of bands to plug it at their gigs or webpages. The Shirt Of Hurt (kindly borrowed of Sports Relief/Danny Baker) back in 2010 saw me complete the Staines 10K in a P*** V*** top – I still have nightmares about it 😉 Still it raised over £550 for the Macular Disease Society.

In fact running is a good way to raise funds as I did a 10K back in 2007 and rasied over £1,000 for the Parkinson’s Disease Society. I have even run between WHS Travel stores (train & underground stations) in central London in the late 90’s. A more leisrely fundraiser was last year’s All Booked Up where myself and my daughter (who has done some sterling fundraising herself and made me one proud dad) did a year long sponsored read for Surrey Young Carers.

So times are hard but try & help where you can, as the real stars are those who donate their money or signed goodies for charity auctions and spread the word as fundraising is no good if no-one knows you are doing it or supports it.

Top 10 highest bidded items (to date) 

(Final selling price listed at the end of each item)

1  Rebus (Ian Rankin) malt whisky (for Beating Bowel Cancer)       £1,319.00

2  Signed Red Dwarf script (for the Insulin Dependent Diabetes Trust)  £857.77

3 Guitar lesson and lunch with John Mitchell (It Bites/Arena/Frost) (for CLAPA) £370

4  Signed Pendragon ‘Passion’ CD/DVD (for Make-A-Wish Foundation UK)  £105.00

5  Signed Harry James (Thunder/Magnum) drumsticks (for Donna Louise Trust) £103.00

6  Vinny Burns guitar lesson (for the Macular Disease Society) £62.00

7  Signed Eden’s Curse goody bag (for Parkinson’s UK)  £54.01

8 John Sinclair’s tour jacket from his days in Ozzy Osbourne’s band (for Make-A-Wish Foundation UK) £46.45

9 Signed FM CD (for the Macular Disease Society)  £41.00

10  Signed Rodney Matthews ‘Sleepwalking’ poster (for Parkinson’s UK)  £35.27

Total  = £2,973.50

Centrepoint, Ealing Half Marathon, Macmillan Cancer Support, News & Updates, Running

Dorney Dash again this year :)

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I am entering the Dorney Dash 10K on Saturday 26th July after really enjoying last year’s run. It is my training run for the Ealing Half marathon later in the year. Lovely course with two laps around Dorney Lake used by Eton College and in 2012 it was the Olympic rowing lake.

I have also added Macmillan Cancer Support as a charity I am running the Ealing Half marathon for, along with the Centrepoint charity.

Centrepoint, Ealing Half Marathon, News & Updates, Running

Running the Ealing half marathon for Centrepoint charity

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I had a year off fundraising and as I enjoyed the Ealing half marathon so much last year I thought I’d do it again! I am going to raise funds for the charity Centrepoint who help young homeless people in London and the north. They do some sterling work and they have inspired me to run for them (along with the great work my old school pal Jerome  does with the homeless charities in Hull).

Anything you can do to help would be much appreciated and any support on the day most welcome. It’s a (mainly) flat course and plenty of good vantage points along the route.

https://www.justgiving.com/ealing2014/

Centrepoint is the UK’s leading charity for homeless young people. It supports over 6,000 16-25 year olds into housing and employment every year. Working directly in London and the north of England, Centrepoint also partners with other organisations across the UK and gives homeless young people a voice through the Centrepoint Parliament. It conducts research and influences government policy with the overall aim of ending youth homelessness.

£15 could provide a warm and safe place to stay for the night for a vulnerable 16-25 year old with nowhere else to go

£20 could provide a workshop about the consequences and risks of drug use run by one of our specialist health therapists

£50 could pay for the clothes that a young person would need to attend an interview or start an apprenticeship

£120 could help keep our emergency service running for another day: helping young people straight from the street

Thanks as ever for your continued support and feel free to spread the word

PS Last year you all helped with raising £1,246.24 for three charities:

Cleft Lip & Palate Association (CLAPA) = £498.29 (Staines 10K)

National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) = £52.95 (Staines 10K)

Cancer Research UK = £695 (Dorney 10K – I donated my running legs for an event in memory of a fellow Magnum fan, the hard part of fundraising was done by his family, friends, fellow fans and the band members)

Centrepoint, Ealing Half Marathon, News & Updates, Running

Raising funds for Centrepoint

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There are 80,000 young people experience homelessness every year. Centrepoint support 1,000 of them with housing, health and learning.

I will be aiming to complete the Ealing half marathon for the second year running and hoping to raise some vital funds for Centrepoint.

There will be some signed goodies via eBay to help boost the funds raised.

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