I’ve been running the 10km distance for quite a while now, and I’m comfortable there, however I don’t want to get complacent with my efforts. With the London Virgin Marathon 2010 having just passed, I was really feeling the running bug even more than I would normally let on.
I think the thing that really sealed it for me though was reading some of the articles in the April/May issue of Runners World about the people who have suffered at the hands of disease and illness but still have what it takes to carry on.
I don’t think of any of the three of them as privileged – They don’t live in a fancy mansion or get to dress in designer clothes, but they get what they need, sometimes more, but never anything less. This made me stop and think about the kids out there who do have less though, who are under-privileged and the one that sprung to mind was abused kids. Kids are kids. No matter what is wrong with you, life or how you are feeling, a child should never face the brunt of that, and for that reason, I’ve decided I’m going to do my bit to support the NSPCC.
No offense to them in the slightest, but I often feel that charities like Cancer Research get a lot of attention particularly at sporting events like these, which means that they often get lots of runners and lots of sponsorship meaning that other important causes sometimes get forgotten or pushed aside.
I’ve never given to a charity before largely due to the fact that, as selfish as it may sound, we need the money ourselves – Bills don’t pay themselves, however running is free, which means I can help a good cause, have a good time doing it and it doesn’t stop the bills getting paid.
As a 10km runner at the moment, I felt I was being perhaps slightly optimistic to aim at a full marathon just yet. The step from 10km to 40km seems rather daunting, however a half marathon at 21km seems perfectly reasonable when I’ve ran 15km once before, but nobody said that was going to be a cake-walk.
Today I registered as a runner for the NSPCC teamGO in the London Run to the Beat Half Marathon 2010 in Greenwich.
The race is on September 26th, 122 days from today. The NSPCC ask that all runners raise at least £300, however I want to do more – I want to get to £500 because I the cause it worth it. I’m running with a target time of 1hr 50mins but I’d be happy with sub 2 hours.
Between now and September, I’m going to be doing all I can to promote NSPCC. I’ve asked for their permission to alter the branding on my blog here and also my Twitter page to their green colour and to incorporate their logo into the site to try and help. I’m also going to be wearing the NSPCC running vest I receive for participating in the event on my daily runs to try and get people in the area of my office to see me and perhaps stump up a few donations for the cause.
I’ll also be spamming links to the page on my Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts for people to access.
Thanks
Richard