Without a tour fund the USA 2011 run is simply not going to happen. Thankfully, I've been saving as much as I can for the last 6 months and I'm well on target to have the required funds (exchange rate permitting) in place by the end of 2010.
The job of trying to come up with an accurate costing won't happen until the end of this year but I'm currently aiming to have £15,000 in place to cover things such as mobile accommodation (pictured), air fares, fuel, insurance and food. I'm currently just short of 1/3 of that figure and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the exchange rates improve between now and 2011. The fund will receive a boost in the School's Summer holidays when I start cycling to and from work and put aside the saved petrol money. I also plan to have 2 fund raising evenings this year and next where the proceeds will be split between the Tour Fund and the charities. Watch this space for further info. I also hope to attract some commercial sponsorship and will start working on that in the Summer.
As you can see, this run will come at a great personal cost but the rewards for the 2 charities could be massive. I don't like setting targets but I don't think that £75,000 is an unrealistic sum of money to raise for an event of this magnitude. I once set a target of £5,000 for the John O'Groats to Lands End run in 2007. That event ultimately yielded £34,108. The USA 2011 run is 3.5 times the distance. It would be nice to raise 3.5 times the money for St Benedict's Hospice and The Children's Foundation.
