Tomorrow is day one of a new nine day personal challenge. I will be doing a one mile run around my drive followed by a ten mile bike ride on my stationary Watt Bike (also on my drive using the Swift app) followed by a one mile run around my drive.
I’ll add one mile to the running legs and ten miles to the cycle leg each day for the subsequent eight days.
So that means on day two (Easter Sunday) it will be two miles of running, twenty miles of cycling and another two miles of running to finish and so on.
This progression will continue every day, right up to next Sunday (the 19th of April). Those last three days will see the miles ramped up slightly in order to achieve a total of 100 miles of running and 500 miles of cycling with a full marathon on the final day and 120 miles on the bike. ALL ON MY DRIVE! ALL IN NINE DAYS.
This is the planned schedule and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about it:
I haven’t moved much at all over the previous four weeks so this is going to be very tough physically. The monotony of being on my drive for so many miles is going to be extremely challenging mentally. AUSTRALIA WILL HAVE NOTHING ON THIS!
Fitting it around work will be logistically challenging. I'm on call most of this weekend during the night and I'll be fitting my day job in next week too (albeit from home).
If you would like to sponsor my #stayathomeultraduathlon then please visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/rungeordierun and make a much needed donation to St. Benedict's Hospice.
With all of the fundraising events that have been cancelled recently, St. Benedict’s Hospice need our love and support more than ever. It’s 25 years since they cared for my Mam during her final days battling cancer. The debt of gratitude I feel to the Hospice is still as strong now as it always has been.
I hugely appreciate that this will be a tough time financially for many people. Whatever can be donated would be hugely appreciated and will collectively make a difference. I refer, of course, to the £105,000 that was raised during my run across the USA in 2011. Of that sum, £50,000 was made up of donations of ten pounds or much less.
I can't begin to imagine how difficult it must be for the patients in the hospice at present and their families who may not be able to visit. I really can't imagine being in that position when my Mam was there. The thought of it is unbearable.
I often think of the incredible continuing care being given by the doctors, nurses and wider team at St. Benedict's Hospice (pictured below). They, like their NHS colleagues and many other people who are keeping the country running and stocked up, deserve endless praise and admiration.
Suddenly, cycling and running on my drive and continuing to clap at my front door on a Thursday seems the very least that I can be doing.
As always, I’m going to give it my best shot over the next nine days. Don’t be surprised to see a grown man crawling to the finish line next weekend.
Please watch out for updates over the coming days on the Run Geordie Run Facebook page, on Instagram and Twitter.
Finally, please sponsor me with any amount you can using my Virgin Money Giving page in aid of St. Benedict's Hospice at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/rungeordierun.
Thanks in advance. Watch this space for updates over the coming nine days.
