Cherry Active Smoothie

Here is a quick recipe for a recovery smoothie that I really like drinking after a tough run. It's a different and very tasty way to have my daily dose of Cherry Active.

Ingredients

• 30 ml Cherry Active 
• Couple of handfuls of frozen summer fruits (Blueberry, Blackberry, Raspberry)
• One sliced apple
• A dash of lime juice
• A dash of vimto

Add water to dilute the concentrate and blend (from low to high if you have variable speeds) until smooth. Mmmmmm.

Run Geordie Run t-shirt on Geordie Shore

The Run Geordie Run t-shirt has appeared in many different places and with many famous (and not so famous) folk over the last 4 years. This week, it was the turn of MTV's Geordie Shore star Holly Hagan to don the special commemorative USA 2011 version of the t-shirt. Holly is pictured on the right below and on the left in the 2nd picture. 

The image below is from the 4th episode in the second series of Geordie Shore where Holly somehow managed to wear the t-shirt as a dress. Will that catch on I wonder?

Thanks to MTV and the Geordie Shore cast for their support of Run Geordie Run. 

Australia 2013 - It will all start here!

The start of the run across Australia will be very much like the start of the run across the USA. The setting is a very beautiful beach with an iconic building close by. Regular readers will remember that I started the 3100 mile run across the USA in 2011 at Ruby's Cafe on Huntington Beach. The start of the run across Australia will be at the Pavilion on Cottesloe Beach in Perth, Western Australia (pictured below) on Wednesday 16th October 2013.

I've already had numerous emails and Tweets from ex-pats and residents alike down under. The early indications are that the local support will be on a much larger scale than that which I experienced in the USA. This is very encouraging and will be much needed as the next big run is going to be far more difficult than the last one across the USA.

Now that I have a start point I'll be in a position to publish the entire route very soon. Watch this space!

Run Geordie Run on the menu!

I'm always on the lookout for good quality fundraising ideas that sit well with the Run Geordie Run brand and today was one of my better ones (well, PR Girl Kathryn Shenton's mainly).

I had a very productive meeting with those kind folk, Jim and Gavin (pictured below), at Firenze Italian Restaurant in Jesmond this afternoon. Also present was The Children's Foundation's fundraising manager, Libby Nolan (pictured below) and my PR and design partners in crime, Kathryn and Dave Shenton.

I wish all meetings could be as fun as this one was as the main item on the agenda was the design and creation of a special "Run Geordie Run" main course. The pasta dish will go permanently on Firenze's main menu with part of the sale price donated to The Children's Foundation! Brilliant!

Half way through the meeting our discussion took a turn for the better when Jim and Gavin suggested that I should also think of a starter and a pudding to accompany the main course. This took me by complete surprise and while I'd given the main course lots of thought over the last week I didn't really know what to suggest for the other courses. 

The main course, which will be revealed all in good time, is a very healthy representation of the Italian flavours and ingredients that I enjoy. It's not one I've ever seen on a menu before and I think it will prove very popular. The starter will also be healthy and I have a few ideas on that which I'll be telling the lads at Firenze about when we next meet. The pudding, however, will be not so healthy! I make no apologies for that! 

While I have many good ideas about the 3 courses, it's great to have the expert help and guidance of Gavin and Jim from Firenze. They recognise that it is important that I have input into the design of the dishes and that they are something that I will not only enjoy eating but will also help with the nutritional side of my preparation for the run across Australia. Well the first 2 courses will at least. The pudding course is there purely for indulgence purposes!

I've heard lots of good things about Firenze from many different sources, so the signs are that we are all in for a treat once the creation and fine tuning of these dishes is complete. The menu should be "live" in March. Watch this space for further updates. In the meantime, on behalf of The Children's Foundation, it is a real pleasure to have Firenze Restaurant on board. Here's to the successful sale of Run Geordie Run dishes at my favourite Italian Restaurant in Jesmond.

Please click here to visit the Firenze website.

The final total for USA 2011

It is with immense pleasure, pride and gratitude that I'm able to announce that the final fundraising total for St Benedict's Hospice (Charity No. 1019410) and The Children's Foundation (Charity No 1000013) is an incredible £105,233.00! Thanks, once again, to everyone who made a contribution to that total. There are literally thousands of you who have donated. I'll never grow tired of saying that every single donation was appreciated. No matter how large or small, they have all made a huge difference to the 2 charities.  

The amount of individual donations of £10 and under has gone to make up a considerable portion of the £105,233.00. This is why people giving whatever they can afford, was so important to the 2 charities. This is why I valued those donations just as much as the huge donations. 

As regular readers of this blog will know, the 3100 mile run across the USA in 100 days was an amazing journey. It was a difficult journey but one that was very much worth it. The next challenge, of course, is to run across Australia in just 70 days. The fundraising target for that run is £50,000. It's going to take a superhuman effort and lots of generousity to raise that kind of money again. I really do think that running 41 miles per day from Perth to Sydney will capture people's imagination. Via this blog and through increased media coverage, I will be trying my best to take people along the journey; both in training and the actual run itself. If it's half as exciting as the run across the USA then we are all in for a treat.

I look forward to getting back to updating the blog regularly in the new year. There is so much going on behind the scenes. I've got numerous motivational talks coming up. I now sit on the Regional Small Grants Panel at The Children's Foundation. I'm working on a couple of initiatives with the media and local charities. In a nutshell, life before the run across the USA is no longer recognisable from the one I have now. I have no complaints whatsoever. 

Finally, to all the readers of this blog, I wish you all the best for 2012. My hopes for the new year are that with continued courage, integrity and faith giant steps towards the next victory will be achieved.

Happy New Year!

BBC North East Sports Awards

Last week I was invited to the BBC North East Sports Awards in Gateshead. I'd been looking forward to this event for a while and I hoped to be inspired by some "proper" sports personalities. 

After giving a quick interview to BBC Newcastle's Total Sport show it was time to take my seat. Sitting 2 seats away was the Newcastle United Assistant manager, John Carver and we had a good chat about all things NUFC. The empty seat next to me was for the Newcastle United Captain, Fabricio Coloccini. He turned up just before proceedings got underway.

The hosts for the evening were BBC Newcastle's Charlie Charlton and Jeff Brown. The audience was full of sporting legends such as Bob Moncur, Jack Charlton, Steve Cram, Mike McLeod, Chris Cook and Stephen Miller to name but a few.

Some of the awards categories were the Disability Sport Award, Team of the Year, Unsung Hero and The Jackie Milburn Award. 

There was a shift away from the awards with a Judo display and it was good to see Charlie Charlton getting involved. Following the Judo Charlie started talking about the next award; Sporting Inspiration. Without naming names at this stage, Jeff Brown called it "the inspiration not only of this year, but of any year". What followed was quite simply one of the proudest moments of my life as footage was shown of my run across the USA. It was at this point that I realised I had won the award. 

I received the award from Fabricio Coloccini himself and talked to Charlie Charlton about the run across the USA, the 2 charities, the amount raised and also gave a mention about the up and coming run across Australia. 

Winning the award was brilliant obviously. To be able to talk about the USA and also Australia to such an esteemed audience was another great piece of PR. 

Middlesbrough manager Tony Mowbray won the main award of the evening. I had a good chat with him after the ceremony had finished and he was very interested in the USA run; asking plenty of questions.

It was also great to catch up with Stephen Miller and Chris Cook. I had a good long chat with Bob Moncur before I left too. 

As I was on my way out, the Head Coach of Gateshead Thunder asked if I'd like to train with them in the build up to Oz 2013. Watch this space for news on that next year.

All in all it was a fantastic evening. Thank you to the BBC for bestowing such a prestigious honour on me.

The Northern Echo Local Heroes Awards

I was lucky enough to win the Northern Echo Local Heroes Award for "Remarkable Achievement" a few weeks ago. Quite appropriately, a remarkable runner called Paul Smith nominated me for the award. This guy has ran for over 1800 consecutive days. That is no mean feat believe you me.

The award was presented by former Manchester United centre half Gary Pallister, Northumbria Water's head of communications Alistair Baker and TV presenter Kay Murray. It was nice to talk to Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew afterwards too. We last met, of course, back in Columbus when I tossed the coin before the match. That all seems like such a long time ago now! Also in attendance was boxer, Tony Jeffries and it was great to talk to Steve Cram about the USA run and also the Kielder Marathon.

The best thing about the award was that it came with a £250 cash prize. That went straight to the 2 charities and saw the fund pass over the £104,000 mark.

Thanks again to Paul Smith for the nomination and to The Northern Echo for such a wonderful night and esteemed award.

And the winner is….

Recently, I've been lucky enough to win 2 awards; Derwentside Physical Activity Achievement of the Year and the County Durham Sport Physical Activity Achievement of the Year. While I was running across the USA, winning awards never entered my mind. Completing the run and raising double the £50,000 sponsorship target for St Benedict's Hospice and The Children's Foundation is all the personal reward and satisfaction I would ever need.

That said, when these awards do come along, I'm ever so grateful and, moreover, extremely proud to receive them. Imagine, my utter surprise when I won another award last week. Not only another award, but not one directly related to physical activity or, indeed, the IT industry in which I currently work. 

I was delighted to be invited to attend the PRide awards hosted by the North East Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) at the Hilton in Gateshead. There were many awards up for grabs and the new PR girl for Run Geordie Run, Katherine Shenton (pictured below), won the Best Freelance Practitioner award.

Despite having a more than succesful UK PR campaign this year,  I never quite got the PR right in the US. Having Katherine on board is going to help take the campaign to the next level for the trans Australia run in 2013. I'm a firm believer that to be successful, you have to surround yourself with positive, like minded experts. The list of such people is growing very nicely and Kathryn joins the likes of David Fairlamb Fitness, The Cradlewell Clinic, Real Radio, The Journal and Tyne Bridge Harriers. Work is ongoing, behind the scenes to add to this list and the early indications are that Australia 2013 has the potential to be every bit as successful as USA 2011.

Meanwhile, back to Friday and the PRide awards! I won the COMMUNICATOR OF THE YEAR award. Following the presentation of the trophy I was able to deliver an acceptance speech. My opening line was "Communicator of the year! Wow! I don't know what to say!". My planned funny line was greeted with silence and I could just about make out a tumbleweed at the back of the room.

That duff line aside, I was very pleased with my speech and it gave me the chance to talk about the Run Geordie Run brand, the success of the campaign and to thank those in the media who'd helped make USA 2011 a success; Real Radio, ITV Tyne Tees, nufc.com, BBC and The Journal.

I closed by reflecting on the fact that I thought my parents would have been very proud of my award. It's these profound moments in life that make running 3100 miles for charity so extra special.

I got to meet some very interesting people and I thoroughly enjoyed the PRide 2011 event. I'd like to say thanks to CIPR for their hospitality and for giving me such a prestigous award.

It's Australia!

I wish I had a pound for every time that I'd been asked about the next big run due to take place in 2013. I really do apologise for keeping everyone in suspense but it has taken 2 months of research to devise a run that sees a huge step up in difficulty compared to the run across the USA. I was also mindful of getting approval from my family and talking about the risks involved before letting everyone else know.

This morning, I announced, on Gary and Lisa's Breakfast show on Real Radio, that the next big run would be ……….. *drum roll* ………... across Australia in 2013 in aid of St Benedict's Hospice and The Children's Foundation. As per usual, we had great fun on the show and Producer Mac had created an appropriate music package to be played in the background during the announcement.

The 2600 mile route from Perth to Sydney via the Nullarbor Plain and Adelaide will take 70 days. To break that down, that's 41 miles of running for 64 days with 6 full rest days built in. Luxury! I've got no doubt, at this stage, that the timing of those rest days will be on of the key factors in the success of this particular run. 

It is a coast to coast route starting on October 16th 2013 in an exact location that is yet to be decided on the coastline of Perth. The final day of the run will be on Christmas Eve 2013, over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, finishing up on Bondi Beach (Hopefully with my family waiting there).

Since news broke on Real Radio, I've spent the day talking about the run to various publications including The Evening Chronicle, The Journal and The Northern Echo. Later in the day, I was thrilled to appear on ITV's North East Tonight show with Ian Payne and Pam Royle. I rounded the media day off with a visit to the BBC to talk to Simon Pryde, John Anderson and Marco Gabbiadini on Total Sport. It was also great to see a piece on the eve supportive and well read website nufc.com.

Aside from the conventional media, "rungeordierun" was trending in the North East on Twitter and there was a lot of support on Facebook too. All in all, a great day's publicity for Run Geordie Run and the 2 charities. The reaction I've received from all quarters has been one of "You're mad!". This tells me that running across Australia during the Summer is the right level of difficulty to warrant another £50,000 fundraising target for the 2 charities.

Unlike the previous runs I've done over the last 17 years, the run across Australia will need commercial backing. It cost me £15,000 to fund the run across the USA. I quite simply can't afford to do that again. Mrs Run Geordie Run would lynch me! It was for that reason alone that I'd always intended to make the run across the USA my final fundraiser. So for the first time in my fundraising career it's time to find a sponsor that will pay for the tour itself. 

Given the amount of interest in Run Geordie Run and, more importantly, the funds that have been raised, I owe it to the 2 charities to give it one more shot and try to raise another £50,000. If successful, this would take the total fundraising to over £200,000 since 1994. 

The last run attracted thousands of sponsors and was consistently backed and encouraged by Ben Shephard, Tony Jeffries and Mark Beaumont to name but 3 famous folk. It was talked about at length on the Chris Moyles show on Radio 1, on Real Radio, Metro Radio and BBC Newcastle. The run was featured on nufc.com, BBC news, Newsround, ITV news and received a huge amount of national publicity during the Great North Run. The run featured heavily in the local press, including many front pages on The Journal, and has had features in numerous glossy publications. 

The point I'm making here is that there is a lot of familiarity of Run Geordie Run and the support that goes with it is first class. At the benefit of the 2 charities, it would be prudent to take this forward into a new running campaign. I simply can't call it quits after the USA. I've got to attempt another run; a far more difficult and dangerous run with logistical issues that are quite simply unfathomable at this point in time.

I'll be working with David Fairlamb Fitness again and also my membership of Tyne Bridge Harriers is going to be of great benefit too. 

Australia represents new and more complex challenges on numerous levels. If it's only half as dramatic as the run across the USA then we're all in for a treat. The hard work starts here for Australia 2013.

Run Geordie Run USA 2011 commemorative limited edition t-shirt

Run Geordie Run USA 2011 Limited Edition commemorative t-shirts are £12 each with the full £12 going to The Children's Foundation (Charity No. 1000013). Please use  the order form below then follow the instructions on how to pay by justgiving.com.