Looking for divine intervention

Today is day one of stage five of the run around the world. The clock has started ticking and there are 100 days left before I need to reach the finish line 2,900 miles (4700 km) away in Astana, Kazakhstan. 

I'm very disappointed to report that there is no running being done and this run will be in deficit right from day one. The problem is that Chappie, my buggy (pictured below), is still in a customs warehouse somewhere in Belgrade where he will remain until the customs issues I am faced with can be resolved.

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A new working week begun here in Belgrade this morning meaning that I was able to start speaking to the relevant people in an attempt to resolve this problem. I was at the British Embassy for 0745 to talk to some key people there who in turn would be able to continue talking to the agent here in Belgrade who is representing the UK based freight company that I used.

As things stand, it's currently 1500 (1400 BST) and I have yet to hear if any solution has been reached. I am literally waiting for an email or phone call of any positive or negative nature. I am also playing out all of the plan Bs, Cs, Ds, Es to Zs in my mind from my hotel room where I am writing this blog post from. Speaking of which, I was supposed to check out of the hotel this morning but I have thankfully been able to extend that by a day. Thank you to the Hotel Royal Inn for being so helpful.

The plans I am thinking about range from abandoning all hope and returning to the UK. I quit my job to do this run so I will look for work as soon as I get home. With that, I have emailed the freight company, Whittle Eastern Europe Logistics, asking what happens next if we can't find a solution. Do we "return to sender"? Do my goods get seized or disposed of? What are the costs? etc etc. That is a drastic plan of action but I'm asking the questions now rather than later.

Another drastic plan is to simply set off running from Belgrade later this week unsupported,  unassisted and without Chappie. Probably with just a backpack and passport. It's a scenario not too dissimilar from running from Edinburgh to Newcastle, like I have done many times in training. The problem this time is that I'd need to run the equivalent of that distance 29 times in 100 days. As you can see from the map above, it's a long way from Belgrade to Astana.

I'm not saying that I'm going to do anything drastic. It's just to give you an idea of the fact that I'm trying to think of any and all solutions to start the run to Astana that are in my control and in the event of not having a buggy for support. There are also a number of solutions in between the two described above that I've considered.

For the next 24 hours, all that I can do is wait to hear news about the release of my buggy.

Back to the British Embassy this morning and I got unexpectidly ushered into a room with all of the other staff shortly after 9 am. Soon after, the British Ambassador, Denis Keefe, introduced none other than Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury to everyone in attendance.

If I didn't feel like an imposter already, a staff member called Dusan took the liberty of explaining to all in the room that there were a "couple of stranded Geordies" in attendance. I saw this as my opportunity to take the floor and explain all about my run around the world and my efforts for St Benedict's Hospice. After all, the hospice previously came under his Grace's jurisdiction during his time as Bishop of Durham. 

I also talked to His Grace about my customs issues and that I was currently running almost an hour behind schedule with the run scheduled to start at 0830 today! He wished me good luck and hopefully he will have a word with his "boss" for help.

I should really apologise to the Embassy staff for taking up so much of the Archbishop's time but it's not every day that you get to talk to such a prominent figure about the run around the world and the reasons for doing it.

So that was my start to the week. As soon as I hear any news or have a plan of action in place I will update this page as well as the Run Geordie Run Facebook and Twitter pages (links above).

Given that so much money has been raised so far this run must and will go ahead. How that will actually be done is out of my hands at present.

Checking the route out of Belgrade

Carlton and I carried out a reccy of the first 4 miles of my route out of Belgrade and over the Pančevo Bridge accompanied by a local runner called Vladan this morning.

It was a very useful exercise and I now have a good idea of how tricky it will be to run safely out of the city when stage 5 of the run around the world eventually gets underway. I have a meeting at the British Embassy at 8am on Monday to progress that by the way. I'll update this site as well as Facebook and Twitter when I have something to report tomorrow.

Thanks to Carlton and Vladan for some good company this morning.

Relive 'Belgrade reccy'

Welcome to Belgrade

Hello from Belgrade where support man Carlton and I arrived on Friday after a few minor flight delays caused by fog in Amsterdam. Once we arrived in Belgrade, we were greeted by Vlad who is acting as a "fixer" for me here in Serbia. Thanks to Vlad for getting us safely to the hotel from the airport. He has also been able to source some items such as cooking gas which I wasn't able to transport in Chappie. 

Vlad, pictured below, previously spent some time living and working in Newcastle. That, together with some excellent local knowledge means that he is well placed to have my back covered and has proved to be a valuable asset so far.  

My plan of spending Saturday prepping Chappie for the journey ahead has unfortunately gone out of the window. The latest situation is that Chappie is still stuck in customs despite best efforts yesterday afternoon to find a solution. Thanks again to Vlad for acting as an interpreter with the "ferry agent" acting on behalf of the freight company here in Serbia. 

Unfortunately, it’s currently the weekend and the expert that I need to speak to isn’t available until Monday. All other key people in this transaction are fully aware of the requirement so hopefully we can make quick and positive progress on Monday. 

I will need a few hours to prep Chappie before setting off so, at this stage, it looks like Tuesday could well be the start of stage five of the run around the world here in Belgrade. That's probably the best case scenario right now.

A Tuesday start will put me under pressure straight away. The first major milestone of reaching Kiev on June 30th would mean spreading Monday’s lost 31 miles over the following 25 days. It’s not too bad when you think about it in those terms but it makes an already tough task so much tougher. Throw into the mix that I have a rest day scheduled in Satu Mare, Romania and that complicates things. One option is to lose that first rest day. It’s an option that I’m seriously considering. 

A Tuesday or Wednesday start wouldn’t be a disaster but I’d have to perform at the kind of level that saw me finish the run across the USA on time and within 100 days! 

I need to be in Kiev on June 30th. That’s 777 miles from the start line in Belgrade. My current schedule to get those miles done is in 26 days with 1 rest day on day 10. If I had 25 or 24 days then I’d have to go “all in” to get to Kiev on time where I have 3 rest days. Those 3 rest days could be even more important than I’d originally thought. It would be enough time to recover and get back to the normal schedule of 31 miles per day for the remaining 71 days. Anyway, nothing can be done to progress the situation with Chappie until Monday. 

There are options. There are permutations. I love a battle. I thrive in pressure situations. I have amazing support online and here in Belgrade (Vlad, Carlton and my old ally Dusan at the British Embassy). A load of money has been raised so far and is still coming in to St Benedict’s Hospice every day. There are lots of positives and I feel in a very good place mentally at this early stage to deal with anything that comes my way.

Back to today and Carlton and I completed our reccy of the route away from the the start point of stage 5 which is the Victor statue and then through Kalemegdan. This landmark was, of course, where stage 4 finished back in 2016 (with me being 6 stone lighter then!). The route into and out of Kalemegdan looks good and very passible for Chappie. Images from our reccy are below.

Tomorrow morning’s plan is to run the first few miles of my intended route out of Belgrade from Kalemegdan. I’ll be looking for any potential obstacles and hazards for Chappie. When I do eventually get to start this run, it’s important that I navigate out of the city as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible.

Laku noć from Belgrade. Remember that you can follow the journey on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The links are in the header of this blog.

Thank you SOS Group

There are now only five days to go until the start pop stage five of the run around the world! The to do list is getting smaller and I've heard that Chappie has cleared customs in Serbia. On that subject, thank you to the British Embassy in Belgrade and also my friends at Virgin Money for helping with the final bit of red tape needed to get Chappie into Serbia. It's another brilliant example of a sponsor of mine being #morethanasponsor. That's a hash tag that I've felt inclined to use quite a bit recently.

Another major thing that was ticked off the to do list was finalising my insurance. This task has taken a lot longer to complete but it was hugely important that I obtained an adequate level of cover for the task ahead. It was the most expensive insurance policy that I've ever signed up to but it should give everyone peace of mind. Just like the previous three such policies for the run around the world let's hope that it isn't needed.

Back to the subject of sponsors, and I paid a visit to my main sponsor SOS Group today. To say that SOS have been very supportive of my running is an absolute understatement. It was brilliant to be able to thank them for their support in person before I leave for Belgrade on Friday.

As well as some final thank yous, I was presented with my new kit from director Andrew Skelton (pictured below).  It was good to see that he was wearing the now sold out special edition Run Geordie Run t-shirt for the proceedings.

For reasons of practicality and comfort I've decided to run in a cycling top this time. My new kit comes in various sizes to ensure that it's a decent fit all throughout the run. I'll be losing a huge amount of weight yet again. My estimate is six stone and approximately 20% of body fat. I'll be getting weighed tomorrow morning at Primal Fitness to give me an idea of what the start weight is.  

Thanks to Andrew for taking time out to hand the kit over. He appears to be a very busy man at the minute but, despite that, has been able to help me get Chappie for various visits here and there this last month with the help of one of his SOS vans. That's on top of all of the other charitable causes and sporting events that the company are involved with. 

Thanks SOS for your brilliant support. 

If you'd like to take a 3D tour of my new kit then please click the images below.

Chappie is on his way...hopefully

Chappie left the North East of England last Wednesday on the long journey to the drop off point at the British Embassy in Belgrade. The estimated time of arrival in Serbia is this Friday, just after I land in the country.

I received a telephone call this morning to say that there was an issue at the border crossing into Serbia from Croatia. The particular problem is that the packing list that accompanies Chappie says that he is a "three wheeled sled". This conflicts with what customs officers were seeing. Specifically, they thought they were seeing a "bicycle".

If you consider the image below, taken last week, I suppose if you didn't know what the run around the world was all about then, yes, you may mistake Chappie for a bicycle. 

I haven't had an update on Chappie's whereabouts since the customs issue this morning. Hopefully, he'll arrive safe and sound in Belgrade tomorrow. Watch this space for more news as and when I get it.

D-Line visit

I've got six days of final preparations to complete before stage five of the run around the world starts in Belgrade, Serbia. Amongst today's tasks was to make a visit to my sponsor D-Line in North Tyneside. Regular readers will know that D-line supported me on stage four and have very kindly offered further support for this current stage.  

D-Line are all about invention and innovation in my opinion. Despite being a local company, their range of cable management products are shipped all over the world.

Their strategy of using innovation to drive success aligns very much with my own. Our partnership is one that has grown stronger over the last few years and without them the charity total would not be as high as it is. A very good recent example of this was when they paid the £688 production costs of the latest Run Geordie Run t-shirt. This meant that a very pleasing £1800 was raised for St Benedict's Hospice as a result. That's a brilliant return on their spend and I'm hugely grateful to them.  

D-Line are also sponsors of rungeordierun.com and all proceeds from that deal have gone to charity.

Back to today and it was brilliant to talk to the room full of D-Line staff about my run around the world. There were some excellent questions put to me. This of course meant that I was able to tell some stories, that aren't often heard in my talks (mainly because I talk to a lot of schools and colleges). 

My particular favourites are from the run across the USA. I talked about the encounter with the "weirdos" on route 66, the drugs bust in Oro Grande, being quesitoned at gun point in the Mojave Desert and the gang that I met in Springfield, Ohio. They are all great anecdotes in their own right and will surely have to feature in a book one day.

I also talked about how the world run came about, some of the other stages and of course why I raise funds for St Benedict's Hospice. Such was the great turnout, I think the entire company must have shut down for an hour! 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the whip round for St Benedict's Hospice and also to D-Line for very kindly matching their staff's donations.

The picture below shows some of the staff holding the new information leaflets that have been created for the next stage.

I'll leave the final word with my sponsor D-Line - "D-Line is a UK company with a global reputation for innovative cable management products. Our range includes the world’s fastest cable trunking systems, as used by trade and consumers, to hide and protect cables in ways that blend with modern surrounds. 

Market-leading fire-rated Safe-D Clips secure cables, while eliminating the risk of fires causing potentially fatal cable entanglements. 

D-Line Cable Tidy and Cable Safety solutions include Cable Protectors that address trip hazards, Cable Tidy Units to contain extension sockets and cable clutter, and market leading Cable Organisers for cable management in homes and workplaces."

New Run Geordie Run t-shirt SOLD OUT

Over the years, Run Geordie Run t-shirts have raised £32,000 for local charities such as St Benedict's Hospice, The Children's Foundation, The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation and Useful Vision.

This latest design (once again by Dave at Shenton Creative) commemorates the fifth stage of the run around the world, the so called "Road to Astana" and has raised a brilliant £1800 for St Benedict's Hospice.

The snazzy red technical fabric garment features the 2900 mile route from Belgrade to Astana on the back of the t-shirt as well as the Run Geordie Run Around The World and St Benedict's Hospice logo on the front. 

I'm sure you'll agree that it's another brilliant design and I'd like to say a huge thank you to Dave at Shenton Creative for his efforts. Efforts, by the way, that have helped raise tens of thousands of pounds for charity. 

An absolutely massive thank you goes to my sponsor D-Line who paid for all production costs and sponsor Fresh Freight Group who are looking after the postage and packing. In time honoured Run Geordie Run tradition this means that every penny that the t-shirts have raised has gone directly to St Benedict's Hospice.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has bought a t-shirt. This particular design has now sold out. Your support is hugely appreciated by myself and St Benedict's Hospice.

Goodbye Chappie and a few thank yous

I’ll be saying a temporary farewell to my buggy, Chappie, later today as he begins the long journey to the British Embassy in Belgrade on the back of a lorry. Regular followers will remember that Chappie is the short name for the Chapman Ventilation Around The World Buggy.

Chapman Ventilation, who have backed me over 3 stages of the run around the world so far, very kindly paid for all production costs of Chappie. A huge thank you to them for helping to turn a pipe dream of running the remaining 11,000 miles around the world unsupported into a reality. Chapman Ventilation already do so much for good causes and I'm eternally grateful to them for their continued support. 

I'll be reunited with Chappie in Belgrade on the afternoon of June 1st. I'll be flying out from Newcastle Airport a little earlier at 0600. I'll also be joined by Carlton Fletcher who was on the support team on stages 2 (USA), 3 (Australia) and 4 (Europe) of the run around the world. Carlton is going to help me with the final prep in Belgrade and will be running the first few miles with me on June 4th before heading back to the UK. Thanks to Carlton for his unwavering support of my running.  

Thanks also go to the many people who have sent me messages of support via email or via social media. It's brilliant to know that there continues to be a lot of interest in my running.

I’ve been asked many times recently how I feel about running 2900 miles unsupported from Serbia to Kazakhstan. It’s a feeling that’s hard to describe. It a mixture of excitement, determination and pride. There are no nerves yet and I think it’s really helped that I’ve broken the run down in my mind into so many small sections. I will quite literally be taking it one mile at a time never mind one day at a time.

Thank you to the individuals who have been in touch with offers of help along the route. I've been following up on these and it looks like I'll have a place to stay in Kiev on my rest days and also some school visits to carry out in Ukraine. There are other leads to chase up in Russia and Kazakhstan.

Thanks to Synergy Language Services for translating my leaflet into Russian. This leaflet (and also the English version) was designed by Dave at Shenton Creative and is being printed by Communisis in partnership with PBL Print and Photoline.

The leaflet is going to be my main method of communication on the Road to Astana. The tri-fold pages can be viewed online here and the poster foldout can be viewed here.

I'll leave the final words to Catrina from St Benedict's Hospice who summed up to me last week exactly what they and the wider hospice movement is all about. Please take 60 seconds to watch it.  

Three hundred thousand pound barrier smashed

There are only two weeks to go before stage five of the run around the world gets underway in Belgrade, Serbia. While the final bits of planning and preparation are going well and I must say that the fundraising has exceeded my expectations way beyond what I ever imagined. 

It gives me great pride to report that the overall around the world fund passed through the £300,000 barrier this morning as the final few special edition t-shirts were sold.

It's not only me that should be filled with pride but everyone who has sponsored me over the years and donated to one of my chosen charities. Without the support of friends, colleagues, family and the wider general public none of this would have been possible.

Despite the amazing overall milestone of £300,000 being hit, there is still some way to go to hit my own personal target of £50,000 for the Road to Astana campaign. As per usual, I will be trying my absolute best to hit that target when stage 5 gets underway on June 4th 2018. It won't be possible without the amazing generosity of the general public. It's a generosity that I never have and never will take for granted. 

I should also mention that, as a result of using Virgin Money Giving (as opposed to other equivalent fund raising sites) to fundraise for the recent campaigns approximately £6,500 extra has been passed to the charities.

Finally, thanks so much if you've ever sponsored me. The totals below show where your money has gone. 

22 miles to Brough Park

So it’s the morning after the day before. Yesterday’s 22 miles really serves as a reminder just how tough stage 5 of the Run Around The World is going to be when it gets under way in 28 days time. The task ahead is simple to explain. I’ve got 100 days to run from Belgrade through Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan to Astana. I’ll be running 31 miles per day which will allow me to take 7 rest days during the 100 day period. And of course, I’ll be pulling a fully laden buggy weighing in at 110kg (17.3 stone). 

After yesterday’s 22 mile training run with Chappie (my Buggy) I felt very tired this morning. Really tired in fact. It’s a familiar tiredness that I’ve faced many times before during the 8,991 miles ran around the world so far. I shuddered knowing that I have to run 9 more miles per day over a 100 day period. If ever I needed a reminder as to how tough the task ahead is going to be, then yesterday was it. 

I must admit that it was a nice end to the run yesterday when I found myself at Brough Park to watch the Newcastle Diamonds take on the Ipswich Witches. The racing provided the usual level of excitement. It was great to be interviewed trackside after heat 8. Thanks Roy for asking some great questions.

The hero of the day with a brilliant final heat was captain Ludvig Lindgren who tipped off a great race meeting with a win that saw Newcastle complete a comeback to get a draw. The best part of the day for me was when Ludvig Lindgren took time out after the meeting to come and have a look at Chappie. He asked some great questions about my up and coming run and what life is like living in a buggy. 

I spent a lot of time talking to former Diamond Matěj Kůs (who was my favourite rider when I started attending the speedway 2 years ago). We chatted about the task ahead and he also talked about his recent experiences in Russia and the people that he encountered. To be able to spend some quality time with your heroes is quite amazing really. 

Thanks go to Steve Brock and Roy Clarke for setting things up at Brough Park. Thanks to Bob Beecroft for giving Chappie a lift home in his van. This meant that I didn’t have to run 14 miles home today. It also means that I’ve got time to carry out some important tasks today such as booking some flights. Thanks also go to everyone who put some money in Chappie’s basket yesterday. 

All in all it was a very tough but enjoyable day. Whenever there is money being raised for St. Benedict's Hospice it’s always going to be a great day. The Diamonds fightback and meeting my heroes was the icing on the cake. 

You can see the 22 mile training route that I took below.

Relive 'Bedlington to Brough Park'