2008 - Year end thoughts (Part 1).

2008 was another good year for fundraising with the sum of £2,601 handed over to The Children's Foundation (Charity No. 1000013) in respect of The Pennine Challenge. Thanks to the team who accompanied me on a 44 mile bike ride and 22 mile run through the harsh terrain of the North Pennines, this took the overall total raised since I began fundraising to over £51,000. Brilliant!

2008 was also the year in which I started training for the 3100 mile run across the USA in 2011. More importantly though, 2008 was the year where the real building blocks started to be put in place to give me the best possible chance of succeeding in the USA. And what exactly do I mean by success?

Success will obviously be managing to finish the run in 1 piece in the 100 days that I've planned to do it in. The next campaign will also be considered a success if I manage to raise a considerable amount of money for St Benedict's Hospice (Charity No 1019410) and The Children's Foundation (Charity No. 1000013). 

The fundraising target is a very ambitious £50,000. At the time of writing there is £1395 worth of pledges on the board. That's not bad at all given that the run is still over 2 years away! I'd like to think that by the end of 2009 that figure will have nudged close to £5000. To help me achieve this I'll be continuing to sell Run Geordie Run t-shirts, selling the places in the "3000 scheme" as well as asking for conventional pledges. Also, thanks to Geordie band "The Exiles", there'll be a couple of charity songs for sale/download too. I saw the 2nd draft of lyrics back in October for the 2 songs. Both songs were superb to say the least! I can't wait to hear what they sound like when put to music.

The t-shirts are selling very well indeed with all proceeds going to the 2 charities. This wouldn't have been possible without the help of Brian Wells (design), customplanet.co.uk (production), Peter McCowie (production costs) and David Fairlamb (erm......well David twisted a few arms).

The first few places in the "3000 scheme" have been taken up too. It is my hope that I'll be able to dedicate each mile of the run to a lost loved one. Please click the link at the right hand side of the page for further details.

As you can probably tell, I'm getting a "little help from my friends" with the organisation and support of this run. I'll talk more about that in part 2 as well as the plans for 2009.

USA 2011 Training Summary - Week 8

Monday 22nd December - Personal Training Session. (01:30:00).

Saturday 27th December - Beach Bootcamp. (00:45:00).

Saturday 27th December - 5 x run up the steps. (00:12:30).

Saturday 27th December - 5 x run up the Priory bank. (00:11:05).

Saturday 27th December - 6 mile run, Tynemouth, pier, Fish Quay and back. (00:58:34).

A very good week of training.

Week 7 of training for the big run in the USA has me thinking that I'm currently well ahead of where I need to be with 2.5 years of training left. Not only that but I'm continuing to develop a whole new level of mental toughness. This is going to be essential to get me through the thousands of miles that I need to do between now and August 2011.

Thankfully, the chest infection I had last week is a thing of the past. This week saw me bounce back with some good running and average minute per mile times coming down to below 9 minutes. I enjoyed a cracking Beach Bootcamp session on Saturday and what I can only describe as the best steps session to date afterwards. I ran 9 times up the steps in King Edwards Bay with a lot less recovery time in between each one. The burn levels were nowhere near as bad as previous weeks and Dave Fairlamb agreed at the end that this was the best attempt yet at what is a difficult explosive style session that gets my heart rate near the red zone every time! It should have been 10 times up the steps but Dave said that if I could beat a passing female jogger who was running up them (with a good head start) then I could drop one.

This week's steps session drew the largest team of people ever to attempt it since I've been doing it. Each person took it in turn to accompany me on each attempt. The encouragement and support from each one of them was brilliant as ever. At the end, my legs were a bit shaky but that didn't stop me from doing a 5 mile run from Tynemouth Beach to Spanish City and back. It was slow on the way out with a toilet stop at the lake (the toilet's at the lake not the lake itself by the way!). I got just past Spanish City when my GPS watch read 2.5 miles. I was much quicker on the way back with the last 2 miles around the 9 minute mark. It was one of those runs where I felt I could have gone on for loads more miles. All in all, it was a very good couple of hours of exercise. The plan now is for a run to become part of the Saturday morning routine after Bootcamp and the steps. There is no festive rest and the next session is this weekend. 6 miles will be on the cards this time. I might be running to Blyth and back by the time the Summer comes!

USA 2011 Training Summary - Week 7

Monday 15th December - 6 mile run, Town Moor. (00:53:34).

Tuesday 16th December - 5 mile run, Race Course. (00:44:30).

Tuesday 16th December - Spinning. (00:45:00).

Tuesday 16th December - Body Pump. (01:00:00).

Thursday 18th December - Personal Training Session. (01:30:00).

Saturday 20th December - Beach Boot Camp. (00:45:00).

Saturday 20th December - 9 x run up the steps. (00:22:08).

Saturday 20th December - 5 mile run, Tynemouth to Whitley Bay and back. (00:51:20).

USA 2011 Training Summary - Week 6

Monday 8th December - 5.2 mile run. (00:52:40).

Monday 8th December - 4.8 mile run. (00:49:43).

Tuesday 9th December - 5 mile run. (01:02:12).

Thursday 10th December - Personal Training Session. (01:30:00).

Saturday 13th December - Beach Boot Camp. (00:45:00).

Saturday 13th December - 7 x run up the steps. (00:14:12).

The 3000 scheme

Running 3100 miles across the USA is a massive undertaking. Just like the 2007 run from John O'Groats to Lands End, I'll be running in memory of lost family members such as my parents Margery and Terry and my brother David. 

I don't want the dedication to lost loved ones to stop there, however. I want to open up this event to as many people as I can. Apart from the obvious effects of raising 10's of thousands of pounds for the 2 charities, it is my sincere hope that this run will have as far reaching an effect as possible and will serve to inspire and to give hope and comfort to as many people as possible. I know from the 1000's of emails I've received over the last 18 months, just how much last year's run and the cause I was running for meant to all of those people who got in touch. It soon became apparent that for every 1 runner like me, there are thousands of stories of great loss but usually great inspiration also.

It is my hope that 3000 miles of the run from California to New York in 2011 will be dedicated to the memory of a lost loved one. I will create a register on this site of all of the names and provide space for a comment or dedication to be left if the recipient wishes. These people will be in my thoughts as I run each mile and I will most certainly hope to draw on the dedications left for inspiration as well as running in their memory. There will be a nominal cost of £2 for each mile. It will be the recipients choice whether this will go to St Benedict's Hospice or The Children's Foundation.

If you would like to have a mile of the USA run in 2011 dedicated to the memory of someone please follow these steps:

1) Pay £2 by visiting either justgiving.com/rungeordierun1 for St Benedict's Hospice or justgiving.com/rungeordierun2 for The Children's Foundation. The choice is yours as to which charity to donate to.

2) Email sponsorship@rungeordierun.com with the following details:

a) Your name or family name.

b) The name of the person I'll be running in memory of.

c) A dedication and/or some information about the person I'll be running in memory of.

d) A picture of the person I'll be running in memory of. 

e) Whether you'd be happy for me to include some or all of the above details in a register on this website and if you'd be happy to have the person's name mentioned on this site during the run. You can supply as much or as little information as you would like.

Hopefully, all miles will be dedicated but one thing is fore sure, it will be an honour and a privilege to run in the memory of all of those people who are sadly no longer with us.

100% profit for charities!

Thanks to the generosity of Peter McCowie, who has offered to foot the bill for production costs, the entire proceeds from the first batch of t-shirts will be split between St Benedict's Hospice and The Children's Foundation! Superb!

I've just met Peter recently at the Beach Bootcamp sessions on a Saturday but he is no stranger to the cause. Peter was one of the sponsors of last year's run, finding out about the event via nufc.com.

The t-shirts are being printed today and I'd like to say a massive thank you to Peter, David Fairlamb, customplanet.co.uk and Brian Wells for their help.

Chest infection!

I was 10 miles into this week's 50 mile schedule when a nasty chest infection took hold. I still had a go at yesterday's 5 mile run but it was a useless attempt. I managed to do 1 mile on the very icy paths of Gosforth. The cold caused a bit of pain in my chest and throat so I did the last 4 miles on the treadmill in the gym.

I seemed to have very little energy so the whole 5 miles took over an hour to complete. It was only when I had a sauna at the end of the session that the pain went.

I'm listening to my body today and therefore won't be doing the planned 10 miles. Hopefully, I'll be running again by the weekend though. It's been a long while since a chest infection has caused me to rest up. Given, the icy cold conditions I've been running in recently perhaps this was inevitable. I can't wait for the Summer!

USA 2011 Training Summary - Week 5

Monday 1st December - Spinning. (00:45:00).
Tuesday 2nd December - Personal Training Session. (01:15:00). 

Wednesday 3rd December - 7 mile run, Race Course Forest. (01:07:40).

Thursday 4th December - Spinning. (00:45:00).

Thursday 4th December - Body Pump. (01:00:00).

Saturday 6th December - Beach Boot Camp. (00:50:00).

Saturday 6th December - 10 x run up the steps. (00:25:13).

Brilliant t-shirt news!

I received the t-shirt artwork from designer, Brian Wells, today. To say I'm pleased with the design is an understatement! I'm also pleased to report that I've taken pre-orders for almost all of this first batch of t-shirts. The sales from these will yield over £300 for the 2 charities. I'll keep you posted with news of exactly when they become available to buy and how to pay for them.I don't think it's too far off now. In the meantime, check this awesome artwork out.

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