- Top 10 reasons to run for charity
- The charity runner package
- A typical race day running with a charity
- How YOU can make a difference
- Personal account of running for a charity
- Quotes from last year's charity runners
- Charity listings
Personal account of running for a charity
In a moment of extreme enthusiasm during a conversation with some colleagues I decided to apply for the Flora London Marathon. A few months later I received a magazine: Marathon News… the Accepted Edition! And it was with some regret that a few moments later it began to dawn on me just how much trouble I was going to be in!
I went for a run one night in October to see just how much trouble I was in... and it turns out I was in quite a lot. After running to the end of the road, I just made it to the park where I ran some more… well, jogged... well, sort of trotted actually. I started to wheeze at two minutes, felt a bit nauseous after five, began to panic when I lost my peripheral vision at nine and came to a grinding halt about 30 seconds after that when I thought I was going to faint.
I gave myself a big kick when I eventually crawled back home that night for being such an idiot! I mean 26.2 miles! For God's sake! Why not start with a 10k race, or a 5k one for that matter? Why did I have to go for the big one straight off – or indeed, do the big one at all? Ten cigarettes and a bottle of my newsagent’s most hideous chardonnay later, I thought, ‘It's going to be fine because my friends and colleagues can't REALLY think I'm going to do it. I'll just see how I go and see how I feel on the day – after all no one is relying on me to do it.’ And then my friend Millie called...
Millie, one of my nearest and dearest from school, was devastated in September when Katherine, a beautiful girl she had looked after since she was a little baby, fell ill with what looked like a gastric bug. She had caught meningitis which, as is often the case, wasn't diagnosed in time. Katherine died three days later. She would have been four last December.
Millie called to tell me that she was going to apply to run the marathon to raise money for Meningitis Research Foundation. Meningitis Research Foundation's vision is a world free from meningitis and septicaemia. The charity funds research to prevent meningitis and septicaemia, and to improve survival rates and outcomes. The Foundation promotes education and awareness to reduce death and disability, and gives support to people affected.
