As many good stories do, this one starts with two friends having a beer in a bar. I had met up with Jeff for the first time in a long time shortly after hearing he was off to climb Everest. During the conversation Jeff told me about climbing Kilimanjaro with his daughter Chloe, raising a lot of money for charity and having a great time in the process. I grumbled that as a single Dad with 3 kids I didn’t have the time to do anything like that. Jeff wouldn’t have that, “Pull you finger out and stop feeling sorry for yourself. If you can bring up 3 kids you can organise anything you want!” Feeling suitably “inspired” we mulled over a few ideas and I settled on doing a 10k run with my daughter Jasmine and raising money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Jasmine was delighted by the news.
We entered the world famous Bromham Pudding Run, free Christmas pud to every finisher, and started training. I soon realised the hardest part of any training is the bit between the sofa and the front door, and that once you get over this hurdle the actual training can be very fulfilling, even enjoyable. We also gathered sponsorship money from family, friends, school friends and business customers. I was genuinely humbled by people’s generosity and when we set off we had raised over £1000 for the CTC. Jasmine had done most of her training on a running machine in a warm, dry gym so running across the cold, damp Wiltshire countryside on a December morning was tough going for her. We made it though and crossed the finish line together with smiles on our faces.
The whole process of planning, training, raising money and achieving something with my daughter put an extra spring in my step. I have some other changes in my circumstances and I’m generally enjoying life more. A mistake I made was not to have another 10k lined up and I stopped running, not clever. However writing this and reliving the experience I feel inspired to get the trainers out again, watch this space!