Sponsorship details for my half-marathon

Yesterday I started merrily sending out e-mails to family, friends, colleagues and pretty much everybody I can think of, to ask if they’ll consider sponsoring me for my half-marathon run in September. I’ve already been delighted to have heard from a number of readers who are keen to sponsor me based on my earlier posts, so it’s only fair that I pop something up on this website! There’s a special website widget (oh, you lucky people!) in my sidebar now which you can use, or you can have a read about what I’ve been saying in the e-mail:

> I’m writing to ask if you’ll consider sponsoring me in support of The Prostate Cancer charity when I run my first ever half-marathon, in Glasgow on the 2nd September, 2007. My father was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer a few years back. Thanks to the medical and scientific advances in recent years, as well as his talking to the Doctor about the symptoms early on, he’s since made a full recovery.

> However I think it’s vital to both try and help improve the funding into research and treatment of this condition, and help raise awareness of it: I didn’t realise but it’s the most common form of cancer in men: 1 in 6 men will be affected by it in their lifetime.

> So if you’d like to sponsor me please visit this URL:

> http://www.justgiving.com/richardleyton

> For an easy way of donating, and also very tax effective! An extra 28% is added by the government if you’re a UK taxpayer!. I’ve also discovered that my consulting company will match your main donation, so there is plenty of incentive to dig deep! 🙂

> I’m hoping to try and raise £500 from friends, family, colleagues and anybody else that might be interested in supporting a great cause. A donation of any size will help bring me closer to that goal, so I’ll be grateful for any amount that you can help with.

> Some of you will know that I’ve been running for fun since September last year, inspired by the runners in the 2006 half marathon who went past our house (many of whom were running for charity). I’d thought about running plenty of times before, but that inspiration usually left when I turned my back on the runners! This time it was different, and it’s certainly been tough: I’ve still got a long way to go in my training!

> Needless to say, I’ve been writing about much of this on my website, and will continue to do so as I build up to the half marathon in September: The 2006 Run, My first run, My first race, and my running album.

> There’s also more to be found out about Prostate Cancer here: http://www.prostate-cancer.org.uk/.

> Thanks again for your time, and your support!

> Kind Regards,

> Richard

Update
I should confess – just in case! – that there’s a ‘reasonable’ limit on the company matching amount of £2,500: It’s my own company after all, and I’m actually starting to worry a little! Hope that’s not beyond what folk think I *can* raise, especially given my initial target of £500 has now been revised up to £1500 due to the immense generosity of friends and family so far!

The 10k that wasn’t

A while back I mentioned I’d entered the East Kilbride 10k run, as part of my half-marathon training. To be honest though, since I discovered the very local MHFS 10k, the East Kilbride 10k lost a lot of it’s lustre. No matter, I still figured it’d be good to get the race practice under my belt.

Unfortunately, nature intervened and I didn’t end up going. I’ve unfortunately been battling a bit of a cold, and running just hasn’t felt like a particularly sensible thing to be doing. I’ll save you the specifics, but suffice to say the idea of running for protracted periods of time just doesn’t seem very sensible right now.

So sadly no 10k race time to report, and a general feeling of frustration that I’ve missed out on a weekends running. Hoping I’ll be able to manage a run later today or tomorrow, rain or not. Fingers crossed.

Men’s Health Forum Scotland 10k run

I’m pleased to say that the MHFS 10k went very well, and that I managed to get around in a reasonable time. I’d been hoping to finish it in 60 minutes (That’s what I put on my form), but had hopes for 55 minutes if I pushed a bit harder. In the end, I actually managed it in 53:56 – That’s my own time, not the ‘official’ time which I think I get tomorrow in the Evening Times special supplement.

I doubt I make a particularly photogenic runner (much less that I’ll appear in the 12 page supplement tomorrow!), but here’s a mug shot that Frances snapped just as I entered Pollok park, at around the 3.5km mark. A few more in my flickr ‘Running’ set. Richard at the 3.5km mark

The event itself was great, and a super atmosphere. Something like 2,500 entrants I gather. A delayed start was a bit of a pain, and it was a bit crammed in the early part of the course. There were also far too few toilets (10 if I recall, and no urinal that would have made sense for a male-only event), so a huge queue. And no water available at the start, at least that I could see: I’d forgotten to bring some along, but was well hydrated before hand.

But minor gripes aside, the weather was brilliant. Almost too sunny(!) along the earlier stretches. Pollok park was a relief with all the shade, and lovely and familiar. A great atmosphere, plenty of vocal support, and some great drumming from a marching band that seems to show up at most of the marches I’ve been on… Only downer was I seem to have lost my free t-shirt. So ‘only’ have a medal to leave hanging about in obvious places 🙂

I slipped in to old habits a little and ran a bit harder than I really ought given I’m trying to manage my training by heart-rate at the moment, but I didn’t feel much the worse for it at all. I paced myself nicely so that by the last few kilometres I had plenty in reserve and was able to overtake most of the folk I’d noticed rushing past me earlier on. Next week there’s the East Kilbride 10k to look forward to, although I’m undecided yet as to whether I’ll run it quite as hard as this.

But all in all, a great event, and I’ll definitely be back next year!

Update – Ok the official results are in, and I came 1307 out of 1975, and my official time was 00:55:47 – so quite a disparity from my own time. Must have paused it or something accidentally, although that really doesn’t make much sense. Or maybe the chip didn’t record me at the start. No matter, it’s still about the time I was hoping for, and gives me something to aim for next weekend in East Kilbride! 🙂