Back in January the pain of the New York marathon had faded, leaving only fond memories.  I was feeling pretty podgy from all the Christmas festivities, so said to myself “That Leaden Boot Challenge seemed to go ok last year, I’ll do it again.  That will get me off the sofa…” (Oh dear!)

Complacency meant that I did virtually nothing in the way of training for the next three months, before realising with a sense of doom that May 17th is fast approaching.  (As a reminder, the organisers bill the Leaden Boot Challenge as “possibly one of the hardest marathons in the country”.  It’s 26.2 miles with nearly 6000ft of ascent).

The painful memories of all those miles struggling up and down steep hills, followed by a week of being unable to walk, came flooding back, and I came very close to quietly pulling out, safe in the knowledge that I hadn’t told many people about it.

But it struck me that the children affected by Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy don’t have the option of ‘quietly pulling out’.  Tom and his family can’t and won’t give up, so it would be pretty rubbish if I did.

So I’m going ahead, substantially less prepared than last time!  My longest run so far this year is just short of 15 miles and included an altercation with an electric fence (note to self – never try to straddle an electric fence, particularly when soaking wet…) so I have a way to go to even get up to the required distance. I keep telling myself I enjoy this really, I just hope my body doesn’t realise the deception until the end…

If you feel so inclined,  please click this link to go to our Just Giving page.  Collectively (by which I mean mostly other people!) we’ve raised over £9,700.  It would be great if we could get to the £10K mark. Any help is really appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

Matt

We’ve been a little quiet on the fund raising front recently.  With school holidays and Nicki’s mum being unwell, our attentions have been diverted a bit.  Now that the holidays are behind us, and Barbara is thankfully on the mend, I have a bit more time…

The amount of money raised from the previous endeavours has been phenomenal, and I’m very pleased to say that our total is now over £8,500.  If you’ve donated, thank you!  If you’d like to donate (again), please click here.

All donations to the Duchenne Childrens Trust go towards research that will find a cure for the heartbreaking condition that is Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  See this link for more details of the research they are funding.  They’re making significant progress, but we have to keep on raising money to ensure they can meet their aim to end duchenne in 10 years.

With this in mind, I’ve been looking around for other opportunities to raise awareness and additional funds.  So when I was arranging a work trip to New York and saw that the NY Marathon was taking place during my stay, it was a no brainer!  I adjusted my travel plans to leave a day earlier, and managed to secure a place. (All of the donations go to the Duchenne Childrens Trust, and are not funding my trip in any way!)

On Sunday 2nd November I’ll be embarking on a 26 mile ‘sightseeing tour’ of the greater New York area, covering Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Manhattan.  As one of the largest marathons in the world, it’s sure to be a little different from my previous outing, although there could be a few hazards en route…!  As the average finish time is about 4 1/2 hours, I need to be a fair bit quicker than my last outing if I’m going to achieve my goal of finishing in an above average time.  Hopefully the other 40,000 people won’t slow me down too much!

Over the last couple of months I’ve put on my running shoes again (actually I had to put on a new pair when the sole came off my trusty Karrimors) and have been pounding the fields and roads.

I have to admit, it’s been harder with the nights getting longer. I’ve invested in a head torch to light my way on the early morning runs and late evening jaunts.  It’s more than a little strange running around fields in the dark, and it’s led to a few run-ins with very surprised sheep and cows!

So, keep a look out for a lone light plodding around the roads and fields, and if you can spare anything, I’ll be really grateful.

Thanks again for your support.

 

With some trepidation I reported at the starting line for the Leaden Boot Challenge yesterday.  My family were there to make sure I didn’t bottle out at the last minute.

 The day started with ‘The Blessing of the Feet’, a slightly strange outdoor service presided over by the local vicar.  As a confirmed atheist, I found it a little awkward to be singing (ok, mumbling) “Morning Has Broken”, but appreciated the sentiment!  I had holy water sprinkled on my feet then made my way to the starting line.

 At 9:30 we were off, and I experienced some ‘jostling for position’ as I tried to get past those participants (roughly 70% of about 320) who were walking rather than running the course.  I caught up with the ‘serious runners’ with their fancy looking clothing and slotted in at the back, with my goal at this point to finish somewhere between the runners and the walkers.

After the first mile downhill into Milldale, the route abruptly turned into a steep uphill climb (ignoring the perfectly good path along the river), and to my relief all the runners started to walk / scramble!  During the ascent I realised I was walking a bit quicker than some of the others, so went past.  This spurred me on (I hadn’t realised what a buzz I would get out of overtaking people), so I kept going, warning myself I was no doubt going to burn out before the end.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to describe every mile…

The Leaden Boot Challenge course covers a variety of terrains, from country roads to muddy woods, through villages and farms, on the top of hills and the bottom of valleys.

My family were there to cheer me on at Ilam House and Wetton Mill.  It was great to see them, I just couldn’t stay to chat!

There were some horrible climbs on the way, and some equally horrible descents, where I almost went head over heels.  I gave myself a mental round of applause when I passed someone, and a boo when I was overtaken.  My knees started to complain by the half way mark, particularly on the downhill parts of it, so I took a couple of paracetamol and carried on…

The realisation that I might actually complete the course, and possibly finish in under six hours (a goal I’d discounted very early on in my training), gave me the boost I needed to keep going.  In the last mile I saw two guys up ahead who were walking.  I spotted that one of them was limping and thought to myself, “You can take them!”.  With one final spurt I trotted past, with a slightly condescending “Well done!” over my shoulder.

And so, with a pounding heart, screaming legs, cows**t in my shoes and a variety of dead insects up my nose, I crossed the finish line to massive cheers from all assembled, with my fab family the loudest of all!  (I was told later that my kids had run up to congratulate the third place runner with cries of “Well done Daddy!”, before realising that it wasn’t in fact me).  I was absolutely astounded to hear that I’d finished 12th, with a time of 5 hours and 40 minutes, and I still can’t believe it.

Although I have no other experience, I have to say that this was an extremely well organised event from start to finish.  Everyone involved (all volunteers from the local community) was really friendly and supportive.  There were six manned checkpoints on the very well marked route, with drinks, snacks, sponges and words of encouragement.  It’s clear that all concerned take pride in this day, which raises money for local good causes.

 After all my whinging in the run up to this event, it went much better than I expected.  (I realise it looks like I was hamming it up, but I was really scared!).  I knew that come what may, I would finish it, not for me, but for Tom and his family.  A day later, my legs are still very sore and I have trouble going down the stairs, but I’m glad I did it and I’m pleased with the result.  However, much more than that, I’m humbled by the amount of money that has been raised.  At the time of writing the total stands just short of £3,000*, which is frankly amazing.  Thank you for your support.

But wait, we’re not finished yet!  Nicki is up next with her hellish walk and she needs our support too.  100km non-stop is a massive undertaking.  Given the choice, I’d do the Leaden Boot again like a shot rather than take on that challenge.  Go Nicki!

*I’ll donate £10 for the first person who can identify the theme running through my blog titles.  Leave a comment with the answer! And let’s see if we can push the total over £3000!