It's the 1st January 2020 and I am 10km into my 2020km challenge. After an incredibly hilly run in South Wales on NYE (Llandeilo NYE 10 Miler, excellent race, thoroughly recommend), I found myself running the Haverfordwest and Milford Waterfront parkrun's this morning. It was tough after the big race the day before, but, I wanted to get this big year off to a good start and as NYD is the only day of the year you can achieve two parkruns in one day, it seemed like the obvious thing to do (tell that to my legs now).
I entered the ballot for the London Marathon safe in the knowledge that I wouldn't get a place - hardly anyone does. (I'll save my London Marathon ranting for another day, but you can see a video about the ballot system here). Then I did get a place in the ballot. Ah. Now I have to run a marathon. Having only taken up running at all 18 months ago, during a time of significant weight-loss, I find myself a member of a running club and taking on a marathon. It escalated quickly.
Thinking about the London Marathon and how I could maximise fundraising for First Days, I realised that I needed to do more. I wanted to do more because, awfully, there are 4.5 million children living in poverty, and our work plays a really vital role in reducing the effects of poverty on children - we can do so much more for children across the country, but we need the funding to do it.
So, I came up with running 2020km throughout the year, creating a virtual race for anyone to join in with, and giving lots of people the opportunity to run with me and support the charity to help thousands more children. This is a huge challenge for me - it will be three times the distance I have run in the last 12 months and did I mention it also includes a MARATHON??
I'll be writing here about why the work we do at First Days is so important, about charities and of course about running. So. Much. Running.
Thank you for reading!