Fancy a little run round a lake?

Right now, 15 people are having a little run round a pond.

Well, maybe not a pond – Windermere. And not so little – a marathon distance. 10 times in 10 days.

I’m pretty impressed with my motivational levels if I manage to resist eating a whole packet of chocolate HobNobs in one sitting.

In the very distant past, I ran a half marathon (although ‘run’ probably isn’t the correct terminology if you walk some of it). I was so shattered, I was barely able to drink three pints in the pub afterwards, and had to turn down the offer of celebratory pork scratchings too.

I’m not convinced I could even walk 26.2 miles, let alone run that distance. And yet, by the time you read this, 15 people of varying ages and abilities will have completed their 8th marathon in as many days, with the prospect of 2 more still to go.

Their final ‘lap’ around England’s largest lake will be celebratory in a great variety of ways, and they will have the support of a huge number of people, as their last circuit will take place at the same time as the Brathay Windermere Marathon on Sunday.

This remarkably hardy bunch range from the veteran who has done the event 5 times before, to running novices who had just a handful of marathons to their name before setting out on this daunting journey last Friday.

Reading their blog posts on www.brathaywindermeremarathon.org.uk reveals the innermost thoughts of individuals stretching themselves to breaking point and beyond, both physically and mentally, cataloguing the euphoria and depths of despair each goes through on daily basis.

The photos are revealing too. By this stage, it’s getting hard to see some of the runners for the large areas of support tape covering their tired bodies, and the images of battered feet are enough to put you right off your tea.

This leads to a very important question: Why would anyone do this to themself? These aren’t professional athletes – they’re taking time off work to do this, and putting themselves under unimaginable pressure.

They may have their own reasons, but these are outnumbered by one common one – to raise money for Brathay Trust, The Ambleside-based charity with the mission to improve the life chances of children and young people, by encouraging them to engage positively in their communities.

Between them, these 15 heroes hope to raise £100,000 to help Brathay continue their work with young people, including those who are severely disadvantaged, at risk, NEET, and young leaders.

Whilst most of the runners had the good fortune to have a stable, happy, upbringing, they understand that for some of the young people Brathay work with, this is far from the reality they face every day.

You can sponsor the runners via the 10in10 Profiles page of the website, without leaving your sofa. 262 miles in ten days, to help young people they haven’t even met. That’s worth a few quid, isn’t it?

This post first appeared as my "Thank grumpy it's Friday" column, in the North West Evening Mail, on the 15th of May 2015. You can view the version used by the paper on their website here

I'll get to see the 10in10 runners depart tomorrow, and return back for their emotional finale, in Ambleside, as I work for Brathay. Should you ever be wandering through the internet and come across the @Brathay twitter account, that's largely me, and tomorrow I'll also be working on the @BrathayMarathon and @Brathay10in10 accounts, as well as Facebook, plus attempting to take photographs that the press might be using following the events.

No pressure then - I've only got to be in the right place for the start of the 10in10, the Brathay Windermere Marathon, Children's Fun Run and take shots of the Family Fun Day, as well as being at the finish line when the lead Marathon runners finish, and the 10in10 runners, as well as capture the presentations. All without showing up my complete ineptitude as a photographer. Plus look after social media. Eek.

If you're at Brathay Hall tomorrow, I'll be the one in a Brathay T-shirt and jacket with a white camera and a vaguely terrified look on my face... Do say hello!

(Still with the CD singles! Currently having a bit of a bop to Paul McCartney's "I'm Gonna Be A Wheel Someday" from the "My Brave Face" single.)

A fisful of change at the shops

A recent day out reminded me how much the retail experience has altered during my lifetime – and it’s not all good. I could stop typing this, and buy a fridge, in a matter of seconds. The shops are shut and it’s 9pm, but I could still place the order and arrange delivery. I haven’t got to wander round a white-goods retail emporium trying to work out which slightly different version of something that keeps my cider cold is better. It’ll be cheaper, too. But in amongst the convenience, endless choice and bargains, we’ve lost some of the personal, human, touches that used to make a trip to the shops something more than just a daily chore. Last weekend, we visited a local coastal town. Amongst the shops selling over-priced imported home accessories (who doesn’t need another roughly-hewn wooden heart, poorly painted and a bargain at £10?) was one that looked different. It’s window allowed you to see in, rather than being plastered with stick-on graphics and special offers calling ...

Making an exhibition of yourself

Now and again, it’s good to reaffirm that you’re a (relatively) normal human being. One excellent way of doing this is to go to a business exhibition. Despite what you might have surmised from reading my previous columns, I am employable, and even capable of acting like a regular person most of the time, even joining in the Monday morning conversation about the weather over the weekend, and why (insert name of footyballs manager here) should be fired immediately. The mug! True, there are times, often involving a caffeine deficiency, where it is like having the distilled essence of ten moody teenagers in the room, but I try and get that out of the way when people I genuinely like aren’t around to see it. As part of my ongoing experiment with what others call ‘working’, my ‘job’ involves me occasionally needing to go and see what some of my colleagues get up to outside the office, and what our competitors do to try and make sure that they do whatever my colleagues do better than ...

Shouting in the social media mirror

It was always tricky to fit everything you wanted into the intentionally short character count of Twitter, especially when, like me, you tend to write ridiculously long sentences that keep going on and on, with no discernible end in sight, until you start wondering what the point was in the first place. The maximum length of a text message originally limited a tweet to 140 characters, due to it being a common way to post your ramblings in Twitter’s early days. Ten years later, we’ve largely consigned texting to the tech dustbin, and after a lot of angst, the social media platform’s bigwigs have finally opted to double your ranting capacity to 280. Responses ranged from “You’ve ruined it! Closing my account!” to the far more common “Meh” of modern disinterest. As someone rightly pointed out, just because you have twice as much capacity doesn’t mean you actually have to use it. It is, of course, and excellent opportunity to use the English language correctly and include punctuat...

grumpyf1

Search This Blog