When I was at secondary school I enjoyed cross country running. Despite being really bad at it, my Dad always took me to my races, standing somewhere on the freezing course and cheering me on to the end.
In my late teens I started taking running a bit more seriously and completed the Great North Run in 2004 and 2005. Again my Dad was there throughout my training and on the day to cheer me to the line, he himself having competed in many half-marathons in his younger days.
My Dad died of cancer in June last year, having been battling the illness for a couple of years. I’d been wanting to start running again for a while, and I know he would have been greatly enthusiastic of me getting back into training.
So on September 15th 2013, I will be running the Great North Run. I ran for Cancer Research in 2004 and feel this is a great way to pay a tribute to my Dad, remembering the encouragement he was to me, whilst raising some money for a great cause.
If you’d like to donate, please click here to view my Just Giving page, or you can give it to me in person.
I’ll be posting some updates about how my training is going as we go through the year. It’s got off to a fairly good start, with a mixture of running, rowing and 5-a-side football. I’m using Strava to log all my runs (and bike rides) and you can see that information here.
I’m aiming for a sub 1:30:00 time (having done it in 1:36:10 and 1:36:17 in 2004 and 2005).