Commitment

Now it's only one week to go to the Birmingham Half marathon, and I'm beginning to wonder why I'm doing this... yes, I know it's a bit late in the day to be thinking about this, but after running 8 miles today, I'm not feeling very good about the prospect of having to run another 5 on top next week! The irony is that having attended Geese Theatre's AGM yesterday, I came away thinking that this was an amazing company of people, doing an incredibly difficult work with some of the most damaged people in society: in other words, I was inspired by what I heard about what they are doing currently and are planning on doing in the future! So, at times like this, when running is a bit of a struggle, it's good to remember the bigger picture, and to remind myself that I'm doing this to raise much-needed money for Geese (see my blog, Geese and The Birmingham Half).

Related to this, one of the things that has struck me this week, is that to complete a half marathon you need a good deal of commitment. I reckon I've run over 95 miles in the last 6 weeks (and that's with a break of a couple of weeks with injury), just to try to get me prepared for next week and at times its been a struggle, particularly at my size and age! So when it's been cold or wet, or when I've not been "feeling it", its been an act of the will to get out there and run. 

Now there are 18,000 people running the Brum Half next weekend, and each of them will have put in similar amounts of training just to prepare for the race: that's a great deal of commitment! I know some of them will be doing this because they love running, but others are running, as I am, to support some fantastic charities and causes. So, as I know a few of them, I thought I'd mention them: some have trained with painful injuries, some have had to fit in training around full time work and family commitments, and some (somewhat annoyingly) are just genius runners! But one thing they have had to have is a dedication and commitment this race and their charity of choice:
Graham - Acorns Children's Hospice; Abs  - Meninadanca; Ayman - Riverside Money Advice; Emma - Meninadanca; Julian - Riverside Money Advice; Amos - ICY. Also thanks to Dave, Dave and Mel for the encouragement! Respect to you all..... and the other 17,990!