Why running???

Let's explain what it is we are doing perhaps.

Jonny here (or MrH as I seem to have been christened by Claire).  I'm typing this on an email for Claire to upload as I'm a bloke and can't be trusted with another login and password to forget.

I was with Claire throughout the very tough times that were watching her beloved Grandad Bill slowly and uncontrollably descend as a result of this cruel disease.  We would drive about 10 miles from our home to his care home on the top of a windy hill in County Durham and invariably the journey back was in stunned silence.  Bill was a good man and I'm sorry that I hardly knew the Bill that he would have wanted me to remember. I was proud of Claire then for the way she handled watching this horrible situation unfold and I'm just as proud of her now for the way she has hit the streets!  She's lost heaps of weight, got really fit, gained confidence, proved to herself and others that exercise is free and that even the busiest people in the world (of which she is one) can do it.

So what are we doing exactly? Well, we are doing a couple of "firsts."  Claire is doing her first half marathon and I am doing my first full marathon.  In total on October 28th, we will starting off at picturesque Devonport, weaving our way around the street and hills of the North Shore of Auckland, over the iconic Harbour Bridge and then into downtown Auckland (with a cheeky 21km extra loop along beautiful Tamaki Drive to St Heliers and back for me).  

Claire and I are training a lot now and both grappling with niggles, chest infections, soreness, blisters and the odd Chalfont.  Having competed in a 21km and 10km race last weekend, we are in a 32km and 16km race this weekend.  So I hope you can see that its so much more than putting yourself through a bit of discomfort on one given day.  As someone with wisdom (my brother) once said, "the challenge for any distance run is getting to the start line" and he wasn't referring to Auckland's road system!  So we are not just asking you to sponsor us for completing the race.  Please sponsor us for the months of commitment it has taken to get us to the start line.  If we have done that right, then hopefully the race will look after itself!  We have undertaken this in the name of a special cause that is relevant to us and our family.  Any donation, small or large, would be wonderful.

Until next time

MrH

http://www.givealittle.co.nz/member/ClaireHuxley

 

Claire, Grandad and Alison