Mid Life Crisis Rapidly Approaching – Only Your Money Can Help

I have a rapidly approaching 40^th birthday, next year and I thought it was an opportunity to do something useful.  As most of you know, I have a minor exercise habit which is going to play a part in all of this as well.  

Firstly, here’s the charity plug and request for money that you’re all expecting, let’s get that out of the way now. In June 2013 I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and I’m now insulin dependent for the rest of my life.  

My first charity is therefore going to be JDRF – a type 1 diabetes research charity (https://www.jdrf.org.uk), working to carry out basic research into causes, cures etc. and also better tools to manage diabetes day to day. My second aim of course, is to demonstrate to anyone out there that diabetes is something to be overcome and is not a reason to limit your ambition.
Secondly is Highfields School, my son’s special school who are trying hard to raise money for a new school minibus.  So far they’ve done a great job with raffles, bake sales etc. but every little helps.

So with that in mind, here’s what I’m going to do, 5 races over the next year, 366 days to be exact, starting on 31^st Dec 2013.  And here’s the catch, for every one of these where I beat my own personal best, I’ll be donating £50 myself, so up to £250.

• 31^st Dec 2013 New Year’s Eve 10k – last year, 108^th overall, 21^st in my age group, current PB 43:50.
• Sunday 1^st June 2014 - The Yomp Mountain Challenge – a 23 mile Fell race – last year I did this in 4 hr 25 min three days before my diabetes diagnosis. Last year’s position, 35^th, 32^nd male.
• 1^st August 2014– 40 mile Ultramarathon at Grimsthorpe – 40 at 40, third time lucky I hope as I dropped out with injuries the last two attempts. I’ve done 40 miles in 8 hours before, so looking to be nearer 7 this time around
• September –  Half Marathon, a local one and a flat course.  Should be good for a fast time, current PB 1:42:24 
• 31^st Dec 2014 New Year’s Eve 10k – back to the speedwork again, may be stretching it to get another PB here

So how is it all going to work, I hear you asking? Quite smoothly I hope; because I’m trying to help two charities, the best way I’ve found so far is through Virgin Money Giving, which is a not-for-profit organisation, so all the money goes to the charity, unlike some.  I’ve not set up my page quite yet, hopefully will have it online before Christmas, once the school gets themselves registered.  The idea is that you are simply donating to my page and I will nominate the share for each charity when I set it up, in this case I’m going for a simple 50:50 split.

That’s probably enough for now, but I will be sending out further details later as I get the page up and running, race reports, photos of me looking half dead, fundraising progress etc as we go through the year.

The only thing I can say in closing is that I know we all get regular requests to make donations, and we all need to choose carefully where we put our limited resources, so anything you donate will be welcome.