Back to Charity (How I Became a Charity Runner)

It's January! And after raising £50 for Decembeard and Beating Bowel Cancer, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I felt even better when West Ham beat Everton in an FA Cup match that went on forever!

ADRIAAAAAAAAAN

This phase of elation peaked as I read an email from Save the Children saying I could enter a 1/2 marathon in October for £1 instead of £50...

I wonder how much this guy would pay for a half marathon?

Now, I have never managed to run more than 3 miles without wheezing and cursing every deity I have heard of (that includes you, Demeter!) so a half marathon is quite an ask. The challenge goes from a matter of training to a matter of promotion when I remember I have to raise £500 for Save the Children.

I managed to raise £375 doing the Thames Path Challenge in 2013, which was pretty good, but £500 seems so much higher, but I am banking on this blog becoming popular and then maybe get a celebrity to endorse it.

If I type the words "Ricky Gervais" enough, will this blog show up when he Googles his own name?

But failing a massive swathe of retweets and facebook shares, I will have to rely on people that I care about very much in order to raise the money for the excellent Save the Children, who have projects all over the world, right now some include helping those affected by the Ebola outbreak, children affected by the war in Syria and Action2015, which is a campaign to pressure governments to do more to tackle hunger and preventable diseases.

Unfortunately, many of those people I care about very much were lost during the events of Mass Effect 3, so I will have to ask friends and family for their help instead.

Wait, Mordin! Before you cure the genophage, can you look at my just giving page?

And I will, but first I need to make sure I can move my legs with some haste for just over 13 miles. So yesterday I set out to do an easy 5km, which I haven't done for far too long. So I fired up my Zombies Run app, completely forgot where I was in the story and managed to set a time of 32:48 for a 2.98 mile trip around London's Ally Pally. And it snowed, which made me feel like Rocky IV, until that feeling left me about 2 minutes later.

DRAGOOOO-Ow, my legs ache!

I could say that 11 minute miles isn't bad for a chubby chops like me, but I cannot ignore the fact the run was marred by a very tight groin muscle (ooh matron) which made me realise I have a lot of work to do if I'm going to be up to this thing. I want to give it my best shot, I'm not there to smell flowers and admire the trees in some of London's famous Royal Parks, I'm there to prove to myself that I can do it and with a time I can be proud of.

Damn plants are always slowing me down!

So I spent the rest of the day walking (slowly) with my girlfriend around Portobello Road, which was nice, and after covering my legs with deep heat I plotted to go out for a slow jog again the next day (today).

Which I did, and I was much better. Zombies Run decided to screw me over by not reminding me how far I'd gone or the time after 1km, but after I had finished that chapter of the story I had managed 3.45 miles in 36:29. That's a whole 26 seconds off my minutes per mile! That's a nice little confidence booster, but I did feel knackered afterwards.

Well that's enough jabbering and pop culture references for one post, if you want to donate you can do so at www.justgiving.com/ryanite and if you want to do the half marathon with me (or against me) have a look here https://royalparkshalf.com/.

- Ryanite
Find me on twitter @ryantl85