Acts of selfless giving

Saturday 24^th March



Distance: 8.10 mile
Time: 1:49:17 min
Avg Speed: 4.45 mph                            
Avg Pace: 13:29 min/mile
Calories Burned: 1098

Why I love my country. Every year my country, in spite of a recession and very hard financial times, finds it in its heart to think of others worse off than itself. I am talking of course of events like ‘Children in Need’ ‘Comic Relief’ and last night ‘Sports Relief’. The nation raised a total on the night of £50,447,197 for this telethon, but this will more than double by the time the final totals are counted. We saw huge endeavours especially Helen Skelton’s arctic marathon, David Walliams’ swim of the river Thames and John Bishop's Sport Relief Hell, of a five day endurance test involving cycling, rowing and running from Paris to London. These celebrities got up and went on each day pushing their bodies and minds to the extremes of human perseverance and why? They did these selfless tasks so that those less fortunate can be helped. Over the years this worthwhile charity has helped people in many of the world’s poorest communities. It also works here in the UK with homelessness, bereaved children and people with mental health issues to name but a few. So on the day and in the days leading up to the big day people do silly, daft, challenging, weird, quirky and sometimes dangerous things all to raise money for this charity. We saw underwater ballroom dancing, England footballers cooking, comedy sketches, musicians performing, celebrities putting their egos aside for others, all for the greater good. Well done to all the fundraisers. Beyond the big day events, there are leading up to it, many other small events. Most schools in the UK will also take part, the school where I was working on Friday had the children dressed in sports clothes, selling cakes and running round the school field all lunch time. They raised over £400.  All this from a school in one of the poorer areas of Yorkshire, and people critisise our youth, let me tell you the kids of this country are pretty dammed FAB it is just a few who give the rest a bad name. For more information on Sport Relief log onto www.bbc.co.uk/sportrelief . Do you know what?  No parent should ever have to bury their child, yet every 20 seconds a child dies from a preventable illness………

My country responded again last night and I am proud of the nation’s efforts my greatest wish is that one day we will not have to, because one day no parent will bury a child, one day all will have access to clean water and education.

For me my own personal challenge continues for a different charity.  I do my bit -  I get up each Saturday and run, I try to fit a few more in through the week and little by little I am slowly getting there. Each run gets a little easier and each time I come home and I think ‘I can do this’. Today I ran further than before but I will admit it was hard because I had not had much sleep. I did not get to bed till after 2am and slept fractiously, but even so I woke up and the inner runner hidden deep within me said ‘get up and get out’ so I did. My Raison d’etre had commented on my running style last week saying that I did lots of little steps and didn’t stride. So today I thought I would do a quick experiment and put my neutral gait and mid foot strike to the test. So for a few steps only I tried to elongate the stride but it was very soon apparent that I am not a strider as I lost all rhythm and my step pattern became uncomfortable, in short I am short! As a short person with short legs I cannot run with a stride I am comfortable in and effective with my little short stride which I reckon is about 0.5m long and that is how I today completed 8.10miles. For those of you who know my route I ran to Golden Acre Park and then back. It was very foggy today and visibility was poor so I was glad of my orange fluorescent  www.upandrunning.co.uk jacket, at points visibility was only about 30m. However the early fog was a precursor for a beautiful sunny day and I spent the rest of it in the garden, strange how running 8 miles this morning did not make me ache at all but 4 hours in the garden tidying up the front lawn and borders left me an aching wreck!

The clocks go forward tonight and British Summertime begins  so there will be a lot more opportunities for evening runs and LOTS more opportunity for backbreaking garden work. I guess my aim to be fit might just happen! I will keep you informed.

Please remember dear reader why I am doing this my attempt at improving my fitness is for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign and if you want to read about the MDC its work, outreach, campaigns and research just log on to www.muscular-dystophy.org  and see why I am doing this. If you feel you want to support me then please log onto my just giving account and make a donation www.justgiving.com/Team-LewisMDC. A huge thanks you to all of you who have donated already.

Thank you for your support.