03.01.07

The Great North Run

Posted in Personal at 11:21 pm by GaZ

The Great North Run is a very popular charity event over here in the UK. For this reason, only a limited number of places are given away in a lottery-style fashion each year. If you don’t obtain a place this way you can also apply through a number of charities, on the condition that you’ll raise a certain amount for that charity (usually around £300).

A couple of months ago a friend from work and I entered the lottery, with the typical “yeah-this-is-a-great-idea!-woo!” attitude, however after a week or two this enthusiasm had waned and I wasn’t too bothered. I’d almost forgotten about the whole thing until the other day, when the friend got an email informing him that he had not obtained a lottery place. I was pretty certain I wasn’t gonna get a place either, until the next day when I found an email hiding in my “junk mail” folder saying I’d won a place! Uh oh.

So it looks like I’m gonna have to start doing some more serious training! Ok, 13.1 miles probably won’t kill me, but I’d also like to do it in a half-decent fashion. My goal is to finish in under 1hr 45mins, however I think a more realistic target will be anything under 2 hours. Oh yeah, and just because I don’t HAVE to raise money for charity doesn’t mean I won’t. Keep your wallets / purses handy, because I’ll be coming door-to-door selling cookies, washing cars, etc. to raise as much as possible in a few months, however I have not yet decided which charity to help. Anyone have any suggestions?

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