marathonmummy

This is a post on behalf of Heart Research UK.

Following the Dispatches programme on Channel 4, this is what they have to say:

From Heart Research UK’s point of view, the London Marathon is a fantastic fundraiser for us and one of our top events. Generally as a charity we work hard to keep our costs down and for every £1 that is donated at least 80p goes towards our pioneering work (much higher than many other charities)

Our expenditure budgets are very tight and we do not spend money unnecessarily. The London Marathon will this year hopefully generate £50,000 for us whilst the Golden Bond places themselves cost £345 per place (a total of £6900 for all our GB runners this year).

With travel and accommodation costs for the event weekend (both at the cheapest rates available) this means our costs are kept very low so that the overall total is as much as possible.

If you want to read the reaction from the organisers of the Virgin London Marathon, go here.

Thank you.

(removes serious hat and takes a bow)

I called the doctor today, because I thought that if I was one of my horses, I’d have called the vet. She made me take off my trousers and prodded (technical term) my legs all over, before pronouncing that she didn’t think it was anything major.

She has referred me to a physiotherapist, and told me to scale back the running until I see her on Thursday. I sat on the couch wearing icepacks, eating chocolate and drinking tea today; not sure that’s quite what she meant by scaling back.

When I spoke to the physiotherapist today she told me to come with my trainers and to bring some shorts. Shorts? I’m slightly worried that she’s expecting a proper marathon running person. I don’t own any shorts. D’you think I need to go out and buy some?

In other news, thanks to the amazing generosity of some really lovely people we’ve now raised an amazing £425 for Heart Research UK on my Just Giving page! Thank you all so much.

This one isn’t about running. It’s about why we’re running. Three years ago today, Zoe and I lived through the hardest day of our life; our father’s funeral. He was only 55 years old, and looked ten years younger. He was dynamic, funny, stubborn, loyal, kind and thoughtful. He lived in a tiny village in Lincolnshire which he happily referred to as ‘the arsehole of nowhere’, having escaped London ten years before. The last thing he did was typical of him: he’d just taken on some new employees and he took them out for a meal, because he was worried they’d be lonely and bored, having just moved to the area. That night he went home, felt ill, and died of a heart attack before the ambulance arrived.

It was impossible for anyone to believe – my dad was tall, strong, fit enough to beat the younger men at work in their occasional after-work sprint, played the odd game of football, ate a reasonably healthy diet, very rarely drank alcohol and had never smoked in his life. Everyone agreed that yes, he was a couple of stone overweight, but ‘he carried it well’, so it didn’t matter. Only of course, it does matter. His diet wasn’t really perfect (too many stops at service stations for a Ginsters pasty and a Mars bar in lieu of lunch on the way to see his beloved Falkirk FC) and in reality he was probably four stone overweight, but at 6’3″ nobody really noticed.

Heart Research work in the community to encourage lifestyle choices for a healthier heart. In other words, they get out there and tell people what they should and shouldn’t be doing. They help perfectionists like me, who would rather do nothing than not give it 100%, to realise that every positive step helps. Because I’m overweight, because I’m in a high risk category, because of my family history, because my cholesterol levels were raised at my last blood test – their amazing work makes me realise that even my pathetic attempts at training for the marathon are helping to make my heart strong. And when the time comes and I start begging you all for sponsorship (don’t worry, I’m not hinting…yet!) remember it’s not for me, it’s for the amazing work that they do and for the lives they save.