Race for Life aka A 23 Stone Man tries to run 5k in honour of his Mum

Hi all,

I posted this in the Chat Thread and Ad (thanks so much for the donation) suggested I make a separate thread for it rather than having it get lost in there.

Last May my Mum was diagnosed with lung cancer which had spread to her pelvis and her brain, and it was strawberry floating gooseberry fool. She's been told it's incurable and she's always going to have cancer, and it's a case of prolonging her life as long as they possibly can. She's had chemo, radiotherapy and gamma knife surgery in the last 12 months, and she still remains the most positive person I know about this and everything in life.

I've decided to run the Race for Life in her honour, because if she can get through this as well as she has, I can get off my arse and run 5k. I managed to surprise her with me, my brother, my Dad, my partner and one of my close friends all doing it which was humbling enough, but to raise money for this great cause that so many of us have no doubt been affected by is even more amazing.

I'm currently doing the Couch to 5K program to get ready for it (Week 4, Run 3) and still have a while to go, but the Race isn't until July 21st so i've got a bit of time to prepare for it.

Amazingly, we've managed to hit our team goal on the first day, which is absolutely incredible. But I still have a way to go for my individual contribution to the team. I'm aiming for £150, which means i'm half way there, but i'd love to be able to reach that.

If anyone is able to donate anything, no matter how big or small, it is greatly appreciated.

And sorry for the sob story!

https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/ ... fe-for-mum

Am the best. That's a proper gooseberry fool thing for anyone to go through.

I'll try to donate at the end of the month. I'm chronically skint at the moment.

Well that was quick. :oops:

I hit my individual goal last night too thanks to some more donations so thanks so much if any of the anonymous ones I received were from you guys.

Now it’s just a case of how much extra can I raise beyond that initial goal, so come pay day if you’ve got a spare fiver or so in your budget, please donate it still to help us raise as much as possible.

You can have a few quid of my money too. Good luck with the training and stick at it. I seem to remember the transition around week 4 or 5 being the hardest but once you've cracked that then it does get easier. Then just re-do weeks 7 and 8 all the way up the final week.

I'd rather sponsor a "Joer eats normal food he has never tried" challenge, but this will do.

I will try and chuck something in over the next few days.

Rex Kramer wrote:You can have a few quid of my money too. Good luck with the training and stick at it. I seem to remember the transition around week 4 or 5 being the hardest but once you've cracked that then it does get easier. Then just re-do weeks 7 and 8 all the way up the final week.

Also, if you can do some of it with someone who is already fit and runs a bit, it's a massive help. I started out going with someone who'd regularly run 6-7 miles on his lunch breaks and he really helped me to be motivated at the start, because it was such hard work that I probably would have given up on my own. The first few months were awful, then I started to get fitter and then the weight fell off week by week.

Moggy wrote:I'd rather sponsor a "Joer eats normal food he has never tried" challenge, but this will do.

I will try and chuck something in over the next few days.

I’m much better at food now! I’m still not completely normal, but I reckon if we found that old thread I’ve probably tried a lot of stuff on it! Although I’m happy to post a video of me trying something new for you if that earns me a donation. :lol:

To be honest I think (at least at the moment anyway) that I’m doing good with motivation purely because of the reason I’m doing it. I’m using my Mum as my inspiration to keep going when I’m doing it as even though she’s not watching me when I’m at the gym, she will be on the day and I don’t want to let her down by not being able to run it.

Moggy wrote:I'd rather sponsor a "Joer eats normal food he has never tried" challenge, but this will do.

I will try and chuck something in over the next few days.

Just re-read that thread, funny as anything.

Joer wrote:
Moggy wrote:I'd rather sponsor a "Joer eats normal food he has never tried" challenge, but this will do.

I will try and chuck something in over the next few days.

I’m much better at food now! I’m still not completely normal, but I reckon if we found that old thread I’ve probably tried a lot of stuff on it! Although I’m happy to post a video of me trying something new for you if that earns me a donation.

It's ok mate, forcing you to run should be enough torture so I don't want to force you to eat anything weird like bread, a fish finger or a donut.....

I dropped a tenner your way. Keep up the running after the race for life. It's good for you!

A really great thing to do - best of luck!

Some motivation for you - my girlfriend went from being a non-runner a year or so ago and now she's doing the London Marathon in a couple of weeks. Stick at it and you never know how far you'll go!

Thanks Ignition (and thanks for the donation!). I’ve worked out if I do a run every other day, i’ll be finishing Couch to 5k by the 10th of May so it gives me plenty of time to keep working on my fitness after then and keep going with it.

£10 extra from me.
If you get bored with running give swimming a go as it's less knackering on the knees.

I’ve been doing swimming every other gym session and it’s been great. When I first started I swam only 14 lengths but this weekend I swam 1km for the first time. Hoping I can replicate that with running too!

With the swimming check out your pool to see if they have anything similar to the challenges they have at my pool.
You get a band that tracks your swim and you can set yourself challenges from a list of them they have.
It should be a free service and just gives you a bit of motivation to go even if like me you just do the challenges for personal motivational reasons.

https://www.swimtag.net/?cid=102674

It’s absolutely ridiculous but we broke the £1,000 barrier within 48 hours so thanks so much to everyone who donated.

We’ve gained three new runners in that time frame too wanting to take part and it’s been so lovely to see so much support for my Mum from everyone.

I finished week four of the couch to 5k today and am amazed how well this is working for me. I couldn’t see me running for 2 minutes consistently when I first started, so to have done 5 minutes x2, three times, feels great!

Peter Crisp wrote:With the swimming check out your pool to see if they have anything similar to the challenges they have at my pool.
You get a band that tracks your swim and you can set yourself challenges from a list of them they have.
It should be a free service and just gives you a bit of motivation to go even if like me you just do the challenges for personal motivational reasons.

https://www.swimtag.net/?cid=102674

I missed this somehow, but I love that idea. Good luck beating your record from last time!

Joer wrote:
Peter Crisp wrote:With the swimming check out your pool to see if they have anything similar to the challenges they have at my pool.
You get a band that tracks your swim and you can set yourself challenges from a list of them they have.
It should be a free service and just gives you a bit of motivation to go even if like me you just do the challenges for personal motivational reasons.

https://www.swimtag.net/?cid=102674

I missed this somehow, but I love that idea. Good luck beating your record from last time!

It just gives you definite goals and you can set to whatever you think will be achievable around work as sometimes all it needs is that little extra push to turn a day when you may not bother into a day when you do go.

I figured I should post an update for those of you who donated!

The race was today and my aim after training was to finish within 45 minutes. Unfortunately, on Monday I did a 5k in prep and ended up with shin splints so I was hoping to just finish as quick as I could.

Amazingly I managed to finish in 44 minutes and 59 seconds, well and truly smashing my goal even with the shin splints!

The event raised 33k and as a team we did over 10% of that which is insane considering the initial goal was £150.

Thanks to everyone who donated and messaged me good luck, it was all much appreciated.

Race for Life aka A 23 Stone Man tries to run 5k in honour of his Mum

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