Almost Two Months

So as previously stated, I have not kept up active reports on my running for a few weeks.

Here are a few photos from my last few runs to keep you updated on the sights.

Current total of kms completed now stands at 277kms which leaves 223kms left to run.

Current total of money raised stands at £337.00, which leaves a total of £163.00 left to raise.

Photos from the most recent runs that I have not recorded on here are as follows....

Just A Rant!

Ok! I know I have missed a few runs on here. Thing is that lately I have enjoyed the running and walking so much that when I finish I actually forget to post updates on here.

Not that anyone ever sees them anyway. Sad fact is, that unless you have, or you know someone who has a form of Dementia, you don't actually care.

Another sad fact is that if this was about fighting cancer or animal welfare, this blog would probably have 1000s, perhaps even 1,000,000s of followers.

Did you know that for every £25 donated to cancer charities, £1 is donated to Dementia? Yes that is another sad fact. I am not belittling cancer in anyway. However, when it is said that Dementia related illness is responsible for more deaths in the UK than any other disease or illness, I kind of get a bit miffed about Dementia being the poor relation when it comes to charity giving etc.

Time to sort it out to be fair.

Bank Holiday Running.

A lovely Bank Holiday Monday took me to Slapton Sands. The scene of a tragic incident that took place on April 28th 1944, when, during Exercise Tiger, 749 men lost their lives. Exercise Tiger was a training exercise for D-Day. However, it went horribly wrong when a German U-Boat spotted the landing craft and servicemen as it was off the coast of the English Channel. Official records state the number dead as 749, but it is estimated that this number could be at least 1000. Despite the tragedy, it was many years later that the secret was actually revealed, thanks to the discovery of a tank and landing vessel off the coast. The tank was hauled back to shore and restored. It now sits a memorial to those who died that day.

So I started off running along the perimeter of Slapton Ley Nature Reserve. Didn't think it would take long and it looked fairly flat to be fair. What I didn't know was, that the footpath around the nature reserve stopped about half way around and I would end up on the road for half of the distance. That was not too bad. What was bad was the fact that it was mostly uphill from about 5kms until 8kms. That said, I did complete it in a decent enough time. Not too slow, but still not Sir Mo standard.

As it was Bank Holiday Monday, it was only fitting that after I finished my run off, I stopped for a pint of cider at the Salt Bay Inn, Torcross. 

Total kms completed = 195.

Total kms still to run = 305.

One month on from starting this year's challenge and I am making good progress already. I have to say that I am starting to really enjoy my running. To think that when I started this two years ago, I had not run since school. The first year I managed runs of 2kms, 5kms and just one or two 10kms. Then last year I started regular 5kms, 10kms and one or two 20kms. This year however, I have bettered previous campaigns. My runs are usually between 10km and 20kms long.

Last night I managed a 10kms run which was possibly the fasted I had run that distance. Still not of Sir Mo standards and taking into account I am close to 55 years old, having an average of 7 minutes per km is fine by me!

So here I am exactly one month after I started this year's campaign and the total distance completed so far is 174.00kms. That is actually already 74kms more than the entire campaign of 2017, and I still have 4 months left to go!

The total money raised so far stands at £313.00 which is now £13 more than I raised last year!

Feeling quite proud of myself right now, I have to admit.