CRY Fundraising – Marathon Man – James Doyle
On October 3, I will be running the London Marathon on behalf of Berkhamsted Raiders to raise money for the CRY screening day on October 23rd. I am very proud to be running on behalf of Raiders at this amazing event which has always been an ambition of mine. It also gives me the opportunity to raise money for an amazing cause to get 100 local children screened for potential heart defects. It not often when you raise money for charity, that you see exactly where the money goes, but with this we know that kids from the local area will benefit. It’s a fantastic initiative by Raiders and i am proud to support them!
To be honest, It has felt like the longest marathon preparation in history. I won the “Raiders Ballot” for this place in late July 2019.. Yes, 2019 is not a typo… England won the cricket world cup on the day i found out! Although, i am generally fit, i started my training in December 2019 and trained through till Mid-March 2020, when i completed the 20 mile training run. Then as we all know, Covid struck, the marathon was cancelled and we went into lockdown… I had basically done the entire training, but would not get to run until a later date… I was gutted, especially with the fund-raising I’d done to that point. From then on, it was unclear (as with most things with Covid..) what would happen until i found out that my place had been deferred till October 2021..
So, no winter training this time, but summer training.. The problem at the start of the year, was that i was injured. i could not shake a hamstring injury that meant i didn’t run for months.. I was worried, but after doing a lot of strength work on my left side it improved. I started running again in April and then started the marathon training in late May.. This time, i have had a coach who has put more variety into my running and i really feel that i am on track. I’ve now done the final two long runs (20 miles) and now the taper starts…. Only 15 miles on Sunday… The legs are really tired at the moment, but it is nice to know that it is only a few more weeks!
With the fund-raising (last year and this year), with gift aid we have raised well over £2,500 so far, which is amazing. I can only thank everyone for the generosity at such a tough time! With just over 2 weeks to go, hopefully, we can still raise a lot more! Especially, as I have now done the full training twice! Thank you to everyone for all of their support! If you would like to donate to this cause, please see a link below to my page.