Final countdown!

So its now only 2 weeks to go until the start of the Average Joe challenge and it must be said that I'm starting to get a bit nervous.

Yesterday saw me do 28 miles which will be my longest run ahead of the event on 12 January. Training has gone really well despite the weather trying to ruin it all. Last week I did over 64 miles which now makes over 200 miles completed for the morris.

So far I have been injury free but I did get my first blisters yesterday which I believe is my trainers way of saying that I need some new ones, so a new pair is on order but this doesn't give me a great deal of time to break the in so I think plenty of blister plasters are in order.

My last 2 long runs have been pretty good and saw me break the  magic 4 hour marathon make, so what am I aiming for at the country to capital event? Obviously to finish in one piece is the main objective but under 9 hours is not unthinkable providing that the next two go ok.

The first challenge is sponsored by S&P architects who are a great company who have been involved in some awesome projects and developments including the aquatic centre in the Olympic Park.

Their support including with the others so far brings tne sponsorship total to £750 which is a great start, I have a number of fundraising ideas lined up including a comedy nignt as a well as a raffle. If anyone has any other fundraising ideas please let me know.

As we get closer to the start and once the challenge begins I will be updating my blog on a more frequent basis so hopefully I can give people an insignt in to preparing for the events as well as my experience following each challenge.

So for now its a couple of days rest with one long run left before I set off for the Red Lion pub in Wendover to start what will be a challenging year!

When average met perfection

What an incredible year of sport it has been which was captured brilliantly by the BBC in the Sports Personality of the year awards on Sunday.

Now I have been incredibly lucky this year and thanks to the job that I do and that I work for one of the six Olympics host boroughs I have been able to meet some of this countries sporting greats of both past and present.

It all started off back in March when Lord Sebastian Coe visited one of my leisure centres to officially open it.

Lord Coe was fantastic and brilliant with the kids who attended the centre.

It was a great experience for me as I showed him around the facility.

Now he wasn't the only Olympian to visit the borough as we were fortunate to have one of our greatest ever Olympians officially opened another new facility and that was Sir Steve Redgrave.

Again he was fantastic with the children who did a number of demonstrations on the track.

So then came the Olympics and I was extremely lucky to visit pretty much all of the Olympic park and the venues.

This included staying the night in the athletes village and using all the facilities.

It must be said that it did remind me of student halls but it was comfy all the same. 

I did manage to meet Jonathon Edwards whilst I was there as well as seeing Sir Clive Woodward

So the Olympics came and went but not without the Olympic torch passing through the borough. I worked on one section of the route and was fortunate to have the actual flame pass me twice. Although it did mean that I missed Diversity carry the torch in to our Town Show.

So after the games I attended a function which had a number of Olympians attending and although Bradley Wiggins wasn't there a signed Tour de France yellow jersey was.

I even got to wear a gold medal!

So am I a celebrity whore? Well I guess I am but I was not going to miss out on an opportunity like this and I certainly felt privileged to be in the presence of these individuals.

It wasn't just Olympians that I met this year.

In September we played host to the guys from Sky 1 A League of their Own.

The Legend that is James Corden, the recently acclaimed King of Comedy Jack Whitehall and the Liverpool and Spurs legend Jamie Redknapp.

They used the leisure centre to film the synchronise swimming challenge that was show in October.

Again all the guys were really nice and it is true Jamie Redknapp does smell great!

A word from our sponsors

Obviously the main aim of doing the challenges is to raise as much money as I can for the Springboard Opportunity Group and to help raise their profile of all the good work that they do.

One of the ways in which I will be raising money is by getting business to sponsor each of the challenges for £150.

So far I have 4 on board so still a long way to go to get them all sponsored but if all goes well and all 12 get sponsored that’s £1800 in the bank for the charity.

Over the coming weeks and months I will be providing information on each of the companies as a way of thanking them for their support.

The first company I will be featuring is The Training Room PT Academy. They are sponsoring the London Ultra Marathon in February and I want to thank them again for their support of this crazy venture.

So who are The Training Room…….  

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