On 13th July 2008 Jay got up,
swam 2.4 miles, 
cycled 112 miles,
ran 26.2miles 
and then, after a couple of hours leaning heavily on Sarah, collapsed in a heap....
And he's raised over £1100 for The M.A. Jay continues:
I've completed the Austrian Ironman Triathlon and can now call myself an Ironman. A title I thought was nonsense until I'd done it, but now I'm changing my name by deed poll. It was the hardest physical challenge I've ever undertaken but I'm proud to say I completed it faster than expected in a very respectable 11hr 33mins and 36 secs.
The hardest emotional challenge I've ever faced was several years ago (pre-Sarah) overcoming the impact of miscarriage. 1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriage, I had no idea. That's why it came as such a shock. I'd like people, male and female, to be more aware of this and more able to talk about it. That's why I chose to raise money for the Miscarriage Association. They provide timely support and information for those affected by the loss of a baby in pregnancy. They're good guys.
LONDON MARATHON 2008
Our warm congratulations to all 28 members of The M.A.’s London marathon team, who clearly deserved chocolate after fighting the elements on 13 April. Despite horrendous weather which switched between warm sunshine and icy downpours, every single one of them completed the course and we are most grateful for all their hard work.
Most M.A. runners had one of our Golden Bond places, which we buy from the London Marathon organisers. In return, they pledged to raise a minimum of £1300 – and many raised much more than that. We also had a record number of runners who already had places through the ballot system and they too collected sponsorship from friends, family and work colleagues. Between them, they have all helped raise awareness and much-needed funds for The M.A..
Fiona Smith writes:
I’d like to thank everyone at the Miscarriage Association for giving me the opportunity to run for them. The overwhelming support from the charity and fellow runners prior to the event helped settle the nerves and gave me further impetus to complete the gruelling challenge ahead. I, like most runners, had endured an arduous winter’s training, pounding the streets, in the dark, the rain, the snow (I live in Aberdeenshire!), but crossing that line made all the pain, injuries, self doubt and rigorous preparation worthwhile. It has been one of the greatest achievements of my life, to run 26.2 miles when I’d only ever run for a bus and to raise over £1600 for such a well deserving charity gave me an overwhelming sense of pride and achievement.
Doing the JOGLE…
As someone who has gone through the pain of miscarriage I decided to spend my summer holiday cycling from John O’Groat’s to Land’s End to raise money for the Miscarriage Association. It is a small charity but when I felt like I was the only person in the world who has experienced 4 consecutive losses, the people I spoke to at the end to the phone gave me hope, encouragement and support. It was also part of a healing process for myself - I was fundraising for a good cause, raising awareness about a subject people don’t talk about, proving to myself that I wasn’t a complete failure and reminding myself that I wouldn’t have had the time to do it at all if I had a family. My husband came along too and raised money for a Lymphoedema charity.
Most people go from Land’s End to John O’Groats because the prevailing wind from the South West helps push you in the right direction, but we decided to go the other way because we live in Edinburgh and it was easier to get to the start at John O’Groats.
The bike…
There are different ways of doing the ‘end to end’. Some people travel ultra-light – credit card touring. The take the absolute minimum and buy everything they need along the way. This makes the cycling easier, but can be expensive. Most people do slightly heavier. They take two panniers for clothes and gear and stay in hostels and B&Bs. We, on the other hand are heavyweight tourers. We took a tent and camped along the way, which meant that we also had to take sleeping bags, stove, pans, food, sleep mats etc – hence all the stuff. While it can slow you down because you have to push so much extra weight up all the hills, the advantage of cycle camping is that you can be more flexible. You can stop where you like and do not really have to book ahead.
At the start
We got the train to Thurso and had to cycle to John O’Groats before we started. It was 20 miles with the wind, so went very quickly, but John O’Groats was very cold so straight after the photos we headed for the café and bacon rolls. The first night we stayed in Dunbeath. It was 58 miles that day and we were absolutely shattered. We stayed in a variety of places along the way and in all, we camped for 13 nights, went to 3 hostels and went to several B&Bs when we wanted a little more comfort.
Leaving Scotland
From Inverness we followed the A9 on the national cycle network. On many stretches there is a purpose built cycle path that keeps you off the road and away from the traffic. From Perth we went to Edinburgh and stayed in our flat for a night of comfort and a chance to do some washing before heading through the Borders towards Carlisle. As we went through the Borders we were happy to be joined by a friend who cycled up from Brampton to camp with us and then accompany us south for a day.
Brampton to Kendal was a long day with showers. Going over Shap was the key challenge, but it was good to go downhill into Kendal. After Kendal we stayed at a campsite in Croston south of Preston before trying to find a route through Wigan and Warrington to the Mersey. We cycled along the St Helens Canal towpath to Widnes and crossed the Runcorn Bridge, then promptly got completely lost in Runcorn!
Cycling approx 50 miles a day means that you have to eat and eat and eat. You need the fuel to keep going. In general we would be on our bikes by 9am and stopping for food by 11. In all we went to 37 coffee shops. Highlights were getting donations from ladies in Carnforth, strawberries and clotted cream in Wells and Cornish ice cream in Padstow. After we crossed the Severn Bridge we slowed down quite a bit. We had time to visit places we had not been to and so went to Cheddar to look at the Gorge and learn all about cheeses. Wells was lovely.
Cornish hills
The road in Cornwall were really hard. We knew this because everything we read about doing the end to end said that Cornwall and Devon was the hardest bit of the trip. The problem was that the main roads were too busy and dangerous to be cycling on for long, but the minor roads are really hilly. The roads climb out of the towns really steeply to about 400 ft before dipping down to sea level again to the next town. This means that progress is slow because with all the weight we were carrying we went up the hills at about 4mph.
We made it…986 miles later!
It was great to get to the end. I enjoyed the trip and definitely feel a sense of achievement. I won’t be doing it again though!
Cathy Midgley
WHY NOT TAKE UP THE CHARITY CHALLENGE? |
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| Whitewater rafting
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When we went to Jordan. | ||
| a night to remember... | |||
And more runners...
L to R: Cathy Andrews, Carron Chesterman, Emma Pentland,
Alison Brench, Greg Wanlin and Stephen Bygrave
Many thanks to our fantastic team of runners in the 2006 Flora London Marathon:
Cathy Andrews; Alison Brench; Stephen Bygrave; Carron Chesterman; Bronwen Cowling; Helen Day; Wendy Halls;Deanne Heathfield; Julie Herbert; Mils Hills; David Irwin;Chris Leach; Emma Pentland; Anna Phillips; Jamie Quinn; Benedict Renshaw; David Roberts; Kelly Wakefield; Greg Wanlin; Sarah Whiteley; and Rik Williams.
All of them finished the course and all were still standing – and even walking – the next day. Between them they have raised over £30,000 in sponsorship for The Miscarriage Association, as well as raising awareness of pregnancy loss and the Miscarriage Association’s services.
Runner Wendy Halls took the opportunity to talk to her local paper about her reasons for running. Under the header “A marathon effort in a good cause”, the Bolton Evening News began its report:
Wendy Halls knows the devastation that losing an unborn baby can cause. The 32-year-old social worker has suffered five miscarriages. But now she is using her traumatic experiences to raise cash for other women who have had a miscarriage …
In a letter to The M.A., Wendy wrote:
"So many people commented on the article. It has certainly brought about awareness in the Bolton area."
Reproduced by permission of Bolton Evening News