On January 1st 2011, I set myself a challenge of taking part in 6-8 road races in my wheelchair to raise funds for 3 charities,
by the time of the final race on December 4th, I had raced in 14 races from 5K to half marathon distance, some races were better and easier than others, but in every event I was made to feel welcome and it gave me the chance to spread some awareness for incurable conditions that people may not have heard of.
So that was 2011, what about 2012, I sat and thought about what to do next and promised my wife I would do fewer wheelchaor races this year, a few years ago, when I was first diagnosed with my bone disease I was reasonably good at the sport of indoor rowing and was in the top 10 in the Adaptive (disability) categories on the the Concept 2 world rankings, however for some reason, i grew bored and gave up in 2009.
My endeavours in the last twelve months, combined with the inspiration provided by the many new friends I have made who every day face a daily battle with
Huntington's or Batten Disease, have inspired me to return to the sport I used to be reasonably good at....despite being a shortie ( i am 5ft 9 and most good rowers are 6ft plus)!!!
So the challenge I have set myself with a combination of wheelchair racing, indoor rowing and or anything else human powered..(though for me that does not leave a lot of choice)....is to complete
2012 miles in 2012....that is the equivalent of leaving my home in Plymouth, going to John O Groats 800 miles away and back again, then going from Plymouth to Birmingham and back..stopping off at Morrisons on the way home.
I will use my new facebook group to log my daily miles around 5.5 per day, as well as the Concept 2 online logbook, as for wheelchair racing I will be doing 6 races starting with the Fulfords 5 mile race on February 5th in Exmouth, I will also be taking part in a handful of fun runs with my talented middle distance running daughter Caitlin.
My aims in terms of fundraising is to try and match the miles with pounds...simple as that and any which way, I will be in touch with the big supermarkets to see if I can do something to bring in some pennies, hopefully the national media will treat me a bit more seriously this year as well, I could not ask for more in 2011 from our local media, but the step up was one too many.
It will be a tough challenge, especially for someone with a bone disease and a liver condition too, who suffers a lot of physical fatigue, but bearing in mind the struggle some of my friends face, it will be worth every single mile
if it brings some kind of help for children, teenagers and adults who have Huntington's Disease and Battens disease, two conditions that are rare and terminal and desparately need hope.
I will be updating these pages as the year progresses so Please, Please support me on my journey in 2012
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