Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

On 30th January, my Gran, Vera Goodale, died aged 99 years and 8 months (the 8 months matter!).

A better person than I would find poetic words to remember her by, but for me she simply had an engaging, intelligent and enlightened mind. Over the last few years, conversations spent putting the world to rights epitomise everything she was. Perhaps unsurprisingly, her body couldn’t keep up and now she can rest.

Last year I agreed to run the Manchester Marathon on 3rd April
2022. I’ve decided to run it in her memory and to take the opportunity to raise some money for a cause close to her heart; CBM, the overseas disability charity.

My Gran suffered with sight problems most of her life. She greatly
valued the work CBM do to improve the lives of people in some of the poorest areas of the world. Simple medical procedures that can transform people’s lives. 

You can find further information about the life saving work of CBM on
their website https://www.cbmuk.org.uk/. 

This will be my first marathon and something I never thought I would do. However, I want to push myself to, in some small way, try
and pay a tribute worthy of such a remarkable person. Consequently, I’ve changed my original goal of running sub 4 hours, to running sub 3:30. I don't know why I choose pain and suffering to pay tribute, other than for a slightly weird and twisted mind like mine, it makes sense.  

Today (6^th March) it has perhaps hit home how hard I'm going to find this. In theory, I am fit enough to do it, but as these training runs show, things aren't really going to plan:

*   Half marathon - 1:37:05, should be quicker now; 
*   15 miles - 2:02:49, alright
*   17 miles - 2:12:34, very comfortable, quick finish, basically felt great;
*   19 miles - 2:31:51, wet, cold, horrible and painful;
*   21 miles - 3:01:13, zero prep or intra run fuel, trained at the gym before, planned to run 15 miles, unsurprisingly, absolutely horrible;
*   23 miles - perfect prep, intra run fuel sorted.... absolute disaster, had to walk the last 4 miles.

So, blissfully ignoring that my runs are getting (a lot) worse, I
stand by my commitment.

Putting my penchant for personal suffering aside and much more importantly, should anyone wish to make a donation to CBM, please kindly do so using this JustGiving page. 

Any donations, however small, would be gratefully received. Not
only would they support a great cause, but I know my Gran would appreciate the gesture and would be thankful to you. And believe me when I say, if that brilliant woman would’ve thought well of you, then you are winning.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Many thanks,

Ben