A very late rally to hopefully raise some money for a great charity...

Running has helped me in a number of ways since I took it up during the middle of the pandemic and the bug firmly caught on properly once time allowed in the Autumn. What was initially just an excuse to get out of the house to escape the utter madness of 2020 has since turned in an obsession and is now firmly part of my daily life and routine.

It has helped me become better person by overcoming stress and anxiety. It has helped my self-esteem, improved my mood during the most difficult days as well as helping me sleep better and not to mention losing two stone.

I decided before the New Year that I needed to knock alcohol on the head and I set myself a challenge of not only doing dry January, but also running a minimum of 5k / 3 miles per day. I reached the end of January and took the decision to set a new target of 100 runs and 100 days sober.

I’ve ran in all weathers, various times throughout the day and more often late at night.  At weekends, as most of Ramsbottom will have witnessed, I’ve mainly had to run with George in the pram to keep up with the challenge 😂

As of today on starting this page, 7 April – day 97, I’ve managed to run a total of 607km / 377 miles.

This Saturday will be my 100th consecutive day and to mark the occasion, I had the crazy idea a few days ago of attempting to run a marathon from Altrincham to Ramsbottom on Sunday, 11 April.

Two friends, Matty Lever and Ryan Robson have volunteered to join me for the full 26.2 miles, plus others doing miles here and there along the route as well as support from others on bikes and in cars.

We are starting at 10am in Altrincham, heading down the canal in to town then down Rochdale Rd in to Middleton . Middleton is roughly half way so we hope to be there at approximately 12:15pm.  The route will then go up Long St, Hollin Lane, through Heywood in to Bury, up Walmersley Rd and finally in to Ramsbottom to pickup George and run with the pram for the last mile to my home address at North Street where they’ll be my very first cold beer of 2021 waiting!

I realise this is very late ask for donations, but 🤞🏻 I thought what better way to finish what I started by making the challenge more worthwhile and helping to make a difference to others by raising some money for a great charity - MIND 

Thank you!

Gary