UPDATE FOR OCTOBER 2022: All the original text below stands - but I enjoyed my first one so much that I decided to do the October 2 race too. Thanks to your support I raised more than £1,000 for Llamau in March. I loved seeing fellow fundraisers and supporters of the charity cheering me round the course and know it spurred me on massively. I did the maths and realised that if I could reach £1300 across the two events then that would equal £50 per mile. After asking so many of you first time, this felt like an achievable target. Thanks again for helping this top up effort get to target. 

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Running  in the Cardiff Half Marathon has been a personal fitness goal for a couple of years, ever since I came back from Everest Base Camp in 2019. I wanted to do something big before hitting 50. Then Covid got in the way, that birthday passed - but my determination to do this has not gone away!

I’ll be running further than I’ve ever run before. I’m now a parkrun regular and 10k Tuesdays with the Moti running club have become an important part of looking after my well-being. But doing my first half marathon feels like a milestone. I’ve waited for the Cardiff Half scheduled for October 2020 to be rearranged because it’s my home run and passes the end of my road. After my last fundraising was for the fantastic Brick Children School in Kathmandu, it’s time to run for a cause that is important to me closer to home. 

I first came across Llamau in the Nineties when I wrote about life in care for young people as a journalist. It still feels like some of the most important work of my career. I was impressed by what Llamau were doing and have remained interested in their work, including providing some support on fundraising initiatives in the last few years. 

So #IAmTeamLlamau 

As this is something I am doing to mark being 50, I’d like to find 50 friends to donate a fiver between now and race day. I am grateful for your support and encouragement. 

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