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A few weeks back - I met some Ukrainian schoolchildren online and delivered a poetry session to them with a teacher & author friend of mine, Simon Hunt. There should have been 30 children on the call. There were 14. 

Why were 16 children absent from ‘virtual school’? Traffic jams? Covid? No. 

They were in shelters. Their town was being shelled. 

Just like countless children all over the world, they were missing out on the very basic right to an education because of a war they didn’t start and don’t want.

That’s when I knew I had to do SOMETHING. But what? I am hundreds of miles away and quite frankly as much use as a chocolate teapot in a battle, so I thought I’d best fall back on what I know best. 

Writing & running. 

I also knew it was time to stop moaning that my back hurt, I weighed too much and I had a bit of a bad foot. I’d really switched off caring about my health during the last 24 months - (I can’t think what caused that to happen) and it didn’t really seem to matter that much anymore. My anti-depressant dosage went up, as did the dial on the scales.  I couldn’t even fit through our loft hatch at Christmas (it’s a small loft hatch, but still…) and this made me realise it’s time to do the SOMETHING I was talking about earlier. 

I have taken part sporadically in Parkruns since 2017 but had only reached a total of 63 by the time my brain clicked that I could set myself a target. 5 years for 63, less than a year for the rest. There are mathematically enough Parkruns left in the year that I can reach 100 by the end of 2022. Just. If I stick with it.

So I’m going to do that. I’m going to document the whole thing on a Facebook page and scribe a poem for each stage of the journey too. Why not be creative when you are doing something tricky? 

The Facebook page with all the videos/content can be found here. https://www.facebook.com/PJpoetontherun/

Right. Let’s get those trainers on and get some kids some school bags.