Final Update 27th October

Well I did it!  My official finishing time was 3 hours 10 minutes 36 seconds - so thats a PB by 35 minutes and gave me 2nd place in the M60 category.  You can see the full set of results by clicking the  following link: 

http://dublinmarathon.ie/results.php

A big thank you again to all who sponsored me for the race.  I had thought that my sponsorship target of £500 would be difficult to achieve, but we are already above that and with other promised donations the final total will be over £600.  I am sure that this amount will be a big help to SOS Children's Villages.

 

Update 7th October

As you can see I am now very close to reaching my sponsorship target of £500, thanks to the extreme generosity of friends and family.  I have been playing my part by training hard - trying to keep to a training schedule specifically for those aiming for a 3 to 3.5 hours finish time  that I downloaded from Runnersworld .  The schedule is quite tough - I only get one rest day each week! - but I think it's paying off.  My confidence was boosted by winning the Bristol half marathon (M60) at the end of week 5 (6th September), however, it's the second half of the marathon that is most difficult!

 

will be only my second full Marathon – the first being in 1982, when I was 34.  Although I’m definitely on the downward slope of performance/age I am aiming to beat my previous time by half an hour.  To do that I’ll need to finish in 3hours 15 minutes and if I could do that I would be in with a chance of a podium place for the over 60 category.

The charity I am supporting is SOS Children’s Villages, which is celebrating its 60^th Anniversary this year and is now the largest orphanage charity in the world.  For more information see elsewhere on this web page or visit http://www.soschildren.org/.  The money I raise in sponsorship for the Dublin Marathon will all go to help the charity’s work in .   We chose this charity, and in particular, following a visit to northern India last year, when Helen and I saw many families and children living in severe poverty. 

If you would like to sponsor me for the marathon by donating to this charity then you can do it simply, safely and securely via this Justgiving website.  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 and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now by clicking on the 'Donate now' button below.   Alternatively you can give me the cash when you see me I will donate it on your behalf.