13 in 13 Marathon No.1 – Brentwood Marathon

To begin the 13 marathons in 13 month challenge Dan Lewi and I signed up for the Brentwood marathon a while ago. Until we had actually signed up for this the whole 13 in 13 was a challenge that was just an idea, not reality. Boy has that changed – we have both really upped the training to make sure we are in the best shape for it! At the moment we are running a minimum of a half marathon each weekend so our bodies get used to the continual strain they will be under in the next year.

A little background to starting the challenge

Originally, Dan was going to attempt all 13 marathons on his own and I was going to join him for 4 or 5 of them. However, having sat down and really thought about what he was planning on doing I thought he could do with company on a few more – this quickly changed to him suggesting I run all 13 with him, and, in a moment of weakness I agreed to this!

I have know Dan for years (I played for his works rugby team after being introduced to him through our mutual little, little friend Alex Brown) and he is the one who thought I could get round a marathon with a little training. This was back in 2009 and we ended up running the Loch Ness marathon in October 2010 which was a painful and fun experience (and just to note a lot tougher than the London marathon!).

So, although I am not new to distance running I am not a natural (like Dan himself). We pride ourselves in being two very motivated individuals who are able to keep putting one foot in front of the other regardless of how exhausted we are. We both know we will never run a 3 hour marathon but believe our will power will get us through all 13 marathons in decent times!

Why we are doing the challenge

I met Dan’s daughter Amelie shortly after she was born. Learning she had Tay-Sachs was a shock – even more so when I really read into the disease. I have spent many nights at their place making sure they are ok and trying to help out as best I can.

I hope, along with Dan, that we can raise some sort of awareness about the disease at each marathon. We have set ourselves a target of distributing a minimum of 100 leaflets each about the disease to people on the day and through our support staff (my parents, Dan’s parents, Dan’s wife Patricia and our friends) they will be doing the same!

How to sponsor us

At the moment we are still waiting for the charity to get registered. All the relevant documentation has been sent of to the charity commission – unfortunately it takes time for them to get round to approving all the charities who approach them for registration. We are hoping this will be done soon as without the registration number we are unable to use any online rundraising tools (like JustGiving and Virgin Money) until then.

However, you can still sponsor us for the 13 in 13 through any of the options below.

• Donate by cheque here
• Donate by bank transfer here
• Donate by PayPal here or the button below

So, I would like you all to dig deep and sponsor us both for this challenge! Please help us raise as much money for the research into this awful disease – they are very close to a potential treatment.

If you want to come down and support us on the day then please do – the more the better and the details are below! Also, if you want to run the Brentwood marathon for THE CATS FOUNDATION then please leave a comment at the bottom of this page and we will be in touch.

Event details

Date	30 October 2011
Event name	13 in 13 Marathon No.1 – Brentwood Marathon
Location	Weald Country Park, Weald Road, Brentwood, Essex. CM14 5QS
Start time	10am
Sign up	Click here
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