The Big Fun Run

A little while ago I decided that as I have been running quite regularly these days, I would have a go at doing my first Big Fun Run and see if I could raise a bit of money for Saint Gemma’s Hospice. The run took place at Roundhay Park, Leeds. An area where I spent many a day of my childhood – fishing, running, walking and so on.

It is just a over a year since my mum passed away (it was July 1st 2009). We were all so grateful to the people at Saint Gemma’s and the way they took care of her (and us) in her last few months. So I thought I would do this run as a small way of saying thank you to the people at Saint Gemma’s and also a nice remembrance of my mum.

My wife Carol came along for moral support and to take some pictures and a bit of video. I had a T Shirt made with mum’s picture on it, a little message and the Saint Gemma’s logo on the back.

Mum On The Shirt

We arrived at Roundhay Park in good time and after a brief warm-up it was time to go. The actual run was only 5 Kilometres, which is roughly what I do on my daily run. So I didn’t anticipate any real problems making it around the course.

Starting Out

There were a few things that changed, compared to the approach of my normal run though.

• It was wet on the grass – Makes your feet feel very heavy if your running shoes have soaked up the water which mine had. ( I need to get some waterproof running shoes!)
• I also started off at the back of the group, which I didn’t really think would be a problem as the idea is not to “win the race”. But of course the competitive spirit soon kicked in and I found myself wanting to pass a lot of the slower runners (and walkers). Also you do have a “pace” that you get used to and running slower than that pace is very hard. So I ended up having to detour onto the grass a lot more than planned to get around crowds of people (and pushchairs and funny folks in animal costumes hehe).
• There were two very steep hills to climb too – Tough going. But I made it to the end and enjoyed every minute of it.

No Pain No Gain

I finished in about 25 minutes and came in at around no. 15 out of 400 or so which is OK. Although I started off a bit too fast for reasons explained above. The compare said I was smiling at the finish line – More like a grimace of pain to me but I’m not going to argue. :-)

Here’s a short 2 minute video showing some of our highlights.

I used the Virgin Money Giving site to help raise some sponsorship money. Take a look here:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/philpendlebury

It’s a very neat system enabling people to donate on-line and the money goes straight to your chosen charity (in my case Saint Gemma’s Hospice). I was extremely touched by the amount of donations given. It really made it all worth while. The grand total was £273.59 (including gift aid).

Thank you sooooooooo much to everyone who donated. It actually brought a real tear to our eyes when we saw the final figure. Fantastic!

Chilling On The Walk Home

After the run was over – We set off walking to the bus stop and then ended up walking all five miles home. We had some nice weather and it was great to spend some time with Carol, discussing what we had done.

There was a great sense of achievement but also a slight sadness wishing mum could have seen it all.

She would have loved it. But who knows, maybe she was there somewhere… I’m sure she was.

Happy At Home

I must admit though – the legs are aching a little as I write this, mainly from the long walk home. Thankfully we both have the rest of the weekend off work.

Wishing We'd Taken The Car!

All in all a great day in every way and something I will definitely do again given the chance.

Thanks for reading.

Here’s a GPS track of the route for anyone who is interested. I use RunMeter for the iPhone – A great little gadget for runners and walkers:

Route: Big Fun Run Roundhay
Started: 14 Aug 2010 10:58:41
Run Time: 26:24
Distance: 4.77 km
Average: 10.84 km/h
Fastest Speed: 15.99 km/h
Climb: 37 meters
Calories: 419
Official Route: Yes