Hello all,
As it is now getting close to the Brighton Marathon, I thought I would take this opportunity to remind you all why I am doing this Ironman in the first place.
Many of you will have read this all before; however I will make no apologies for repeating myself. Chestnut Tree House is so close to my heart I hope you will take the time to read the below and donate if you can.
Thanks
James
Could you, or would you even be willing to run a marathon? 26.2 miles is a long way to run. On the 12th April this year I will be lacing up my trainers and running the Brighton Marathon. How about running a marathon immediately after a 112 mile bike ride? Why not swim 2.4 miles before that bike ride? In September this year I am intending to do exactly that, an Iron Distance Triathlon. I am raising money for Chestnut Tree House, a simply outstanding organisation that rely almost entirely on charitable donations to keep them running.
Chestnut Tree House cared for my friends Louise and Steve’s daughter during her fight against Neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a childhood cancer, rarely effecting children over the age of 10 years old. Amber sadly lost her fight against Neurobastoma and passed away in 2013 aged just 2 years old. I was hugely saddened to hear of Lou and Steve losing their beautiful and fun filled daughter. When you first hold your newborn child in your arms, no parent expects that their life will end so soon. Louise and Steve told me of the fantastic support that Chestnut Tree House provided for them and provides for other families. I knew deep in my soul that I had to do something to help this great organisation.
I decided to compete at Challenge Weymouth 2015, an Iron Distance Triathlon. 2.4 mile swim – 112 mile bike ride – 26.2 mile marathon run. Iron Distance Triathlons are the ultimate endurance event with a time limit of 16.5 hours to complete. I have never done anything like this before. Not even close! Perfect preparation for the Iron Distance Triathlon race is to compete in a marathon and I am extremely proud to be representing the Chestnut Tree House team in 2015. I will also continue to raise money for Chestnut Tree House throughout the rest of 2015, culminating at Challenge Weymouth on the 13th September.
Chestnut Tree House is the only children’s hospice in Sussex and cares for over 300 children and young adults from 0-19 years of age with progressive life-shortening conditions. They cover East and West Sussex and South East Hampshire. Chestnut Tree House care services extend to the whole family – not just the child, but mums, dads, grandparents, sisters and brothers. Their aim is to make every day count. The good days, the bad days and the last days.
Chestnut Tree House rely on £3,000,000 of charitable donations per year to provide their care services. It is my aim to raise £6850, enough for a single days care.
If you would like to help me reach my fundraising target, please donate here https://www.justgiving.com/Iron-Snook
Your support is hugely appreciated and will keep me going through the 100’s of hours of training that I have ahead of me.
Category: neuroblastoma
Everything is in place………I might just pull this off
For the first time since I undertook the challenge to complete an Ironman I am starting to feel that it might just be possible.
When I first told my loved ones of my intention to compete in an Ironman Triathlon I received the following comments:
My Mum – “Are you sure James. It sounds like a lot to take on”
My Friends – A mixture of utter astonishment and general sniggering
My Nan – “Well my dentist does Triathlons dear and he is much fitter than you”
Cat (my wife) – “You’re going to die”
Now of course all of these comments were completely fair. I was out of shape. Very out of shape. I weighed over 16 stone, couldn’t run to the end of the road without stopping, hadn’t ridden a bike since I was about 10 and the last time I swam anywhere was when I swam from the side of the pool to the pool bar on honeymoon.
Over a year later and things are rather different. For the first time in forever (to quote from Frozen) I am starting to feel fit. Weight is slowly dropping off, despite my tendencies to eat entire bags of Doritos and quite a bit of chocolate. Also I have recently had a great success………..
I CAN RUN !!!!!!!!
All be it not very far (haven’t done more than 6k for a while) but I have no shin pain, the post run calf pain is starting to disappear and I am really starting to feel very positive about this whole endeavour.
Good thing too, as I have a charity place for the Brighton Marathon. Bushy and I are running for Chestnut Tree House, which is the hospice that cared for Amber and her family, towards the end of her fight with Neuroblastoma. The marathon is in April and is a great target to aim for. I can’t wait to strap on my Luna Sandals on the start line, raising some money for this incredible charity and ticking off an important milestone on my way to the Ironman in September.
Some of my regular readers may wonder how I have suddenly managed to start running injury free and why I am starting to feel a lot more fit all of a sudden. I can put this down to a few factors. The first one is my discovery of barefoot/minimalist running. To do this topic justice would require an entirely separate blog post and it is my intention to post this soon. The second reason is down to one man, Mr Trevor “Tufty” Payne.
Trevor runs two Triathlon training sessions at a gym here in Portsmouth. The first one is a mobility class, perfect for improving my flexibility and mobility (which is something I sorely need). The second session is a Bike/Mobility/Swim or a Bike/Run/Swim session. Lasting 2.5 hours, this is an intense workout and is absolutely superb.
Bushy and I have been attending these sessions for over a month, with Curry joining us recently. Trevor is an ex professional Triathlete, specialising in Iron distance races during his career. He is a superb coach (even if he does take the piss out of Bushy and I rather a lot) and I find his sessions hugely inspirational. He has given me exercises to do at home which I do every day, agreed to write me a training plan specific to Challenge Weymouth and is generally a huge asset to my training.
So to wrap up this post I would like to say a thank you to Trevor for his help so far and for his excellent training sessions that I love attending. I was never really a believer in having a “coach”; however I am very glad I met Trevor and can’t wait to see just how fit he can get me ahead of Challenge Weymouth. I must also mention a special thanks to Josh Smith, who is one of the readers of my blog and was the person who put me onto Trevor in the first place. Look forward to doing some training with you when you are back in the UK Josh.
Finally to all of the readers of this blog and to those of you who have sent me nice comments about it, a huge thank you to you all. I’m really starting to love all this training and am pleased that as the winter progresses I will be able to share with you my increasing fitness and join as many of you as I can for a run/swim/bike, or perhaps just a pint!
TTFN
James
PS – If any of you are looking for a Triathlon or Fitness coach please check out Trevor’s website. You won’t regret getting in touch with him. http://www.zone6coaching.com/
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