Anglia News

Weekly update time
Still more progress being made on the sponsorship front. We are expecting a handful of North Face clothing as part of our sponsosrship, from Fitness Footwear, as well as a pair of North Face Hedgehog GTX XCR running shoes for trialing and testing.

I had the pleasure of being interviewed yesterday by Martin Stew of Anglia News, who took a fair bit of footage of me running and at work, as well as a good interview (i hope). Still no date for transmission on the TV, but hopefully within the next week.

Alex and i have been trying to sort our a Marketing Company who will help us "gratis" and may have found one (to be confirmed next time), and we are also now looking ot see if Cure Parkinsons Trust has a contact who can supply us with corporate sponsors clothing for TV appearances to advertise or sponsors.

Plans are being drawn up for 2011 as well to run Lands End to John O'Groats (or the other way), but its early days and just in the planning stage.

All for now - 1 Million Metres starts with one small step (of 25,000) on October 11th so keep following.
R

Pocket Power

Have just taken delivery today of an enormous amount of Sports Beans, thanks to a generous offer from the company. I personally love these sweets, as the make a very enjoyable change to the standard Jelly Babies and skittles and the flavours are tangy, without being too sour.

Well worth their weight in gold, easily carried and very resilient

They can be bought on line, direct from Sports Beans on the following link http://www.jellybelly-uk.com/shop-coming-soon/ once the on-line facility is up and running (sorry for the pun)

Thanks to them for their support and keeping me running for longer

New Clothing Sponsorship

A good bit of news on the sponsorship front, as this week Alex and I were offered clothing by X-Bionic, to aid us in our races and training, and in return we have agreed to post reviews on both our sites as well as theirs.

We are hoping to get together with their press officer to plan a proper release that will benefit all parties and give us both pubility and raise the Charity's profile.

As well as this we have also been told that we will be featured in the December Issue of Runners World Magazine as well, under "Real Runners" (obviously refering to Alex there not me!!!).

Hopefully we can tie down a deal was well wth X-Bionic and get everything on the road (sorry about the pun).

The kit we will be testing is:
Fennec Running Top
Running Shorts
Run Energizer Socks
Speed Metal Socks

Watch this space for reviews and more news.

One week ends, and another begins.

Last week was quite an eventful one, although not much running was done (3½ hours in total) although I had a good Sunday run doing a ½ marathon distance run in 1:40. Didn't feel like I was pushing at all, which is good for the Brentwood ½ in late October as I want to race that full out.

Challenge-wise I have put out a number if requests to companies for help with either money or clothing. So far only 2 have come back both with No's, but I will keep plugging away. I have a meeting with Alex next Sunday, so we can sit down and plan our approach better and be more uniformed in our tactics and story, rather than just dropping in sound-bites here and there.

Advertising was a different matter. My interview with BBC Essex went well and now BBC Berkshire want to do a joint interview with Alex and myself on 12th October, the day after the Henley ½, which will be good. Have already discussed with him about getting a set of publicity photos done for media and local press and I will again chase Anglia News this week for an interview.

Finally and very importantly was an offer from Fitness Footwear. I can almost confirm that they are my official sponsors for the Challenge and just need to get the final bits of advertising kit together. I have been offered a nice selection of North Face kit from them, suitable endorsing the company logo and another offer of trainers to try and test and review from them. I hope to get most of this over the next few weeks and will make it all official then.

This weeks training is about 45 miles, although a few early starts will be needed due to weekend commitments, but its all part of the game.

BBC Essex Radio Interview

Finally a BBC interview and the first of many i hope, as Alex has arranged another one with BBC Berkshire in October. Very pleased with the interview, although having checked later that day no money had been donated.

Still plenty of time and more publicity on the way with Anglia TV, if they ever decide to arrange a date.

Link is http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0047zgd/Mid_morning_on_BBC_Essex_08_09_2009

Next planned update on 14th September unless something else crops up

Au Revoir

Mission Update

Following on from the shoe review, this week could prove to be interesting regarding the press involvement with the Challenge.

Already on Monday i have had a feature in the local Gazette, Although they have got the title wrong, as i said to them it was a distance equal to 24 marathons, not running the marathons themselves.
http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/search/4571509.Richard_s_pledge_to_run_24_marathons_in_a_year/

Also Anglia News are still interested in doing a feature, after an earlier cancellation, due to another story taking priority. Once all this has been arranged i will post a link to the video footage and embarrass myself accordingly.

Running this week has been good and although i am still only getting back into it after my calf strain i should post about 40 miles this week, and start increasing Sundays runs so that i am back on target for the "Doyen" in December, without over training.

Night Vision Relay is due in 3 weeks and last year my brother managed to do almost 40 miles on the day, although with me running this year we reckon it will be about a marathon each.

Next post i will confirm what, where and when regarding the press - until then safe running