So much to do and Thanks

Happy New Year to all my friends, colleagues and sponsors. I feel that this year will be a busy one, especially on the running front.
2009 was very eventful with Family Holiday to Florida in January, followed swiftly by a very wet Marathon Des Sables in March/April, a month of illness in May/June, moving house in July and making plans in August for the 1 Million Metres challenge, getting a great range of sponsors on board in September and kicking off the challenge with our first race in October.

Sadly this was also a year of big shocks - both regarding Alex - the lowest point of the Marathon Des Sables was hearing that he had been forced out of the race at the start of the long stage with Pericarditis - something that he thankfully recovered from very quickly - swiftly followed by another shock, when he announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease - but this didn't stop him from completing the 85 mile Ridgeway race in August, and with me nagging in his ear we ran the Henley Half in October - the guy will not stop until he achieves what he wants, and it is my pleasure and honour to be working and running with him as we not only complete the Million Metre Challenge, but push onwards and upwards.

As we planned races for 2010, the total distance increased and now new plans are being formed for longer runs in 2011 (London to Rome), as well as 2012 (LA to NY??) - These are still in the infancy of planning, but with the right support and backing the 2011 looks to be a certainty. Hopefully this will generate a lot of publicity for both Cure Parkinsons Trust Charity, as well as our sponsors, with national TV and newspapers, from not only the UK, but also France, Switzerland and Italy hopefully being interested.

On the note of sponsors i must offer my greatest thanks to Adam Smith at Fitness Footwear, Patrick Lambertz at X-Bionic, Nicki Reid at Ardblair Sports and Sarah Gowans at Buffwear, as well as their support teams for all the help, and equipment that we have had so far, and here's to our future working together, and us all achieving our goals.

And talking of goals - our next race is the Country to Capital race on 16th January - a 45 miler from Wendover in Bucks to Paddington in London, via the Grand Union Canal (for the last ½), which in light of the current weather conditions which is expected to last for another few weeks, it will be cold, wet and arduous - but as they say "If it was easy - everyone would do it". Next report will be after the race.

Finally - We are in the process of designing a new web-site and making changes to the challenge name to reflect the increase in distance and new races, which will be announced soon.
Safe running everyone.