It kicked off with an official looking letter from the British Heart Foundation last Saturday; I could see the words 'London Marathon 2013 Application' through the envelope....sadly the 'and the winner is' Oscar moment on opening said envelope evaporated when reading the word 'declined'. Yes, it seems my charity services are no longer required by the BHF. Nothing in life is certain; but after offering my own place on the Great Manchester (wasn't secured through the charity) and currently working my arse off to raise money for the Great North, I thought that the loyalty would have been repaid. Yet it seems that whatever algorithm they use to decide who gets a place put me on the wrong side of the curve.
The timing - two weeks before running for them in a half marathon - is lousy, and the news puts my place on the race (raceplace?) in serious jeopardy. Considering the amount of time I am devoting to training - and squeezing normal life in around it - applying to other charities is something which I really don't need at the moment.
Then there's the whole sponsorship thing. It is a nerve-wracking process to know you have committed yourself to an ambitious target, and the money stacks up all too slowly. Imaginings of reaching September 16th with a paltry sum on the books have given me more than a few cold sweats (although they counteract the hot sweats during training, so that's okay then.....not!). Saying this sounds monumentally ungrateful to the people who have, will or for a good reason can't or won't donate; I assure you it's not. Whatever is donated is brilliant. Nevertheless the gap between where I am and where I want/need to be is a worry, with time running out.
On top of those two events have been a series of annoyances which on any given day would be water off a ducks back, but the above have reduced my tolerance level enough to turn molehills into mountains. Work stuff, not to mention a lovely letter from the inland revenue telling me I have underpaid my tax by nearly a grand; oh and the GPS tracker I have been hoping to use so you can monitor my progress is about to be tracked flying at breakneck speed out of my living room window (never buy Hong Kong merchandise with Chinese-English translated instructions; apparently if you want to know if the the device is switched on, press a button and a light will flash; and if you want to know if the device is switched off.....press the same button and the same light will.......flash.....).
Wallowing in misfortune does possess a certain novelty about it; but to be honest it has already worn off and I am getting monumentally cheesed off with being cheesed off. So here is what I am going to do. Yes; having to apply for the London Marathon through other charities is a pain in the backside, but if I want to do it badly enough (and I do; I will run a marathon in April/May next year, but if it can't be London I would be pretty devastated) I've got to do it (so get on with it Blaydon). The sponsorship money may not be flowing in, but by the time of the race has come along I will have done the following.......
- sent e-mails to Northwest Tonight to try and get some TV exposure
- contacted friends and family to give them the option of sponsoring me
- e-mailed work contacts asking for sponsorship
- got stuck in to the badminton club
- put notices up in the gym for this blog and justgiving website
- delivered a mailshot to the houses on my village high street
The rest.....will take care of itself. I'm already pleased to report that the GPS tracker still lives, and seems to be working!!
Think I'd better get on with it.........
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