From Andy

Well, now September is over, was it a “month of hell”?  Not exactly – it was quite fabulous really!  Forgive me as I bore you all with my version of events It all started on a rainy morning at the foot of the South Downs in Hampshire on 2nd September.  Inevitably, we had to head up to the top of the Downs…then down…then up again…over stile…through gate…and puddles…and fields.  Totally cross country, shockingly hilly and nearly half a mile further than advertised!  And we took a wrong turn.  We were pleased with 1hr 59mins.

 On 9th September we hit the sun-drenched vineyards of Surrey.  We eschewed the temptation of the en-route wine tasting to get around another hilly and off-road course (albeit less extreme on most measures) in 1hr 51mins and bag a rub down in the sun with a blonde masseuse each before being first in the queue for beer and the hog roast.  If Carlsberg organised half marathons...

The 15th September saw the inaugural (quite possibly “only”) Staplefield 13.1.  Tim and I were joined by fellow members of the SACC (Staplefield Athletic and Cycling Club) Angus and George.  For once, pitting age against youth saw age win hands-down as George (no training, no breakfast, and beer the night before) “only” managed to last the pace of the forty-somethings (early night, no drink, breakfast, mid-run nutrition strategies etc) for 11 of the 13 miles.  1hr 45mins helped by our pacemaker Mr Wells. 

On 16th September George had his revenge.  84 miles on the bike was not my finest hour.  I hardly saw him all day.  Or Tim.  Or Angus.  Or Jonathan, Paul or Jem.  This was definitely the hardest part of the month. 

The 23rd September saw us fully recovered from the previous weekend’s double-header and at Tonbridge in the rain and cold.  Subconsciously we must have decided not to hang about…or Tim had a promise of a kiss from Dame Kelly Holmes at the end…and I managed to run two seconds under 1hr 40mins to clock a “one-thirty” time!  A milestone. 

And so to our last event – Barns Green on 30th September. With nothing to save our legs for and the benefit of previous weeks’ pacing we “just had to go for it” to quote Mr Hunter! We bettered the previous week's time, I got another PB, and what a great way to finish the month.
Thank you for your donations and support over the last month, which has been way beyond our hopes. Once again, many thanks.  Enjoy the embarrassing photos on the site! 

From Tim

Our final race, the 30th Barns Green Half marathon was a huge affair with over 1,800 runner taking part. Andy and I had decided to “go for it” and see if we could continue our tradition of finishing each race faster than the last. It was a chilly morning but we set a cracking pace from the start and managed to keep it up until I began to fade around 10 miles, Andy paused for me at the 11 mile water stop but in the spirit of Captain Oates I told him to go on ahead without me...He finished in 1:36:45 and I came across the line shortly after at 1:38:09. He was 193rd and I was 226th and as such we both received Silver medals for finishing amongst the 101 -300 runners, the first 100 were awarded gold medals and everyone else receiving a Bronze. One memorable highlight was running through huge crowds at Christ’s Hospital School whilst their massed band of over 100 players belted out a tune I failed to identify!
 
Shattered, but elated and a little overwhelmed at our achievement we hobbled back to the car and drove straight to our local village pub ‘The Victory’ for some well deserved beers with friends & family
 
The final results
Stansted Slog                    1:59
Dorking Bacchus              1:51
Staplefield                         1:45
Bikeathon 84 miles          5:33       
Tonbridge                         1:40
Barns Green                     1:36 / 1:38
 
Enjoy our photos which, once the aches & pains have faded away, I know I’ll look back on with some pride
 
As I type this update our total is currently £2,826.50 and we hope to somehow nudge it over the £3,000 once we gather in all the final promised donations
 
To each & every one of you who donated or helped in any way– thank you – it’s more than we ever dreamt we would raise and I know we both feel very humbled by the whole process
 
This is how it all began.................

One day Andrew Hodgson had a mad idea 'I wonder if I could run a half-marathon every weekend through September'...

He was stupid enough to tell Tim Aspeling whose warped mind thought it sounded fun, and after some complex logistical planning to find local events we ended up with the following schedule.

Sunday 2 September 'Stansted Park Slog' in Rowlands Castle Sunday 9 September 'Bacchus' in Dorking (including wine tasting en-route...!!!)

Saturday 15 September The inaugural 'Staplefield' half-marathon (guests welcome)

Sunday 23 September Tonbridge half-marathon

Sunday 30 September Barns Green half-marathon

Tim is contemplating raising the ante by running all of them in fancy dress, with the potentially risky twist of offering the choice of fancy dress to the highest bidder on Saturday 15th....nothing illegal or heavy accepted!

In addition to the gruelling run list above, Andy & Tim are already committed to cycling the 75-mile London Bikeathon on Sunday 16th as members of TeamAngus #mce_temp_url# which will make for an 'interesting' weekend. 

All money raised will go to the Angus Rowland Forgetmenot Fund@Leukemia & Lymphoma Research. To find out more visit Facebook https://www.facebook.com/AngusRowlandFMNFund OR http://www.justgiving.com/Angus-Mailey-Rowland     

Please support us by donating as little or as much as you can spare - every pound really does matter.  

Thank you  

Andy and Tim 

PS Feel free to come along on Saturday 15th to cheer us along at the start/finish line by The Jolly Tanners, Staplefield or join us on the run. We will be starting at 10am.