Four4aCure 2016

Another year and another opportunity for Gareth to pester your for sponsorship…!

Are you getting bored yet? I’m sure most of my friends and family must be. They probably cross the street when they see me! I have a few ideas for more creative fundraising, that I will share in the coming weeks, specifically designed to not have people feeling ‘put upon’ by another do-gooder! In the meantime, I’ll just focus this blog entry on a couple of other points.

Firstly, I can’t apologise for continuing to do this CureSam thing. It is now nearly six years since Samuel was diagnosed Type 1 and we are no nearer a cure. The technology has progressed, of that there is no doubt, and lots of potential new treatments are being highlighted as just being around the corner. But Sam has two and a half years to go until he leaves to go to University (something in the last 12 months he has said he definitely wants to do) and I was hoping that we might have seen the Artificial Pancreas before then. Each month that passes, this looks less and less likely. Which means we must continue to keep raising awareness of the need for a cure and keeping the fund raising going.

Which brings me to the other point for this blog. This years Four4aCure challenge. If truth be told, these sports challenges are as much about giving myself a goal to train for, as they are about fundraising and awareness. Training helps keep me healthy, but blogging about it here allows me to highlight the needs of Type 1 children too – so it still kills two birds!

This year, following the Four4aCure theme, I’m going to do four Triathlons.

– Southwell Sprint Triathlon on April 17th
– Lincoln Sprint Triathlon on 1st May
– Leeds ITU Sprint Triathlon on 12th June
– Woodall Spa Sprint Triathlon on 26th June

A Sprint Triathlon is laughably name ‘Sprint’ because its only a 400m swim followed by a 20k bike ride followed by a 5k run!

As if I will be sprinting round – I am just past ‘Pacey plodding’ at the minute!!! The next few weeks will see updates on how preparations go, as well as more news on the fund raising front!

Preparations have been helped over the last few weeks, not so much by training but by Lent, would you believe! I decided (along with Nikki) to go on the wagon for Lent. 46 days dry! Not as easy as it sounds, especially for one such as myself, who has more than a fondness for a pint of John Smiths! Amazingly, 6 weeks off the booze helped me loose 10 pounds! And its a lot easier to run 5k when you are carrying less weight, I can tell you!

Hopefully, during the next few weeks, I will see the benefits of this when training. Although, I’m not going to help that too much tonight. Its Music Quiz night in the Carpenters Arms, and I’ve not been for 7 weeks!!!!!