Turbo training 2.6 Challenge for Age UK
Having committed myself to this latest effort for charity I
have been reminded that I have a handful of times struck out to try to raise
some funds for one or other needy cause. And I sort of got to the point where I
felt it would be embarrassing to ask people to donate yet again. Its true that
the folk one turns to, are all the usual suspects aren’t they. Your family, the
people you work with and in my case other triathletes or swimmers. Mutterings
of Charity Fatigue and Oh not again get heard when you hit the same person for
the fifth or sixth time.
But wait a minute we should always be glad that it is not us
that needs charity. This is a special time right now, the like of which most of
us have not seen. The charities themselves are running into trouble because all
the big events this year have been cancelled and so the thousands of people who
may be doing their first big race for charity have been side lined and they
cannot raise money when the cannot race… the money comes with the success of
completing the event. All those runners in the London Marathon, thousands of
them, wearing fancy dress or team tee shirts are out on hold.
The 2.6 Challenge- Save the charities is to take place next
Sunday April 26th.
The idea is to do anything you can that links to those two
numbers either 2.6 or 26 or 260.
A friend of mine will hula hoop for 26 minutes and another
will cycle his mountain bike up a short hill 260 times! CEO of Human Race LTD,
Nick Rusling says that his Mum, will walk 26 laps of her garden even though she
has severe arthritis. My husband came up with the bright idea that we should
sit on our turbo trainers in our box room at home and cycle for 260 minutes, that’s
4 hours, 20 minutes. Hhhmmm!
Yes that will keep us quiet for a bit. We hope that out
efforts will prompt our family friends and fellow athletes to slip their hand
into their pockets and pull out a credit card and donate to Age UK Brighton and
Hove that also takes in our area in
Littlehampton.
Meanwhile those charities still are expected to do their
good work. Keeping care homes running, giving counseling at the local hospice.
I am closer to 81 than any other age and so Age UK seems like the correct
choice for me. In fact I had been asked to be involved with my local group to
be present at the opening of a newly refurbished gym, where older people can
try to maintain some fitness or work on their mobility, maybe after a hip
replacement for instance. That opening fell foul of the lock down suggestions,
so no classes then and no opening occasion.
I have once more posted my intention to take on latest
challenge on Facebook and Instagram as well as my diary page. It was Nick
Rusling who asked me to see what I could do to help on this occasion and he is
not somebody that I can ignore because in my long career in Triathlon he has
been most helpful.
If we are sensible we know that the expression ‘There is no
such thing as a free lunch’, is very true indeed. In the past Nick, has invited
me to take part in his races and a race slot is not to be sniffed at. The only
way I can repay him and Human Race is to be of use for the purposes of extra
motivation and reassurance for new women who have just started in the sport
that I have thirty years experience of. So gems of my advice may appear on their
website blog with encouragement to new participants and I send them a couple of
photos that can be used for the same purpose, in news items sent out to give
the message that, ‘No my dear you are not too old at forty to try a triathlon
for the first time’. Many women have years when they only consider their family
and not themselves , that’s natural but when the children are older it is only
correct that mum be given time out of her usual role to do something that will
make her feel proud of herself for a change.
Turbo training is an important side of the sport for me
since I feel that I am far too long in the tooth to go out on my bike in the
worst of winter weather, so I do ALL my bike training indoors during the
winter. I cannot risk falling off my bike on slippery road or hitting a patch
of gravel whilst taking a downhill corner. I have had several broken bones in
the past due to accidents like that.
So my dears think of Steve and I this coming Sunday as we
turn those pedals round and round
won’t you? I hope the effort prompts some of you to make a
donation, it doesn’t have to be an enormous amount, anything will help, and
every little bit is good and much appreciated by me. It would be nice if you could
help and I would be grateful that you thought it was worth the achy muscles
that I might have for my run next day.
You can find my page on Just Giving easily enough.
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