RW staffer shout out to forumites

Help me RW Forumites!

Hi Guys. I have a personal proposal for you – no not that sort, a running one. This post is going to be a tad long but it has to be. Bear with me.

To get to the point I’m calling out any keen/bonkers/cold weather runners who fancy one last challenge before Christmas.

 I’m part of a team called the 12in12 doing a year-long charity challenge (of which a little more below) and in December I will be taking part in an event called The Hope Tour, running 12 marathons in 12 days down the country, and I’d like to invite you to join me for some of it.

 What is the 12in12?

A 12-month fundraiser. 20-odd friends have been spending the year each doing 12 hard challenges, one per month, in 2012 (hence the name) for a charity called Hope HIV. Each person has their own schedule and level of fitness. In our team we have bikers, runner, triathletes, hikers, swimmers…the list goes on.

You can find out more about us on our website here: www.the12in12.com

What is Hope HIV?

 A UK based charity that helps kids in sub-Saharan Africa who have been affected by AIDS or HIV. We chose the charity for two very simple reasons

-It’s not about short term disaster relief (amazing as that is) it’s about helping kids to be self-sustainable and build a life for themselves.

-The charity is small, completely transparent and des not swallow sponsorship money in corporate overheads.

www.hopehiv.org

As of the date at the top of this blog our team has raised £97,000 this year. We want your help to get that closer to £150,000 by December 31.

What are the brief details of the Hope Tour?

The Hope Tour is my final event of 12 for the year. Every team member has made up their own schedule of events but for the December event five of us decided to team up and do something massive.

On 12/12/12 (can you spot the theme yet…?!) the five of us will set off from Harrogate, North Yorkshire. We’ll finish on 23/12 on The Mall in London in front of Buckingham Palace to a reception of friends, family and media.

We have planned 12x 26.2 mile routes and will be travelling with a support team of crew, physios, masseuses, drivers and so on. Each route has been carefully planned and we will have checkpoints along the way where not only can runners stock up on fuel and get medical attention, but where other runners joining us can be picked up as we pass through.

-You can see each day’s exact route on the Hope Tour tag of the 12in12 website. But the rough schedule is this:

Harrogate to Leeds 12th

Leeds to Barnsley 13th

Barnsley to Sheffield 14th

Chesterfield to Nottingham 15th

Nottingham to Loughborough 16th

Loughborough to Mkt Harborough 17th

Bedford to Cambridge 18th

Tour of Cambridge 19th

High Wycombe to Reading 20th

Reading to Windsor 21st

Windsor to Richmond 22nd

Richmond to The Mall 23rd

-We are PRing the event quite heavily and hope to attract runners throughout the country to come and join us on one of our marathons for whatever distance you can manage: 5K, 10K, 13 miles a whole marathon - or maybe even more than one – whatever you want to do. We’d ask that you either make a donation or raise a little sponsorship of your own to add to our pot and help us bump up the money raised.

What else have we done?<

Hi Kerry,

What a great idea! I think you're missing a bit after "what else have we done".... but i'd be interested in possible the 22nd or 23rd with you all.

How do we sign up?

whoops good spot Emmy! Here's the rest of it...

What else have we done?

For context, various Team 12ers this year been bog snorkelling, mountain climbing, skydiving, paddling down white water rapids on a lilo, playing football for 24 hours non-stop, trampolined for 12 hours…anything and everything. I myself this year have done five marathons, learnt to swim and done a one mile swim challenge, a six-day 120 mile run across the Colorado Rocky Mountains and a dragon boating competition amongst other things.

How can you get involved?

I’ve tried not to make this post too long – don't want you all falling asleep – but I know there’s loads of questions any interested parties will have. You can either post below (I’ll be checking several times a day) or email me at:

Kerry.mccarthy@hearst-rodale.co.uk And if you want to make a donation rather than come run then you can do so at: www.justgiving.com/KerryMcCarthy We really appreciate every single penny we’re given.

Thanks a lot, Kerry

Wow..Lokks really interesting - Just about to look at the website now.

Not all the links to the routes for the individual days are working, only the last 3 days seem to be present.

Would like to see the Loughborough - Market Harborough section if you could post a direct link to it

Thanks

Why does it need to be for Charadeee?

Can't it be done just for the hell of doing it; you don't need a justification.

Some questions from me:

- When would you plan to start/finish.

- What sort of pace/distances are you planning to cover in the day? Do you require a minimum pace to take part?

- What else would you want from people taking part?

Hi Guys, thanks for your responses so far. Emmy I think you sent me a direct mail so will respond to that right after this. To answer your questions above:

We are fine-tuning this at the moment - loads of planning to be done yet but each day that we finish we'll be staying in a hotel or B&B fairly close to where we finish. We will start each day at 8am and be running roughly 4:45-5 hour pace. Our plan is to run together but I'm sure as the days go by and some develop niggles, then some will speed up, some will walk etc and so on. There'll be checkpoints where runers can stop to to refuel/. We can provide free water and ForGoodness Shakes/Nectar are our official nutrition sponsor so there'll be plenty of that for those who want it.

There is NO minimum pace or level of fitness required and you don;t even have to run a full mars - whatever you want, 5k, 10 miles, anything is fine.

As we get the planning sorted we will have exact details of start and finish locations (most days there will be local press and as Mayor or two to greet us as we finish).

We don't need anything else form runers apart from a willingness to join in and rasie a bit of cash (there is no minimum amount of sponsorship required -everything is appreciated. And feel free to rope in your own friends, family and colleagues too. amnyone you think would be interested. We want to spread the word!

Gemgemx - thanks. The website is put together by us in our spare/own time so while it may not look super-slick most of the info should be there and I'm happy to answer as many queries as you may have.

Ian66 I've just been told those routes have been talken down again for tweakage bu they'll be going up again obver the course of this week. Sorry. I shall post you a direct link to the route you asked for as soon as it is up.

Piers wrote (see)

Why does it need to be for Charadeee?

Can't it be done just for the hell of doing it; you don't need a justification.

 

 

That's true Piers but we felt that we wanted to. Might as well have fun, challenge ourselves and do some good all at the same time...

Oh and my Twitter handle is @RWKerry in case any of you prefer to use that.

Currently working in Leeds, so look forward to seeing you for the Leed-Barnsley leg. Whether I can join you in the run is up in the air at the moment, but one way or another I'll be there

running4rwanda wrote (see)

Currently working in Leeds, so look forward to seeing you for the Leed-Barnsley leg. Whether I can join you in the run is up in the air at the moment, but one way or another I'll be there

That's awesome thanks! My email is in an above post. if you want to send me your email address I'll add you to my growing databse of interested peeps so I can send  a once-a-week email of planning progress and more specific detail on the relevant legs as we get it.

Um, isn't this against the T&Cs of this site? I've seen other threads getting pulled for advertising charities like this before.

Not that I want it pulled and good luck, just asking for clarification.

Cheers,

Kate.

as it is for charity..............can i just check..........the B&B and transport etc....is this being paid for out of the sponsorship or by RW or by the individuals doing the challenge.......

are any of the support team being paid or getting food allowance from the sponsorship money.......

thanks.i like to know all the information before i donate orriase money for a cause.

Kerry
good luck - and if I am fit enough I will happily join you on the 12th as I live in Harrogate 
However the main road from Harrogate  to Leeds is horrendously busy in the morning and it certainly does not have a footpath alongside is for the entire route. The alternative minor road routes are also very busy with rat-run motorists and the school run traffic, none of whom seem very willing to give way for runners, so I would suggest you start a little later on your first leg - an 0930 or 1000 would see most of the heavy traffic reduced considerably. That way you have a better chance of arriving in Leeds in one piece!!!

...........can now see your proposed route and yes Pool Bank is "challenging" as is getting there from Harrogate!!!
There will be no "senior" shoppers on the streets at 0800 in Harrogate - it will still be dark oop north in mid-December!!

seren nos wrote (see)

as it is for charity..............can i just check..........the B&B and transport etc....is this being paid for out of the sponsorship or by RW or by the individuals doing the challenge.......

are any of the support team being paid or getting food allowance from the sponsorship money.......

 

thanks.i like to know all the information before i donate orriase money for a cause.

Morning, and good question. Nopthing is being paid for out of sponsorship money. we made a decision at the start of the year that we'd either get stuff for free or foot the bill ourselves so that 100% of the money would go to the charity. 

Otherwise what's the point of raising the money in the first place? You obviously agree given the question. So in this case, everything we've got so far: physio team, support crew, vehicles, kit, nutrition stuff (anything whether time or manpower or a product) has been given for free. We'll be paying for our own evening meals. We're still trying to sort a hotel chain to put us up each night so if anyone has any links to the hospitality industry and knows anybody who could help us then please do get in touch! Otherwise if we fail to get something donated we'll foot the bill for accmmmodation ourselves.

Torque Steer wrote (see)

Kerry
good luck - and if I am fit enough I will happily join you on the 12th as I live in Harrogate 
However the main road from Harrogate  to Leeds is horrendously busy in the morning and it certainly does not have a footpath alongside is for the entire route. The alternative minor road routes are also very busy with rat-run motorists and the school run traffic, none of whom seem very willing to give way for runners, so I would suggest you start a little later on your first leg - an 0930 or 1000 would see most of the heavy traffic reduced considerably. That way you have a better chance of arriving in Leeds in one piece!!!

Thanks fort the advise, I'll pass that on to the rest of the team and we'll discuss. sounds like a good idea though. I know Harrogte quite well as my sister lives there (Burn Bridge). Lovely place although the much-loved Betty's has disappeared up its own bum and turned into a nightmare to get served!

Thanks Kerry for clarifying that........you are a bit far away from south wales to support but will be reading the accounts with interest......good luck

Torque Steer wrote (see)

Kerry
good luck - and if I am fit enough I will happily join you on the 12th as I live in Harrogate 
However the main road from Harrogate  to Leeds is horrendously busy in the morning and it certainly does not have a footpath alongside is for the entire route. The alternative minor road routes are also very busy with rat-run motorists and the school run traffic, none of whom seem very willing to give way for runners, so I would suggest you start a little later on your first leg - an 0930 or 1000 would see most of the heavy traffic reduced considerably. That way you have a better chance of arriving in Leeds in one piece!!!

if you are interersted in joining on the 12th then do send me your email address and I'll add you to my list for once weekly updates on route planning and organisatione tc from here. Keep you abreast of things...