My First Ever Running Race, An Ultramarathon - Raising £2,500+ for Children's Hospice South West
This time last month, we raised £2,500+ for Children’s Hospice South West by completing the Christmas Celtic Ultramarathon - a 55km off-road running race passing through woodlands, pastures, moorland and mountainsides in Afan Forest, Wales. Elevation gain? A cute 5,000ft. Toenails missing in action? Four (why did nobody tell me this would happen!).
An ultramarathon was never on my bucket-list. Somehow, a conversation with my best friend, Andrew, escalated into us running 55km after just 50 days of training. The conversation went a little like this…
Andrew: "It's about time we planned an adventure. This Ultramarathon's in December. You up for it?"
Will: "Urmmm...YEAH! Next Christmas would be kind of wild!"
Andrew: "No, it's THIS Christmas, in 50 days' time. I've signed us up!"
Will: "But...I've never even run a marathon! This is 50km! Is that even possible???"
Apparently, it was.
As children’s author from the South West of England, I've had the privilege of supporting Children’s Hospice South West (CHSW) in various ways over the years, from hosting The Shrew With The Flu Draw-&-Dance sessions with bereaved families at Hidden Woods, to reading a snippet of Shrew’s story alongside Sibling Care worker, Sarah, for the hospice’s Appreciation Event at Toppings Bookshop (themed around ‘the importance of storytelling’).
Witnessing the care, love, overwhelming positivity, and gratitude of the CHSW community has left a profound impact on my life. Since then, I've wanted to do something epic to raise money for this incredible charity.
The race was every bit as gritty and grueling as we anticipated, but with a great support team and more than double our initial fundraising goal for CHSW at stake, we finished the way we started: smiling!
For those wanting MORE GORY DETAILS, there are countless videos from our #50DAYS50KM challenge on my Instagram, and the #50DAYS5KM JustGiving page is also live for viewing.
Thanks to everyone that’s enabling me to discover causes like Children’s Hospice South West; thanks to those that supported the fundraising for this crazy challenge; thanks to the support team that cheered us on throughout the toughest challenge of my life so far.
Let’s make more awesomeness happen!
Stay safe'; stay smiley.
Will :)
P.S. an extra shout-out to Thermae Spa Bath Spa, who helped us donate two additional spa day vouchers to the workers at the hospice, for hitting our fundraising target early - acts like that make the world go round!