This marathon training ain’t hard! – 14 October 2009

Having accepted my place running for THT (and then having told as many people as possible about it so I can’t back out) I figured it was now time to focus on fund-raising. The training bit is pretty easy at this stage, just three 20 minute runs each week, so whilst people are still on a high from my having been offered a place it seemed like the perfect time to get their sponsorship.

As far as I was concerned I had all the necessary elements to raise funds:

1) A worthwhile cause
2) A good contacts list
3) My job is marketing
4) I've never asked for sponsorship before (except for maybe once or twice at school but nobody apart from mum will remember that)
5) I'm running a marathon, not a little fun run, an actual 26.2 mile marathon.

People should be falling over themselves to give me cash. Right?

Telling people you’re running a marathon and asking for their sponsorship is a bit of a rollercoaster ride really. Since starting my collection I’ve had some massive highs and some dips too.

When you ask people to sponsor you, you can’t help but have a figure in mind that you think they’ll offer and how supportive of you they’ll be. It’s a complex equation that takes in to account your relationship with them, how well they know you, their financial circumstances, and their attitude towards the cause.

Some people who you’d expect to have no interest send fantastic emails congratulating you and giving generous amounts of money. They tell you how amazing and brave they think you are, and show real enthusiasm and passion for what you’re doing. Some of the emails friends have sent to me telling me how proud they are of me and how much they want to support me have quite literally moved me to tears.

Just saying you’re running a marathon for charity gives you a strange superhuman-like status. It’s actually quite ironic really as all I’ve done so far is say I’m going to do it and a small amount of training, and yet people keep telling me how incredible I am. This stage must be one of the high points!

In my recent blog I listed my motivations for wanting to do this. There’s one more thing I’d add to that list now, and that’s the support of others. I genuinely never realised the scale of how supportive people can be, and it feels fantastic :o)

You can show your support by sponsoring me at http://www.justgiving.com/paul-raybould/