The Centurion Grand Slam
Sunday 17th March 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of my daughter Zoe Marie passing away and as such I plan to run a few miles and raise some money for charity in her memory. I have run a couple of times for charity, once in 2010 from Canterbury to Chessington see here and again in 2013 when I ran for 24 hours at Endure 24 managing 65 miles in memory of Sam’s late son Lewis raising money for ALD Life. This year I am planning to take part in 4 different 50 mile races, each of which has its own challenges from the rolling hills of the South and North Downs Way to the difficult terrain on the Chilterns and the steep unforgiving hills of Wendover Woods. The races I will be taking part in are:
| South Downs Way 50 | Saturday 6th April |
| North Downs Way 50 | Saturday 18th May |
| Chiltern Wonderland 50 | Saturday 14th September |
| Wendover Woods 50 | Saturday 16th November |
I am pleased to announce that my chosen charity for 2019 will be:
I have chosen Momentum because of the work they do with seriously and terminally ill children and their families. Being told that your child has such an illness is absolutely devastating and these guys do an awesome job in supporting the children and families affected. This year is their 15th Anniversary and they are working hard to raise a massive £900,000 and your support will help us achieve this target which will in turn help them continue their work and deliver vital ongoing support and assist in three other strands of work for which a further £200,000 is needed.
So why is helping Momentum so important?
When a family learns that their child has cancer or is seriously ill, it is completely devastating. Momentum want to ensure that no family has to cope with this news alone. Your donation will allow their Family Support Team to offer support throughout a child’s treatment journey and for as long as they and their family need them.
- £15 would give a child a special Momentum Pebble and gift when they arrive home from hospital
- £30 could pay for a visit from a Family Support Worker, providing comfort and advice to a distressed parent
- £50 would pay for a music therapy session for a child at home
- £100 could allow a worried sibling to share their thoughts and fears with a trained psychotherapist
- £500 gives a respite holiday break for the whole family in our New Forest holiday home
So why not help me to help Momentum. To achieve the Grand Slam I need to complete each of the races within the time limit set for each. The first 3 all have a 13 hour cut off and although it may sound quite generous there is plenty that can happen on the day to delay a runner and with over 5000 ft of elevation to contend with, the hills make it interesting to say the least. The final race at Wendover is given an additional 2 hours making it a 15 hour cut off, this is because the elevation is twice as much as the other races and with 10,000ft of elevation it is the equivalent of climbing 1/3 of the way up Mount Everest.
As well as the 4 Ultra’s throughout this year I will hopefully, with the help of some amazing friends be organising a Street Orienteering Event, a charity curry night and a quiz night to help raise funds. Additionally, thanks to the kind generosity of various businesses both local and national and some local race directors I will be organising a “Guess My Time” competition for each event, giving entrants the opportunity of winning a number of different prizes. This will hopefully culminate in a bigger prize for the person getting closest to my cumulative time over the 4 races. Further details on all of the above events will be available soon but if you would like to take part in the first “Guess My Time” competition you can do so by clicking below.
