Sunday 11 April 2010

What a week!

To say this has been a good week for Run Geordie Run is an absolute understatement!!

Firstly, £1000 has been added to the Charity Fund in aid of St Benedict's Hospice and The Children's Foundation this week. This has come about through sales of Run Geordie Run t-shirts as a result of Newcastle United wearing them during Saturday's pre match warm up.

The fund burst through the £8000 barrier on Saturday afternoon and currently stands at £8398.20. I can't repeat enough just how grateful I am to everyone for their donations. These donations have come from all over the globe. The USA, New Zealand, Hong Kong, France, Scotland and Australia are all represented on my sponsor form. Add to this list, donations from the North East and many other parts of the UK and you start to realise just how globally recognised Run Geordie Run and the 3100 mile run across the USA has become.

News of the run is also reaching the celebrity/sports world too. I've had some kind words from GMTV's Ben Shephard, Olympic Silver medallist Iwan Thomas, The Times' North East football writer George Caulkin and those members of Newcastle United who I was able to chat to on Saturday. 

There was some brilliant coverage on Real Radio on Wednesday with sound bytes from yours truly played during the hourly news bulletins.

On Thursday, I was lucky enough to be able to give a talk to the Rotary Club of Tynemouth. As a result, they are going to help spread the word throughout the Rotary Club movement.

The final bit of PR came about on Saturday with an article in The Journal about the NUFC warm up. I was also very pleased with a subsequent mention in the editorial section. It went something like this: "What a nice gesture of Newcastle United to ask the team to wear T-Shirts in support of Mark Allison ahead of today's match at St James' Park. His ambition to run more than 3000 miles in just 100 days all for a good cause is a remarkably challenging one. But knowing he has the support of the region will spur him on to achieve it.".

I should probably mention too, that the number of hits on www.rungeordierun.com passed 100,000. The site has been up and running since January 2007. The amount of traffic has increased steadily over the last 3 years. It's great to know that people actually read this stuff!

Aside from PR there has been the small matter of running 16 miles per day this week. I completed the final run of the week after 11 pm on Saturday night! Despite having run much further during sponsored runs in 1 week that was a new record for a training week. 

The 112 miles I ran this week were made up of 4 x 16 mile runs and various other distances to get a daily mileage of 16 miles. 

The recovery between runs was probably the most pleasing aspect of the week with very few aches and pains experienced. I did feel very tired during the middle of the week and did suffer mild dehydration but other than that it was all good.

Nutrition was almost spot on too. It's not my strongest point but I was never hungry on a run so that's a change from previous weeks. I found myself consuming quite a lot of energy gels, drinks and bars. They have cost a fortune and I dread to think how much I'll have to spend during the rest of this training campaign as well as during the run next year. If there's an energy/recovery bar/drink supplier out there who would like to sponsor me then please get in touch at sponsorship@rungeordierun.com

So I'm sure you'll agree, that this has been a very successful week on and off the pitch for Run Geordie Run and the 2 charities. I'll be spending most of the next week packing and posting t-shirts to all the four corners of the globe and replying to the numerous emails that I've received asking questions about the run or sending best wishes. Good times!