If I said years ago,”I will run a marathon at some point,” they would scoff and tell me that I can’t do it. Thankfully, I proved myself wrong by running the Brighton Marathon in April 2017. It was the first one I did and under pretty intense heat, at least by England’s standards. I ran it in 04:06:24. More importantly, I raised over £2,300 for Dementia UK, a fabulous charity.
During that time, I irritated a lot of people by going on about my training, running and the marathon in general. Well, those people will be irritated again. Next year in April, I will be running my second marathon in Rotterdam!
https://twitter.com/CarlDonnelly/status/1042014208886558720
Why Rotterdam?
Two main reasons really. One is that I realise that running events gives me another opportunity to travel. See more of the world that I’m sure everyone aspires to. I have never been to The Netherlands, so this would be a great experience for me. It is also very cheap. I looked into doing one in Honolulu, and that would cost me £1,500 at least in flights, registration, and accommodation before I start training. You can imagine how cheap Holland is in comparison!
Why else am I doing one in Rotterdam? It’s very flat. Very, very flat indeed. Whereas my goal in Brighton was just to finish the marathon, this time I want to beat the 4-hour mark. Hopefully, this will give me the best opportunity to do so. But the bloody pain……………
Why am I doing this?
To beat one of my goals of running 4 hours. To travel more. To do better.
I am raising money for charity as well. For the very few that follow my Twitter ramblings, I am quite passionate about breaking the stigma surrounding mental health. It is a horrible place to be when mental health drains the mind and soul to such an extent where the world turns grey. A few of my friends suffer from depression, anxiety, bipolar and worse attempted suicide. I am raising money for Samaritans because a couple of my mates wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for them.
Samaritans is a phenomenal charity that helps thousands of people in the United Kingdom, particularly those who are stressed, lonely, have nowhere to turn, feeling suicidal or are struggling to cope with their personal problems. They operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year and every 60 seconds, someone with suicidal feelings contacts Samaritans. I want to help Samaritans keep helping people and saving lives.
Anyway, roll on April!
