London Marathon: Baked Bean Baths & Fear of Friends

Guess what turned up on my doormat? I have never received one of these magazines before despite having entering the ballot 3 or 4 times and FINALLY I have my very own shiny copy! I’m not sure whether to frame it or flog it on eBay.

When I opened the packet out came the magazine and a veritable shower of leaflets all with a request for money, for sponsorship, for consideration. They all seem very worthy and valuable causes - except possibly for the one which asked for money for a beer trip to Spain. However I strongly suspected this one had been sneaked in by The Mr.

I haven’t yet decided for whom or even WHETHER I’ll be raising money for a charity.

My marathon in Paris was a brilliant experience but it was very intense. I couldn’t have managed any more pressure what with the training intensity and having to blog after every workout, raising money as well would have been really tough. It would have been a real struggle to fit it in.

My training schedule would have had to be amended to: Monday: 16 x 400m starting every 2 mins and 1 hour bath in baked beans, Tuesday: charity raffle and 9 miles at 8:30 min miles and rattle a tin in high street and Wednesday: Jump from plane while peddling legs in an attempt to manage to fit in speed session while looking for a landing spot. Sounds horrendous. And not just the baked beans.   

I’m thinking that maybe I should ask for sponsorship but in a pay-me-to-run-the-marathon way rather than a tin-rattling, doing-silly-things-for-cash way. I tend to try and help the children’s or baby charities and I don’t want to waste the opportunity of getting into the London Marathon to help.

People nowadays tend to donate to charity regularly. When friends are raising money, I will donate to their charity (if it’s one I agree with) and use that as my charity donation for the month. It’s also a way of showing support for your friend. Well ... that and it makes them shut up about it and stop hassling you for cash.

A problem with sponsorship though, is that you feel obliged to complete the challenge because your friends and family members have paid you to do it. I’m hoping I won’t struggle too much with the London Marathon but it’s an additional pressure on top of fitting all the training in, at the right speeds, at the right time and getting organised.

What if I get injured? Are my family and friends, determined to see their pound and pennies of sponsorship in action, going to make me crawl all the way to the finish line in pain? Using the flail of “Starving children in Africa...” and “Poorly babies” as their war cries as they threaten to withhold payment of the sponsorship until I’ve completed the entire 26.2. Also what about the severity of the injury? An ingrown toenail and they’ll let me come in under target by 20 minutes? A chesty cough: 45 minutes and for a broken ankle I get a shopping trolley and a dog to pull me?

I think there’s more to this sponsorship lark than I initially thought. I’ll have to have a deep think about which charity to choose. And which friends I ask to sponsor me.