Corporate Games

The weather has been relatively kind but the course was muddy and hilly. I managed a respectable 5th for my age group scoring 4 points for the Vodafone team. Clive managed 2nd in the same age group.

Off to the Corporate Games

Received confirmation yesterday that the Games are going ahead although more torrential rain is forecast for Saturday. With that in mind I've packed multiple sets of clothing and my off-road shoes as well a my normal running shoes.

It's going to be interesting!

Please sponsor me

Great. The sponsorship page is up and running. What are you waiting for?

And even more exciting...

Received confirmation last night that the PTA has been accepted by the Vodafone UK Foundation as a charity that they are happy to support. This means that the first £350 that I raise through sponsorship will be matched by Vodafone. Isn't that fantastic?

In addition the Foundation provides the ability to host a website to collect credit card donations which will hopefully make the whole business of sponsorship that bit easier. I expect to have that live later today.

Training is progressing well with some good long runs and a few more cycle rides to work under my belt. This didn't calm the nerves when I got the Paris to Hayling Newsletter through the post yesterday though.

Waiting to see whether the Corporate Games will go ahead this weekend given the terrible flooding in Sheffield. What those poor people are going through I can only imagine; clearing up a field so that a bunch of corporate-types can play at being olympic athletes for the weekend must be pretty low down their list!

Getting excited

Things are starting to gather momentum. My official Paris to Hayling kit has arrived and the sponsorship pledges have started to roll in. I spent some time yesterday talking to a couple of "old hands" who have done the ride a few times and it just got me more excited rather than worried.

Traning is going well. I had a bit of time off over the weekend but managed a great run last night, while staying in Hungerford, enjoying a bit of sunshine after sitting in a conference room all day.

And just to make me feel really good about everything, I've just found out that I'm winning our Gentleman's Sporting Challenge at work to see who can clock up the most cycle-to-work miles throughout the summer!

Training picks up

Fully back into the swing of things now. Cycled to work in Newbury on Friday, long run on Saturday and a ride to Lechlade and back on Monday evening.

I took this photo as I was riding last night, enjoying the late sunshine. It seemed like a good image while I was bowling along at 30 kmh but looking at it now I might as well have taken it standing still! Maybe the career in photography had better wait a while longer.

I've finally started the sponsorship forms, I now need some publicity...

Email Blogging

If I'm going to be able to blog while on the ride in France then I need to get blogging via email working. I'd love to be able to MMS pictures in as well but several attempts at doing that have failed. Lets see if this is successful...

Early night tonight as cycling to work tomorrow.

First Post

Sooo... with half-term out of the way (we had a great holiday in Devon but much more eating than running) the training is back on track with a short run on Monday and a ride to Faringdon-and-back last night. Feeling OK but getting on the ferry to France on 11th July doesn't seem very far away and I have the Corporate Games at the end of this month to get through first.

The other key preoccupation is getting sponsorship organised...