Bramhall Centre Marathon Special

Hi all,

As a charity fund raising event I thought I'd run a marathon on a treadmill. As the Beetles sang, "I got by with a little help from my friends!", and thanks to the help from lots of people on 7th March 2009 the first ever Bramhall Centre Marathon took place with a grand total of one entrant... me!

Quick results below
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Position Time Money Collected
1st! 4:10:00 £332.80
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Its amazing how ideas become reality, and having tried and failed to get permission elsewhere to run a marathon treadmill fundraiser, and having the problem of not owning a treadmill myself, I was a little doubtful if this idea would come off. However things took a turn for the better when my Campaign Manager, Chris Wood, suggested Bramhall Centre and asked his sister Gemma if I could borrow her treadmill, and she kindly said yes! A quick email to Bramhall Centre and I was put in touch with Carole who managed to get permission, and not only that, got some of the local shops on board, and arranged for transport of the treadmill from Karl of Unique Property Services! In the end I had Loved kindly letting me run outside their Beauty Salon and offering me a massage at the end (which I can recommend!), Ryan Jake offering me a Haircut, The Bubble Room offering me a post race recovery drink of Champagne, and Jim Hall Sports offering £50 worth of vouchers for a raffle to raise money and giving me some running shirts!



So at about 10:45 the treadmill was switched on and the long 26.2 mile run started. Anton and my Mum were on the first shift and straight away people were kindly donating. At a couple of points they were even a little swamped and struggling to keep up with the raffle ticket writing and sticker giving! The event really seemed to capture the interest of people out and about in Bramhall as some cars driving by honked their horns, or even wound their window down and donated money! We were shortly joined by Big Pete and Mrs Forrest who got into the spirit of things helping to raise donations. I had been worried if enough of my friends would be able to help out, but these fears disappeared quickly when yet another volunteer arrived in the form of Matt! There was a great light hearted atmosphere to the event and after a couple of hours reinforcements arrived with Mark, Ann-Marie, paparatzi Russ, and Chris!

I also had plenty of visits from work and running mates. Mike and Helen brought some lovely rosettes with a picture of me in the middle, as well as some badges! Lee from Stockport Harriers took a detour on his long run via Bramhall Village and brought me some energy gels to keep me going. Fiona and Stil popped along to make sure the event was properly audited, and Sandy got into the fitness theme by cycling down after successfully completing the Bramhall 5K!


At 23 miles the Stockport Express came along and took some photo's (fingers crossed they pick a better one then last time)! As the final few miles ticked by I knocked the pace up on the treadmill, but perhaps a little too much as about 100 metres before the finish it overheated and cut out! Thankfully it re-started and we made it to the full marathon distance and I got to celebrate like a true athlete by eating a wonderful cookie!


A huge thank you to everyone involved and already mentioned in this post, we raised a massive £332.80 and the owners of Bramhall Centre have been incredibly generous and said they will match what we raised bringing the grand total to £665.60!!!!!! Clearly I should consider a career change :) It wouldn't have been possible without everyone's help, and it was great to see how positive and encouraging people were! Clearly this was an example of the great community spirit in Bramhall!


Cheers

Andy

P.S. A quick note to say that the Podmore's and the Heath's won the raffle for £25 worth of Jim Hall vouchers!