This brings you my warmest greetings for Christmas and the New Year!
The final few months of 2013 have been a wonderful start to my marathonsister project, and I'm looking forward to completing it successfully in 2014... Latest fundraising update is £545.88! I'd like to thank everybody who has been so generous in contributing towards that.
No doubt there will be some disruptions to training over the festive period, but I'm hoping the extra calories will give me loads of energy when I get back to long runs!
Credit where it's due... I found this picture on Google Images and it comes from The Guardian's Eyewitness series. It's by Owen Humphreys and is called "By dawn's early light"; it shows Tynemouth Beach in November 2010. I expect the photographer wouldn't be impressed at me adding words to it!
Looking forward to sharing my news with you in the coming months.
Yesterday was the Heythrop "Carols by Candlelight" Advent/Christmas service, organised and led by the Heythrop Schola Cantorum, of which I'm a member. Dominic Mather, Schola Director, very generously suggested that we have a retiring collection for the Catholic Children's Society, and I'm really happy to report that it raised £50.88! With various individual donations received recently, that brings the currant total to £340.88! That doesn't strike me as bad, four months (to the day) before the event. Thanks so much to all for your generosity.
The Carols by Candlelight, incidentally, was a lovely event. The Maria Assumpta Chapel looked beautiful with everyone holding a candle, there were some really reflective readings and poems, and it was great to hear everybody joining in with the congregational carols. I gather that the pieces sung by the Schola came across pretty well, too, which I must admit is a bit of a relief! We went next door to Milleret House for mulled wine and mince pies afterwards, which was great fun - so many friendly people to meet. A good end to the term.
Here it is, the first post of a new project. And here's me, posing in my Catholic Children's Society T-shirt! It all makes me realise that I really am going to be running another marathon, and raising another couple of thousand pounds. That's exciting! But I'll try not to overdo the exclamation marks.
It has to be said that I wasn't expecting to be running a marathon just now, during the final year of my theology degree, but when the chance came up to raise money for a brilliant charity and take on a really fun challenge, I didn't hesitate. Of course, it's something I can't do alone. I don't just mean for the fundraising; I need your support in all sorts of ways - most importantly, your encouragement. That's why I've started this blog. I'll be trying to keep you updated with my posts about training, fundraising, the charity it's all for, and maybe about other things that are going on for me, too. In return, I would love to hear your feedback, so please get involved!
