Juneathon 2011 - Running for Age UK

In 8 days time I shall be competing in Juneathon 2011.

What is Juneathon you may ask?  If you take part you are basically committing to exercise every day during the month of June regardless of the weather conditions , regardless of how tired you may feel and regardless of the lack of time you may have.

After you have exercised you are also required to blog about it and give an update. It is also more fun to have have some social interaction with other fellow Juneathoners from around the world and in this why it builds a community feel to the event. Much of the social networking is on the Facebook site  the official site for Juneathon 2011 is yet to appear but is promised any day. It also helps to be a little mad to do this event.

That's me in the Colchester Half Marathon 1984 - Postman Pat T Shirt

The weather in East Anglia has been dry for many weeks and at the moment there is little sign of a change in these conditions though lets see what happens on the 1st of June by taking part it is probably my equivalent of performing a rain dance so farmers can expect the long awaited heavy rain on Wednesday week.

I am expecting to feel tired and have a lack of time so Juneathon is going to be both a physical and a mental challenge. Time is going to be an issue now that I am working as a gardener and for a retail company. Gardening is physical work and I am pleased to say there is a lot of demand for gardening at this time of the year.

Six months ago I completed Janathon 2011. This is the sister event to Juneathon and is the same challenge but undertaken in the month of January. However at this time I was out of work having been made redundant so I had a lot more time available. I failed to complete Juneathon 2010 due to injury so what makes me think I will do any better this time around.

I want to do Juneathon to support the charity Age UK and will be seeking sponsorship.Why Age UK.

Well clearly Age UK is for all of us. More people need the services of Age UK than ever before. Age Concern and Help the Aged joined together to form Age UK and are the voice for over 14 million people in the UK.

• There are more people aged over 60 than under 16

• 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke each year. Age UK funded the research which led to an early clinical trial for a stroke busting drug.

• Age UK makes thousands of Handy van calls a year to help with DIY .

• support older people after a stay in hospital

• provide vital information to older people, their relatives and friends

• help with managing paperwork and financial matters

• organise events and creative activities at our social clubs

• enable older people to keep fit, healthy and active

I have got the sponsorship forms  just need some good folks to sponsor me and follow my progress here.

My aim will be to run every day rather than swim, cycle or walk but we will see how it goes.  In January I ran a total of 134 miles in 20.3 hrs I would love to beat this but just completing the event and doing at least a mile is my No 1 target.

Lucozade Sport Body Fuel Drink

I haven't had much time recently to run. I have been working long hours which has meant I haven't been exercising as much as I would have liked. I have been particularly busy over the last week but the yearning to go for a run was too strong to be denied and fueled by a bottle of cherry flavored  Lucozade Sport I hit the road today.

I had felt so tired and lethargic and could easily have not bothered to run so the lift to get me out of the door was the isotonic drink. I haven't seen a lucozade cherry flavour drink before and I guess it wouldn't be as popular as an orange or lemon flavour. However personally I like cherries and would buy this again. I didn't have any adverse reaction like you can do with some sports drinks which can sit in your stomach and slosh around. It is not strongly fizzy so you can gulp it down on a run.

The sports cap on the 500 ml bottle is user friendly for runners and of course you can keep the bottle  and fill up with water for future runs. The bottle also has a waistline by this I mean the bottle narrows in the middle with 2-3 grooves making it easier to grip on the run.

You can pick up Lucozade sports drinks at most supermarkets and they tend to be around £1.08  for an individual bottle and at Asda £3.48 for 4 bottles. The Lucozade price seems to be pretty much on a par with other branded energy drinks such as Powerade. You can buy direct from Lucozade Sports in bulk  3 cases of 12 bottles  for £27. Of course along side these sit the non branded supermarket products which tend to be cheaper and it would interesting to know if you buy energy drinks whether you go for a branded product or a supermarket own label?

The marketing information on this drink from Lucozade states

"It is formulated to tackle the reduction of carbohydrate stores and maintain hydration to improve performance in prolonged exercise or sport. Studies testing endurance athletes, such as marathon or long distance runners, have proven that the running speed is higher over the course of an event among those drinking Lucozade Sport, compared to those solely drinking water".

"Whenever you’re involved in sports such as running, football, rugby and tennis where both carbohydrates and maintaining hydration are key. It’s also recommended when exercising for 30 mins or longer at a high intensity, or for 60 mins or longer at any intensity"



"It comes ready to drink. You should drink 200ml-500ml before exercise, to maintain hydration, 150ml-200ml every 15-20 minutes during exercise to give you an energy boost and 500ml immediately afterwards to replace salts and carbohydrate stores and maintain fluid levels."

My ratings on this drink out of 10 are

For flavour                                         9      love the cherry taste

Usability for runners                          8     has a sports cap & the bottle has a waistline

Price                                                   7     does have competition from supermarket own brands

Does it work                                      8      got me out of the chair though will need to try it                                                                       more often than once to be sure

Grand Total                                        32            


My run went well on a windy, sunny day when we had a shower of rain for the first time I can remember in about 6 weeks.