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.