Fund raising for the Stroke Association

At the start of the year I felt like something was missing.  For the last two years I had applied, and been successful, for getting a place on the West Highland Way Race.  Although both times it was like an ominous sentence hanging over me I secretly enjoyed the build up, the planning and the training.  I still cant believe I’m a two time finisher of one of the hardest ultras the UK has to offer.

This year I wanted to do something equally as epic and I had already seen an event that caught my eye.  The Ring of Fire multi stage ultra is an event held over 3 days and involves running round the coast of Anglesey. The 3 days cover 35.7, 66 and 33.4 miles respectively with competitors starting and finishing at Holyhead.  I was due to sign up at the start of the year when I found out that an ex patient of mine and also a fellow runner had sadly had a stoke and passed away. A stroke is a life threatening medical condition that can strike at any age and can cause catastrophic damage to the brain and lead to death.  I worked with many stroke patients during my time at Ilkeston Community Hospital so, saw first hand the devastating effects it can have on someone’s life and those close to them.

One of the two charities you could run for was the Stroke Association so I signed up with a pledge to raise £500.  The event is the last weekend in August and as usual I will supported by my wonderful (very patient) partner Steve.  He has been with me every step of the way through all my crazy events and is always there with comfort, encouragement and thankfully a van full of food. Having the love and support from him and my family really does count for so much.

So my training is going well so far and I have a few events in the pipeline to see how I am running.  I’d love to be able to head over to Anglesey to do a recce of some of the course but this year is filling up already and weekends seem to be very few and far between.  I’ll be writing about my training, my runs, my kit and hopefully just about how I’m feeling as the event approaches.  I also hope to organise some fund raising activities so please watch this space.  In the mean time if you would like to sponsor me or take a sponsor form into your place of work please get in touch or follow the link below

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kerstine-herbert1