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Donations collected in partnership with Grace Baptist Mission, UK charity number 263133.
Final total: £2,714.04. Marathon result: 1,649th (approx. 11,000 starters), time 03:40:15.
Blog here: http://dublinmarathon07.blogspot.com/
Pokot is a very remote region of northern Kenya. It is underdeveloped, and does not have sanitation (running water), electricity or many of the things we take for granted. Many of the people are animal herders, and live in mud huts. It is extremely cheap to sponsor a child's education in Pokot by western standards. Without schooling, the children will grow up illiterate, and their opportunities to better themselves will be very limited. Schools need teachers, classrooms, food, books, latrines and water. In Pokot, you have to dig for the water in the dried-up river bed! We have an opportunity to do a great deal of good for these people.
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I have never run a marathon before. Nobody can guarantee that they'll finish one; but I am not new to endurance sports; in 1998 I completed the 125-mile Devizes to Westminster canoe race in under 23 hours (senior doubles class, timed continuously), a race which I also completed twice in the staged junior doubles class in 1996-7 and once in the senior singles, in 1999.
I once (about a decade ago) ran around 12 miles at my university's cross country club as part of canoeing training. Not long after university I found that I was getting severe pains in my right knee after a mile's running. This time, though, I decided to carry on training anyway - and after a couple of weeks the pain went away! I've not done much exercise in the last 5 years but am making up for it now.
I started training in mid-April for this October marathon. My training was interrupted for a fortnight by a very heavy cold/fever, and then by gastro-enteritis (Campylo Bacter) - but we're back to all systems go now.
The marathon is on Monday, 29th October 2007, and its website is here: http://www.dublincitymarathon.ie.
Here are some ways that you can help the children of West Pokot: