Monday, August 11, 2014

Freda runs for Bhola's Children

Yesterday our wonderful trustee Freda, who has not done any serious running before, completed the 10 k run in Regent’s Park in aid of Bhola’s Children. To date she has raised over £800 for our charity. Back in Bhola, our children ran at the same time. They sent their good wishes. Here is Freda’s account of her marathon: As you may be aware, the date of my momentous running event coincided with the arrival of a certain Hurricane Bertha. It was thus with some trepidation that we arrived at Regents Park this morning. Running with umbrellas (or 'borrowing' bin bags from the friendly street cleaner we passed en route) was contemplated, but it was soon all too apparent that we would not have been wetter had we decided to swim to the start and thus all further attempts to stay dry were futile. However team morale was as high as the water level, and with a determination and stride pattern that Mo Farah would have been proud of, we set off only a mere 20 minutes after most of the field (as you know punctuality is not our strongest event). In fact Amy started so late that the 'start' line had been turned into the 'finish' and thus when she tried to cross the line she was accosted by a somewhat irritable race organiser. It only dawned on us later that had she been allowed to she would had inadvertently 'won' the race! With true courage in the face of adversity (some would say akin to that of the Jamaican sprint relay team in Glasgow) we battled on against fierce winds and thrashing rain overcoming everything that Hurricane Bertha could throw at us. A strong 'sprint' finish resulted in a 'Team Graf' personal best time of 1 hour 24 minutes. As you might suspect we are expecting to hear from the Olympic GB selection team in the next few days regarding our availability for Rio. Joking apart there was no way on earth you would have got me running around a flooded Regents Park for an hour and a half without knowing I had all your support behind me. Your generosity has humbled me and will make the pain I endure getting out of bed tomorrow (when my entire body has stiffened up in protest to today's exertions) seem completely worthwhile. The children in the home at Bhola went running at the same time as my run in support of our effort. I am sure their run was equally as wet with the added discomfort of the heat. Many thanks again for your support Freda “just call me Mo” Graf PS I couldn’t have done any of this without the support of my Team – a big thank you to Bethan and Amy

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