As promised, I will start with a quick recap of what we've done as a team over the past 3 weeks:
- I've surpassed my 1000-miles run mark... 1051 miles/ 1682 kms from May 1 2014 - March 31st 2015.
- Personal fundraising target is nearly achieved, surpassing the 50% mark of the £4000 marker for Team Canada (Kyle and me) https://www.justgiving.com/xtynsrunning/
- Team Mondelez Runs fundraising has surpassed the £10,000 mark- which is an incredible amount of money to donate to such a worthy cause.
In some detail, we kicked off a huge push for fundraising with a successful Pancake Sale one Friday morning. Fluffy (North) American style pancakes with all the toppings- lemon and sugar for the Brits, Nutella for the European Continentals, and those who wanted the full Canadian experience could sample the sausage and maple syrup option. With a constant flow of batter on the go and a small Oxfam-by-association army as helping hands, our "All you can eat pancake buffet" complete with scones, muffins, and fruit salad helped to secure another 400£ towards the fundraising pot.
How best to get people in to buy your wares? My two top tips for events like these are to:
1) Host them on Fridays when people want a good excuse for some, ummm... "team bonding" and "relationship building". Of course happy, well fed, well connected colleagues make efficiently productive workers which is why events like this are necessary in the work place. And, we are doing our bit as a corporation to support poverty in developing countries. Win-win!
2) Coincide your event with other money-making opportunities leveraging natural phenomenons. Our very opportunistic Mdlz Runs Team Leader used the recent solar eclipse as a supplementary money-spinning event by charging 20p a view through the special solar eclipse glasses. I think we only made about an extra £1.00 in actual views, but I'd estimate that the increased foot-fall past the tall windows across from the kitchen whilst pumping out the heart-warming smell of pancakes brought us in some extra cash.
A solar eclipse viewing, pancake eating patron
Events two and three of late involved some cross training activities, mostly because the cost of hiring a treadmill was going to be more than what we actually would have earned during our event. Instead we hooked up some stationery bikes, donned our pinnies, and cycled for change.
Fundraising in the UK is an interesting piece of work to take on. The Brits are very generous (or generous enough) people and are happy to give you their spare change. There are different levels of canvassing you can take on, where at the base-most level you can stand in a busy street and shake a bucket asking for change. If you do a stunt of sorts OR wear some funny clothes, you tend to get a bit more pocket money. Combine these events together and you can make 1000£ over 8 hours in two busy locations.
I wonder how much extra people donated for sporting the green sweatbands?
Add gold sequined leggings= ££
Add some family support in the form of cute kids= £££
Hustling the crowd for their spare 20 pences.
The last push of the fundraising weekend was a testament to the training that the team has diligently been following since the beginning of this year. For some reason, likely to check that you've been practising your pacing properly, all recommended training plans suggest completing a half-marathon in the middle of the full regime. This more traditional way of asking people to give you a fiver helped to round our weekend off to a hefty 2000£ as a team and not only did that bring us the satisfaction of PB'ing on the fundraising front, but our UK running team registered our best times for the run up to the marathon. I (un)surprisingly achieved a 99-minute race time in Warwick, which I was gunning to do in October and then scale the running back; however in keeping to the plan, I am in a position to quit running at the end of April (she says). The only unfinished running business I will have left is to register a 10km race under the 50 minute mark.
Meet the achievers- Team Mondelez Runs UK-edit.
What's left in the run-up, you ask?
As you can see the training plan is nearly complete. I'm proud of myself for the diligence taken in following the plan- especially on Tuesday nights, nearing 9pm, on a belly full of food, where the last thing you want to do is go out for an hour of tempo training. Of course there has been deviance in the way of switching days around or a mile here or there taken off, but on the whole, I've stuck to the plan. The push with training + coaxing/ coaching/ encouragement from those close to me + some motivation from Britney (warning with explicit lyrics) on the sprint finish at Warwick most definitely helped me crack into the 100-minute-half-marathon mark.
And whilst the training eases down, the fundraising pursuit continues at full throttle as the team commitment has only just met the half-way mark. We still have some tricks up our sleeves to push the needle further towards the end goal. In the spirit of using our/ my strengths, upcoming events include:
-Chilli Lunch Sale
-Mondo-Chef Bake-off/ Cake Sale
-Kyle's Bottles in the Bin Bottle Drive
-50/50 Raffle for Team Oxfam Canada
-Henley Hog Roast
-Pre-Race Breakfast Buffet
And... if we absolutely have to, but would really rather not, another Cycle for Change at Cadbury World to top up the total pot.
So, another call to arms from my Friends and Family, please spare me the pain of sitting on the bike for another few hours prior to race day and donate directly to my JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/xtynsrunning/
Amazingly generous friends like you can donate £26/ $26 which is only a pound/dollar per mile I'll run (remember I've already done >1000!!!) and you can help to start a rice-growing revolution in Liberia or train more midwives in Ghana saving countless mothers from dying in childbirth. And to reward your generosity, or if you're feeling particularly British and want to reward me being dressed in a bit of a ridiculous outfit (because the +1000 miles and events completed to-date are not quite enough) I can send you a personal picture of me in my gold leggings and race gear as a thank you!
See for
yourself, the great work that Oxfam provides.
And for when you’re feeling inspired, here’s the link to my
fundraising page:
