Excuses....prepare yourselves Ladies and Gents!

As Mr Morris has already mentioned Avoriaz did indeed have some fantastic conditions for damaging oneself but as a unit we managed only one piffling medivac situation and even that thankfully was not as bad as it could have been. However (here they come...batten down those excuse hatches), on my return I discovered that my entire family has come down with dengue fever or something similar, my wife has done her knee in and aggravated an old skiing injury and now needs a chauffeur and even the bloody cat has gone and got its leg in plaster and requires a taxi to and from the vet during my free time so this, of course, has made something of a dent on my already chocolatey teapot of a training structure. I have also just discovered that part of my childcare arrangements for a month or so is going to be compromised thus reducing the potential for training time and of course the school holidays are also about to start.....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggghhhhh!

Does anyone know if I can defer my entry to the 2028 race?

p.s. Mr Macready, since when has your 'annoying' energy only been evident after a hard day at school?

In The Swing

Finally put me new shoes into operation in the last two weeks and have, despite the rain, actually enjoyed it. Must be something to do with all the cross country Mr Finney put us through at Quennevais.

The Waafe thinks it's a good idea as well as I get rid of the 'annoying' energy that seems to exist some days when I get home from work. Must admit though that having got back in, showered and parked in front of sky sports I tend to open a bottle of birra which is probably not helping the cause, ah well, few weeks to go. That and Mrs Macready is getting bigger by the day, which, others may confirm, has started to result in serious duvet theivery, not good for preparations.....

I'm Dreaming of a White Easter

Not for the first time - just when it looked like things were going pretty well, they weren't. The weather had improved, we were running for up to twenty five minutes without stopping, and then wouldn't you believe it - mucho crapola.

Christina got a virus that wiped her out for 10 days. As a consequence, she has not been able to do anything more strenuous than cough for over a week.

We had a "white easter" here in Geneva. Not in the romantic, chocolate box kind of way, but in the Force 8 gale, sleet, pishin doon rain, and snow kinda way. I know that the weather in the Toon in October is not likely to be the best, and as such, we should get used to bad weather, but this was beyond a joke.

Just when things couldn't get any better, I had to cancel my planned ski trip to Avoriaz to meet a whole bunch of friends I haven't seen for months, 'coz I had to work. Instead of skiing in Avoriaz, I was in London, eating sandwiches in doorways to shelter from the rain. What glamour.

But - Christina is better(ish), but not 100%. The clocks have gone forward which means we can run in the evenings without wearing headtorches. This is a big deal. Due to my cheery preference for always wearing black, running at night is just an invitation to get run over. I would rather get run over than wear a hi-viz vest.

We need to get back on track now - with time and therapy, I may forget the fact that I missed the best skiing conditions of the year. (That's not going to be easy..) I am going to try and convince Christina that Vicks Vaporub is a performance enhancer, and that she will now be able to run for an hour without stopping. Don't fancy my chances there.

So, spring is springing, get the runners on, and get on with it.

Things wot I 'ave learn't this week...

1) Running on a quiet and wet Sunday morning is actually quite pleasant (no less painful, mind, just more contemplative).
2) Rowing in Narnia (for those of you that have been to my house) isn't.
3) Gits (you know who you are)need to understand that not everyone is an athlete and that they may get punched if they laugh at them too much for failing to match Haile Gebrselassie's pace!
4) Mexico City used to be known as Tenochtitlan in Aztec times! The Aztecs liked running too*.



* This bit may be a lie, the running that is not Tenochtitlan.

Soup in a basket.

I thought it was a good idea from the minute Tim asked me. Running a "Fun-Sized" Marathon in Ian's memory seemed like a good way of channelling all the bad juju (that comes along when one of your best mates suddenly dies) into a positive outcome.

I think that the Bloggeurs, and Bloggeuses who will contribute to this page over the next weeks and months will be thinking about Ian a lot - when I'm out training, he is certainly in my thoughts. I remember windurfing with him, hanging out on the beach, playing the guitar, talking rubbish (at quite some length), and generally being long-haired, sunburnt, and crazy. It really was a blast.

But, Ian won't be round for the next bit, so we've got to do the fun-sized marathon in style, as in the words of the man himself - it would be rude not to.

Everyone here has their own challenge in doing the run. For me, I need to spend a bit more time training, getting out in the beautiful countryside round Geneva (cue theme tune to Heidi) - and less time in the evil offiice. As I travel a bit for work, I now find myself making travel arrangements around gyms and running routes.

It's also a really big deal for my wife Christina. Ian was best man at our wedding in Mexico in October 2003, and having Fluff and Donna there meant the world to us both. Christina and I really enjoy doing sport together, and we loved going skiing - right up to the minute Christina broke her leg in two places on a blue run on New Year's Eve 2005. The rehab from that injury, plus the rehab from operations to take all the bits of metal out of her left pin have really restricted us from training for 2 years. Christina now no longer beeps when going through airports, and is keen to put the months of pain behind her and get training - although it is not going to be easy.

We need to get into the training habit. We have got ourselves two routes, a 5km in Veyrier and a 2.5km near home. We've got a plan, but now need to get up and get the trainers on before work two or three times a week. Very easy to type that, not quite so straightforward to actually do it. I'm sure Ian would have had some motivating words - probably something like "Stop @£*&ing bleating and get on with it", which of course, is all there is to it at the end of the day. The rest is just excuses.

PS - the RNLI running vests arrived today. The combination of ginger hair, and a bright yellow running vest combine beautifully. I'm sure every mosquito, bee, wasp, and flying midgy-type insect within a five mile radius of Newcastle is going to want to get to know me very well on October 5th.

Simple as tying your shoelace with mittens on.

Words that should be associated with organising charitable events and attracting sponsorship: give, money, good, cause, help, others, be, nice.

Actual words associated with organising charitable events and attracting sponsorship: Red tape, guidelines, liability, risk assessment, insurance, authority, permission, health & 'effing' safety.

If I had any hair I would be pulling it out and getting slightly aggro in a Bob "give us your foooooooo*in' money" Geldof stylie.

Now if you'll excuse me I am going to my happy place...ummmmmmmmmmmm.

Thinking about it.......

Tim and Russ sum it up, I remeber Tim asking me to run, and I am probably one of the 'gits' that Russell refers to! That said it will probably be my downfall.

Training so far has consisted of playing footy on a Saturday and purchasing a shiny pair of Ascics shoes, 'cause the enfant serving me in JJB said 'yeah, they're quite popular', nothing like expert advice I say, and that was certainly nothing like it!

Still, as the boys have mentioned it's all in a good cause and will hopefully go some way to filling a rather large hole left in our lives. Left, of course, by someone who, at a cards night, asked to speak to my intended (on the phone) because "someone has to warn the poor girl that your a complete *&%$!£". Thanks mate!

Really, really tough...but worth it.

Cliche it may be but you never quite appreciate some things until they are gone or until you witness them first hand. All of us running in this bloody race (sorry but it hurts to run, alright!) have lived in Jersey for some sizeable portion of our lives and with us being surrounded by so much beautiful coastline and consequently so much of our lives spent on, in, under, near or reliant on the water the RNLI really is the 4th emergency service (not the AA, who after all don't tend to go out in a Force 8 to rescue ill equipped speedboats!). Watching footage of the Jersey RNLI making sail in the recent storms proved to be a valuable reminder to me how easy it is to forget what they face just during their 'shouts' and also how the need for the best equipment is completely justified.

It will be tough running this race, some of our group are very fit and used to this sort of thing (the gits), most of us less so. I personally am a big fat walking bag of damaged bones , viruses and cartilage at the moment with a training program lying in tatters like the undergarments of the Cadburys Caramel bunny during mating season but as my physio oh so helpfully advised me whilst a marathon was out of the question I should be okay for a half marathon (perhaps that should be a fun-size Marathon?). If you have no idea how hard it will be try running for seven or eight minutes and then contemplate another twenty of those immediately after. But hey, if it wasn't worth it I doubt any of us would even contemplate it. Yet despite this is still pales into comparison with the rigours of RNLI's daily challenges.

Through the loss of a wonderful friend we have probably all realised that life is a terribly fragile thing and folk like the RNLI willingly risk theirs for others without guaranteed funding and often without recognition. That is why we want your money. Simple to understand really isn't it?

Sanctimonious, self indulgences aside I will be annoying a number of people for donations soon so please pass the message on to anyone you know that we are here and please give something . Now, where is that phone book...?

So what's Team Atko all about then?

On the evening of Ian's funeral (which involved a lot of friends, family, beer and fireworks), I decided that to work through what had happened to Ian and to make good things come from the terrible fact that my best man isn't with us anymore, I decided that I needed to do something.  Something Ian-like. 

He wasn't one for dancing around his hand bag when he decided to do something, so it needed to be big.  Ian would have said "Go big, or go home".

It has been 10 years since I have done any form of physical exercise, I am 32, I need to loose weight (the combined weight of my two sons at that time actually) and I look a sorry state in a running vest (think "I want that one" or "Yeah, I know").  I have tried to get fit before but have given up due to lack of interest.  I came to the conclusion that the threat of public humiliation might just be enough to focus the mind this time around.

I decided there and then to enter the BUPA Great North Run in Newcastle, on 5th October 2008.  I live a mile from the start with my wife Rachael and our two boys Tom and Ollie, and you don't get much more convenient than that.  I asked Roger Atkinson, Ian's father and a runner, if he would enter with me.  He agreed, there and then, and I couldn't possibly let him down by not pitching up. (That's the risk of public humiliation to focus the mind bit.)

Word quickly went around the bar and more and more people wanted to join us in the race. We now find ourselves as Team Atko - a team of 22 friends including Ian's wife, Donna, I'm pleased to say, and of course Roger.  This blog will follow our training and fund raising, and all the team members will post whatever they like on here, as often as they like.  It will be our HQ, and who knows what direction it will take!

It is a massive undertaking for most of us.  I went for my first training run a few days after Ian's funeral, around the places where I remember him best, near his parents home by Long Beach in Grouville, Jersey. I decided to not push things too much. I planned to run for 15 minutes then turn around and come back.  Five minutes later I had stopped.  I remained stopped for quite some time.

We want to raise £10,000 for the RNLI St Helier lifeboat appeal.  Ian was a Channel Island windsurfing medal winner and team captain in the Island Games, president of JAWS (the Jersey Association of Windsurfers) and spent many years instructing windsurfing in Jersey.  We want to celebrate his life and the things that Ian was passionate about and this run falls almost a year after he died.  The RNLI is the charity that is the most appropriate and we hope that you will follow our progress via this blog as often as you can, and ideally we want your money! In fact we need your money. 

You can sponsor us at www.justgiving.com/team_atko and the money goes directly to the RNLI  St Helier Lifeboat Appeal - what could be simpler?

Tim