Vanessa, Justin and Barry Tackle The Brighton Marathon. Fundraising for Mid Kent Mind in 2021.


Click here to view their fundraising page.


April 2021 Update: They’ve Done It!!!


Vanessa, Barry and Justin Finish Line 2


We are delighted to share that on the 18th of April Vanessa, Barry and Justin completed their 26.2 mile run on behalf of Mid Kent Mind – raising over £7000 (and counting!) to date.

We hear lots of people came out in a socially-distanced manner to support them along their route – which ran all the way from Chatham, up through Rochester, and back down to Sittingbourne where they completed the event.

A huge thank you to everyone who has supported them! Their fundraiser is still going up currently, and we’re excited to acknowledge the final total when their fundraising page closes on the 30th of April.


Image of Vanessa, Bary and Justin - Brighton Marathon Fundraiser

“We’re so pleased to be raising funds for Maidstone and Mid-Kent Mind. Our target at the moment is £2500, but we are confident that with the support of the community, we can achieve even more, which would be incredible! We’re eager to get going – and we hope that we are able to make everyone proud as we continue to fundraise!”


You’ll find the updates below as we have them. We’ll be keeping you up-to-date with how their training is going, and how close they are getting to hitting their target.


January 2021 Update


Vanessa, Justin & Barry have now hit their target as a part of their January update! We are incredibly grateful to everyone who supports them, and continues to support them! You are making a huge difference to the work we can do.


Hi All!

We’ve been having a big discussion at “Marathon HQ” the last few days & as of this morning we’ve come to a bit of a big decision!  Please read on…….

We figured as the actual Brighton Marathon is no longer taking place on Sunday 18th April, as much as we’d love to run our marathon in Brighton along the seafront, there is a very good chance that we could quite easily get lost in places along our made up route as we do not know the area very well & we can’t stick to the proper marathon route as the roads wouldn’t be closed, whereas if it was the proper marathon we would be trotting along with 1000’s of other people & wouldn’t get lost!

 

We’ve also had to really take into consideration if there are still travel restrictions in place – we 100% need the support of our colleagues & friends & family on the day therefore we feel it’s a bit much to ask people to travel all that way if people aren’t comfortable doing so.

 We have therefore made the decision to make our marathon more local to us incorporating our training routes & making the finish line our place of work, at SWEEEP Kuusakoski in Sittingbourne! ????

We are really pleased to have made this change & we really hope this means more of you can come down on the day to (socially distanced!) support us ????????

We’ve put this update on our page too; https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/vhg-jg-bw


December 2020 Update:


4 months to go and the training plan continues as best we can throughout this somewhat weird festive season!

If you tend to do donations rather than Christmas cards, please consider donating to our worthy cause – mental health is fraught this time of year under normal circumstances, throwing the Covid stuff into the mix only adds to it.

Do take care this festive season, look out for your loved ones….even the ones who seem fine.

Merry Christmas Everyone, see you in 2021!!!!


Brighton Marathon- Oh what Fun it is to Run graphic


November 2020 Update:


It happened! Just 2 days after our last update the Brighton Marathon organisers postponed it until Sept 2021 ☹

We stand by what we said, we are still continuing with our plan of running 26.2 miles in Brighton on Sunday 18th April!

Please come down & support us on the day – we will be so grateful for this!!!

A special mention to Tom Fishenden who is the Community Engagement Officer at Mid Kent Mind – he is so behind us with this!… ⬇️

….There is talk of running vests, numbers & even medals for when we get over our “virtual finish line”!!!

We can’t believe it’s only 5 months to go. Training gets harder now; shorter days, dark evenings, the pull of wanting to just hibernate….PLEASE KEEP DONATING. Every donation gives us such a boost!

In other news, we did a Halloween Virtual 10k on 31st October, our medals are in the post to us.

Justin & Vanessa beat their previous 10k time by 8 minutes!


Brighton Marathon - November Graphic. Running. noun. A faster form of walking. Those who participate tend to have a compulsive almost obsessive drive for improvement. Side effects include sweating, euphoria and general amazingness.


October 2020 Update:


6 months to go! Announcement, please read ⬇️

If the event ends up being postponed we have decided that we are still going to do it as planned!

Provided there are no travel restrictions we will still do it in Brighton, it just becomes a “Virtual Marathon”! If anybody is planning on coming along to support us on the day please still do!

We do not feel it is right to ask for donations to this massively worthy charity to then chop & change when we’re doing it. Plus all that training, we’re going to be so ready!


Brighton Marathon - October Image


September 2020 Update:


7 months to go – argh! We figured if we’re going to get through these 26.2 miles together then we ought to start training together!  And it’s definitely time to increase our distances! 

This pic below was after a 4.5 mile jaunt around where we work – nice & flat with a couple of little hills to get the heart rate up! 

Please keep the donations coming – it’s for such a worthy cause, goodness knows these next few months are going to be a massive mental battle for the 3 of us, but with your support we can do it!!!


Barry, Justin and Vanessa - Brighton Marathon - September Update


August 2020 Update:


Wow, a month goes quickly doesn’t it?! 8 more to go!

We’ve hit holiday season over the past month but still managing to squeeze in various runs here & there.

Vanessa’s ankle injury has vastly improved. With new fancy moulded to her feet insoles she’s back up to running 2.5 miles without having to stop to walk which is brilliant & since the gyms have re-opened she’s back to spin classes which has made the ankle pain pretty much disappear which is great news!

Justin has been to the Lake District & judging by the photo he’s managed to cover many miles of walking! He continues to do a combination of road & treadmill running by himself but now his running buddy is back in the game they will back to pounding the ground together a few times a week.

Barry is currently on holiday in Crete & as you can see his marathon training involves enjoying the odd Mojito here & there! Prior to his holiday though he did manage to get up to running 7 miles which is a great improvement over the course of a month.

Let’s see how the next month goes with building up those distances!

Please keep the donations coming – it’s for such a worthy cause, goodness knows these next few months are going to be a massive mental battle for the 3 of us, but with your support we can do it!!!


Brighton Marathon - August 2020 Update


July 2020 Update:


1 month down, 9 to go!

Training is going well for 2 of us; Barry is increasing his road running distances gradually which is brilliant. Justin is running daily like he does with a combination of road running & treadmill but sadly with no running buddy at the mo.

Vanessa unfortunately has a running injury – Peroneal Tendonitis. Had it treated 3 weeks ago, this week finally turned a corner pain wise – sticking to walking & strength training at the mo but hope to get those running trainers on again very soon!

Please keep the donations coming!



Click here to view their fundraising page.


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