I currently have two runs I’m planning on doing for charity. the first is a 5k Race for Life event on the 10th July and the second is the Brighton Marathon on 15th April next year.
At this point in time I am planning on these being the last charity runs that I do; there are a number of reasons for this….
With the Race For Life for Cancer Research I first ran this last year and raised over £500 for them, yes, it is a good cause but I have a bit of a problem with the way some charities operate. After running this race I got fed up with the unsolicited post and phone calls from them asking for money. You know when someone from a call centre phones and it is quite obvious they are following a script… and quite a hard sell “emotional” script to get you to donate money by direct debit each month to them doesn’t sit right with me so this year is the last time I will run one of the Race for Life events. If I hadn’t already committed to it (and raised some more money in sponsorship) I would not be going ahead with it, their “marketing” techniques really have got to me that much ! I also hate to think how much these marketing campaigns cost them….. and that will be coming out of the money that I have raised for them in sponsorship (yes, I am slightly disillusioned with big charities).
Next year I am running the Brighton Marathon to raise money for the Myotonic Dystophy Support Group. This will be my first ever marathon and I do have personal reasons for supporting this charity, they are also a much smaller charity without the national clout of Cancer Research. Most people I talk to have never heard of Myotonic Dystophy and until I met my husband I had never heard of it either. Even then it wasn’t until the death of his brother and sister that I fully realised what this illness can do and the implications for the people that carry the gene.
But again there is a dilemma…. it is normally the same group of people that I am asking to support the charities through what I do… and I don’t think it is fair to keep asking….
Also, for me, running is not a “one-off” thing, yes, it started that way, but I enjoy it and I am planning on running more marathons in the future so again it feels slightly “wrong” to ask people to sponsor me for my hobby !
So, these two runs will most probably be the last two that I do for charity. I may very well leave a link on this blog so people can, if they choose, donate to the Myotonic Dystrophy Support Group but that is it.