In 2008, shortly after turning 31 I wanted to do something ‘life defining’ that I could look back on in years to come and say “I achieved that”. I decided that I would try to take up running and set myself the challenge to run the 2009 London Marathon.
A big motivating factor for me was charity. In the past I would often donate to my friends fundraising events, but I had never made that effort myself. I thought about the many worthwhile charities to choose one that I connected with.
The charity I chose to support is The National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS) because I strongly believe in the invaluable work that they do to create a world without barriers for deaf children and young people in the UK.
I feel a direct connection to this charity and the deaf community in general because I have some close friends in the deaf community, I have studied BSL for a number of years and am qualified to level 3, plus for the past 3 years I have worked for a social business, SignVideo which provides video interpreting and video relay services for BSL users in the UK.
So, after many months of training, in April 2009 I ran and completed the London Marathon and in the process raised over £2,500 for the NDCS. The race was much harder than I expected and upon crossing the finish line I vowed never to run another marathon again!
A few months later after the pain in my feet and legs had gone and the horrific memories of the last few miles had faded, I thought about how much I enjoyed the training and the sense of achievement that completing the race and raising money for such a worthwhile cause gave me. In the years that followed I combined my love of travelling and running to go on to run marathons in: New York, Rio De Janeiro and Sydney.
Then in 2012 came the turning point. After completing the Sydney marathon it occurred to me that I had now run 4 marathons on 4 different continents. I immediately went to Google and typed ‘marathon on every continent?’ and to my surprise it returned a hit. I investigated further and set about planning how I could run the last 3 continents – Asia, Africa.. and Antarctica.
Last year, for my 5th marathon (and 5th fundraising effort) I decided that I needed to give a little bit extra to encourage people to sponsor me. In conversation with my good friend Syd over a beer one night he suggested I could run in a fancy dress costume and we joked how it would be funny if I ran in Tokyo dressed as Godzilla!
Fast forward 5 months and I’m stood at the start line of the Tokyo marathon in full head-to-toe Godzilla costume with hundreds of Japanese people staring at me! The race was unlike any of my other previous marathons, the support from the crowd when they saw a 6’2” godzilla bounding down the road was just incredible.
I chose to visit Cape Town In September 2013 for my 6th and penultimate challenge. It was a beautiful course with stunning views of table mountain. I was in my best ever shape and finished in a personal best time of 3 hours and 43 minutes.
This year I have been training harder than ever. I have just surpassed 900 total miles run in training and am currently averaging 50 miles per week.
The fundraising for NDCS has been going fantastically well. So far I have raised over £6,000 for this race (over £15,000 in total)… BUT I’m still hoping to raise even more in these last few weeks. The support from my family and friends since I started this challenge 5 years ago has been nothing short of incredible.
So, on 18th November I will meet my final challenge and take part in the Antarctic Ice Marathon just a few hundred miles from the South Pole and once completed I will achieve my dream and join the 7 Continents Marathon Club, a group of less than 100 people worldwide that have completed a marathon on all 7 continents.
… and after that?.. who knows?…but I will start by putting my feet up and take a well earned rest.
You can support my challenge and The National Deaf Children’s Society at the following link: https://www.justgiving.com/daveweedsantarcticicemarathon/
The Limping Chicken is the world’s most popular deaf blog, covering UK news and opinions every weekday.
Make sure you never miss a post by finding out how to follow us, and don’t forget to check out what our supporters provide:
- Phonak: innovative technology and products in hearing acoustics
- Ai-Live: Live captions and transcripts
- Bellman: hearing loss solutions
- Deaf Umbrella: sign language interpreting and communications support
- SignVideo: Instant BSL video interpreting online
- 121 Captions: captioning and speech-to-text services
- Doncaster School for the Deaf: education for Deaf children
- Signworld: online BSL learning and teaching materials
- Sign Language Days: Sign language learning in schools
- Hamilton Lodge School in Brighton: education for Deaf children
- RAD: financial advice for Deaf people
- cSeeker: Online booking for communication support
- Krazy Kat: visual theatre with BSL
- Enable Support Services: Supporting Deaf children and adults in Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk
- Exeter Deaf Academy: education for Deaf children
- SignHealth: healthcare charity for Deaf people
- Lipspeaker UK: specialist lipspeaking support
- CJ Interpreting: communication support in BSL
- SDHH: Deaf television programmes online
- Sign Solutions:, language and learning
- Sign Lingual: BSL interpreting and communication services
- Action Deafness Communications: sign language and Red Dot online video interpreting
sasha thorpe
October 20, 2014
Awesome! Keep up with the good work! 🙂
Asher
October 20, 2014
Brilliant effort, do search for ‘Deaf Runners’ on Facebook so you can exchange tips and stories with other deaf or hearing runners! 🙂