Sheffield 10k – We Did It!

Well given the minor curve ball of the pandemic, the Sheffield 10k has been more than a bit of a long time coming! More time to train you might think…and indeed that is very true…but it also meant more time to age and pick up a few injuries too! But we weren’t going to let those stop us! And whilst I might not have crossed the finish line in the most elegant of styles, I was so proud that we all made it through and raised over £5,500 for Children with Cancer UK. Massive thanks to this amazing bunch for running with me. Jess would have loved it and she definitely would have wanted all the after race goodies for herself too; the medal, the T-shirt and the no doubt the non alcoholic beer as well! 😂 This is most definitely one running medal I will treasure with pride. 🏅

10k Take 1

So today was the original date for the Team Jess Sheffield 10k to raise money for Children with Cancer UK. Sadly, ‘corona chaos’ means that the event has been postponed until next year. Whilst we will patiently wait and run as planned next year, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to mark the original date with a run too. It might not have been the 10k we had planned, or even the reworked plan that we had planned (another strike from corona chaos!), but it was a mighty fine work around with independent runs happening across the north and coming together via zoom afterwards. Thanks to this lovely bunch for doing a virtual 10k event with me….. and a special shout out to Sandy for completing your first ever 10k. Jess would have loved that we managed to find a way to run in spite of the challenges. Thanks to all those who sponsored us…… It seems that with us running two races, the 2 for 1 concept is infiltrating even the sporting world these days 😂. As for all events these days, I’ve marked the event with a poem. Click here to take a look.

For anyone wanting to see some live video evidence, here you are! We’ve even added the trusty Team Jess Anthem to recreate the running experience!

3k in!
6.5k in!

All Kitted Up!

The Team Jess running vests have arrived and I’ve given mine its debut….even in this heat! Thanks Children with Cancer UK. Nice that we’ve got them for the Team Jess warm up run in September as well as the rescheduled Sheffield 10k 😀

Published Again!

A huge thank you to Pomfretian for their kind donation to the Team Jess fundraising and for publishing a centre page spread about the Team Jess campaign in this month’s edition too. Jess has been in two publications now and they say things comes in threes. I wonder who could be next 🤔. To read the article visit the Pomfretian website.

A Long Time to Keep Running!

https://www.runforall.com/community/news/

So today we got the news that COVID 19 has hampered our Sheffield 10k plans for this year 😒. Whilst this comes as a disappointment, the good news is we’ve all been given the opportunity to be reregistered for the same event in September next year. But as that seems soooo far away, we’re hoping to run our own (socially distant) race on the original race date this year (as long as the guidance allows that is!). With only a handful of us, I’m sure we’ll easily be able to run and be COVID compliant too. So that’s two races we’re doing – the Team Jess 10k and the official Sheffield 10k next year too. Now if that’s not value for sponsorship (keeping us all training for the next 14 months) then I don’t know what is!

Team Jess Anthem

I couldn’t believe it when I logged on to my emails to find a ‘Team Jess’ running track in my inbox, written and performed by my very talented colleague and friend Trevor, with backing vocals from his wife and daughter too! Wow! Whilst not his normal style (this is not Trev’s first performing venture!) the quick beat will help me keep going when the going gets tough… especially round those hills in Sheffield! Thanks Trev, you’re a legend!

Amazing Progress!

We’re almost at our target! And so what better way to celebrate than with one of Jess’ favourites things- the classic ‘Dab’!

Massive thank you to all those who have sponsored us so far! 😀

Fundraising In Full Bloom

Just like my beautiful ‘Jessica Roses’, which are growing at an alarming rate of knots in the garden, our fundraising is in full bloom! I woke to a lovely figure of over £2,000 on the current JustGiving page, which is just incredible given we’ve only been raising for the last 36 hours. 😀 Team Jess are in full training mode now (although we are hoping for swift healing of various knee and toe injuries – no pun intended!), and even saw some keen team members training late last night and early this morning – that is dedication 😀

Off to a Flying Start!

Delighted to have raised over £500 in the first couple of hours of launching Team Jess! 😀 All the support is going to be a massive support to Children with Cancer UK and means so much to me!