I know I said I wasn’t going to do anything this year but I’ve changed my mind! I started talking to Lee about doing a new Christmas challenge a couple of months ago. Rolling on from the success of last years ‘12 Days of Christmas‘ we’ve decided to run the ‘12 parkruns of Christmas.’

I had terms and conditions though. Having discussed this with my Wife, we needed to do a challenge this year that would be possible in just one day. We decided that running 12 north-east parkruns in one day was the perfect way to do this. The other condition I had was that I needed a wingman (or woman!). Someone who would be willing to share this challenge and fundraising with me.

The exact list of which parkruns we will be running and in what order, is yet to be finalised. We’ve chosen the shortest day of the year to attempt this challenge, Saturday the 21st of December. We’re expecting to get an early start and hopefully make an official parkrun at 9am. The total distance we’ll run will be a whopping 60km, that’s 37.2822715 miles to be exact! Obviously training has already started and I’m certainly not taking this lightly. I’ve never attempted anything like this before so I intend on taking one parkrun at a time. We will have a short rest between running for travelling purposes so we must make sure we stretch, hydrate and warm-up correctly.

The charity we have chosen to support this year is the Tiny Lives Fund. It’s an amazing local charity and they support premature and sick newborn babies. They are based on the Neonatal Unit at the RVI hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne. As Lee and I are both young parents, we thought it would be a nice idea to support this charity.

Like the challenge in 2012, we’re asking anyone for support by either running with us, making a donation or both! With your help we can make the lives of sick newborn babies, their Mothers and families better. Here’s our fundraising page: https://www.justgiving.com/the12parkrunsofchristmas

Thanks for supporting,