Leverington Three Counties come to rescue in Sarah-Jane’s challenge
Three Counties Running Club member Sarah-Jane Macdonald (pictured) was hoping to finish her 12 half marathons challenge at Milton Keynes on December 10 – but due to severe weather the race was postponed until February 2018 and put her challenge at risk of failure.
She started running in September 2016 and completed her first half marathon at the Cambridge Boundary run on February 26 and her second quickly followed at the Cambridge Saucony the following Sunday and her third was Boston in April.
Diagnosed with cancer five years ago, Sarah-Jane has always set herself challenges to help raise money for Cancer Research, so after her first three halfs she decided to run back-to-back races on September 3 at Bedford and the next day at Northampton.
She said: “I thought: I’ve completed five so I may aswell try to do 12 now. It wasn’t easy as some of the courses were very challenging and especially with an injured knee.”
The next halfs seemed to fall very quickly with little rest in between: September 17 Rutland, September 24 NSPCC MK, October 8 Perkins, October 28 Norfolk Coastal Trail, November 5 Lodes, November 19 St Neots and what should have been at Milton Keynes.
TCRC heard Sarah-Jane’s problem and stepped up to arrange a two-lap course half marathon route to help support her to complete her 12th and final half. In total there were 26 members (above) who took part and they arranged a drink station, bacon butties and cake, and even a medal and goodie bag.
She added: “I couldn’t believe the club had gone to so much trouble and organised this for me. I was so overwhelmed but they obviously knew how much the challenge meant to me.
“I have to say out of all my half marathons this one had to be my favourite, running with people I love.”
Sarah-Jane would like to thank everyone who has helped her to raise £1,047 so far and especially TCRC for supporting her throughout her challenge and also helping her to complete it.
Parkrun results
Father and daughter members Colin and Joely Apps ran the Boston Parkrun finishing in times of 25:10 and 36:23.
TCRC are holding their next event, The Santa Run this Saturday, December 23, which is a 5k and 1k event with stalls, games and raffle. Please see website for details on how to enter www.ThreeCountiesrc.org
