Jogglathons

Results:

This is the 6th Tonbridge Half Marathon, being staged jointly by Tonbridge Rotary Club and Tonbridge Lions Club. Mostly conducted to raise money for KSS Air Ambulance, the Tonbridge Cottage Hospital League of Friends and other charities. They are using the fantastic facilities in West Kent College to stage the 6th Tonbridge Half Marathon.

My entry was nice and straight forward. The organisers even friendlily correction my typo in my email address. 😌
Comunications regarding transport, parking and times was very clear and informative.

Having been to Tonbridge many times and from the warming welcome from the events organisers, I'm well excited to be joggling my way around this event! Its going to be over an undulating course on traffic-free lanes through beautiful countryside around Tonbridge and Leigh!

Us finishers well be receive a medal, tech t-shirt and goody bag. Well worth the joggle! 😉

Here is a google map of the route.

Results:

The Royal Parks Half Marathon is organised by the Royal Parks Foundation, a charity who supports the magic of London's eight amazing Royal Parks. This includes many buildings and statues important to the city's heritage. The race attracts thousands of runners every year and incorprates 3 of the Royal Parks - Hyde Park, St James Park and Green Park.

Running through three of the Royal Parks, the race is nice and flat. 😄
It starts at the south edge of Hyde Park. From there we'll be directed through Green Park and St James Park. We'll then turn along the north bank of the River Thames to Temple before turning back towards Hyde Park.
There is going to be any interesting sites along the route like important buildings and wonderful monuments including: the Wellington Arch, Houses of Parliament, Admirality Arch and the Albert Hall.

It is truly going to be a beautiful joggle! 😍

Here is a PDF map of the beautiful route.

Results:

The Birmingham Half Marathon is run by thousands of runners every year. I'm not sure anyones ever joggled it and am looking forward to doing so!

The Great Birmingham Run will take us from the iconic City Centre backdrop south towards the world famous cricketing arena of Edgbaston and on to Bournville, the home of Cadbury World. We will have fantastic sights on our lovely tour and great support from the locals.
Apparently there will be some upbeat musicians and bands that is likely to distract me from the joggle, to just keep on juggling to the rhythm! 😎
After our lovely joggle round the city we will be directed back to the finish on Broad Street.

I do have friendly family that lives in Birmingham. I rarely get to see them and am looking forward to spending the weekend with (as long as I dont get drunk 😜) them on my joggle round the city!

Here is a map of the Great Birmingham Run couse.

Results:

The Great South Run is held in Portsmouth. Around 25,000 runners take part in this highly popular run, raising £ millions for a wide range of charities.

Along with the thousands of fun runners, club athletes and charity teams, will be a mix of celebrities and elite athletes from around the world. I've run it before, but I've never joggled it. It would be nice to adding a joggler to this collection! 😊
The 10 mile course is fairly flat, offering a wide range of views and historic sites such as HMS Warrior, HMS Victory and the Spinnaker Tower.

Since it's start in 1990, the Great South Run is estimated that more than £30 million raised for charities by runners in.
I feel great to have joggled my way around this event, having raised money for Headway.
Something I remember, it is really windy on the final straight along the see front to the finish line. This will add to the interest of the joggle to the end. 😏

Here is the map the Great South Run route.

Results:

The River Thames Half Marathon was first run in 2014. It was a success with over 900 finishers. This year I would like to add to the list of finishers having completed the event joggling.😁

The races starts by the spectacular Walton Bridge and follows road and towpath to Hampton Court before going along the towpath to Weybridge and finally returning to Walton Bridge along the road. The route is flat, fast, scenic and mostly traffic free.

Having been so close a few weeks ago, I though it would be best to have a look at the area. The river Themes seems so flow smooth very smoothly under the magnificent Walton Bridge. The area felt so very calm and peaceful and that was even close to rush hour. 😇

From that experiance, I'm please to be joggling my way alone the river to complete this journey throught this lovely month of Half Jogglathons. 😃

Here is the map of the course the of this River Themes Running route.

Juggling is a cognitive excercise whereby you throw more objects into the air than you have hands to catch them with, catching them and then throwing them back up again and again whilst reprogramming your hands to remember where to catch them, and doing it all over again. It's a skill that can get really competitive, and they even keep records for it internationally! Jogging is a fitness exercise that strengthens the muscles, gets the blood pumping through the heart and generally makes you healthier. I'm combining the two, primarily because I can, but more importantly because it's a fundraiser. An effort to raise funds for an organisation that helps people that most of us will never meet, but whose lives have been influnced so much that they get to contribute everything they have to offer. Headway helped me do more than that, that is, they helped me with my motor skills and they also helped me with a sense of purpose that I really, really want to inspire other people to acheive.

So joggling is just that: juggling and jogging at the same time but instead of going around the block, I'm going to be doing marathons. That's a jogglathon.

It was a Brighton Festival time in 3rd of May 2009. It was late in the evening, I was going down the stairs to open the door for my friends as their taxi was here to pick them up. I fell down the stairs, landed on the pavement and cracked my skull. I had stopped breathing and my heart was not beating, it had completely stopped. I was given CPR to get my pulse back and rushed off to Royal Sussex Hospital. I was quickly transferred to the Hurstwoord Park Neurological Centre in Haywards Heath. I was in an induced coma for many weeks to assist reducing the pressure and spelling in my head.

When I woke up, I had the mind of a new born. Not only could I not walk, I certainly had lost most of my mental functions. Although I recognised people, I knew no-ones name. I couldn't recognise the taste difference between salt and sugar. Having bled through my ears, was deaf in my left ear with tinnitus. I couldn't read or write and had absolutely no understanding to where I was or why I was there. I lacked the vocabulary and found it difficult to form thorough sentences and did not have the attention span to have a conversation.

A few weeks into being awake, I has brought some juggling balls... Apparently I asked "What are these animals?". A few minutes of explanations weren't going far, a ball was then thrown at me, of which I caught. The next was thrown, which I caught. Having been a juggler before, within minutes I was juggling. And very happily as it was the first thing I could actually understand. I was in the hospital for nearly 3 months and the only thing I could truly remember was juggling. I would stand out in the lawn and if there was any passing doctor, nurse or patient I would run up and ask: "C-c-can I t-teach you to j-jug-gle?". I had found something I could actually do.

Like the assistance from my friends and family, Headway is having a big impact to help rebuild my mental self. I know this is a charity very close to everyone's home. Your support will ensure that Headway is able to continue helping people who have suffered similar injuries. Financially your support will be greatly appreciated! Awareness of such an incident will be great assistance if this were to happen to anyone close to you!