Ha ha, I have grown a beard! The natural thing to do when in training for the Royal Parks Half Marathon, no? Well there is some reasoning behind it...
Many people do "fun running" in costume to help draw attention to themselves and their chosen cause. I am a pretty serious guy most of the time and the term "fun running" always seemed a bit of an oxymoron to me. Training hard, risking injury and worrying whether you will reach your fundraising target is anything but fun! I was convinced that approaching the Half Marathon from a serious point of view was the key to running a good time and exceeding my fundraising target. A training schedule, blog, facebook group and email updates, all serious rational stuff. Yet here I am six days left, fighting injury and still with a lot of fundraising to do. Perhaps I have missed the point of fun running?
Despite my protestations that running is serious business, I do quite admire those who run whilst wearing crazy costumes as I don't feel that I could. But I want to do something. Inspired by the 118 adverts of a few years back, I toyed with the idea of a big old mexican style moustache, after all they were runners. I was even ready to call the moustache "Mick" in homage to a mates Dad who sports a moustache in the style I was after. Then the penny dropped - I should pay homage to my Dad who passed away earlier this year.
In the 31 years that I knew him, my Dad never grew a moustache or beard. But he did always have big "Elvis" style sideburns! What better way to remember Dad on race day than grow some oversized sideburns. I tried growing only my sideburns, but it looked like I had just missed a bit whilst shaving. Growing a full beard would look slightly less rubbish and I could carve a couple of big "lamb chops" out just before race day!
So the beard is just a means to an end, a small act of remembrance for Dad on race day. The big act of remembrance is to complete the race in a good time and reach/exceed my fundraising target..
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