Mums in virtual Marathon to help Eva’s charity
PAIR USE TRAIL TO RECREATE LONDON CHALLENGE FOR BLISS
A PAIR of Ashbourne mums are getting ready to take on a virtual London Marathon to raise money for a charity that helped four-year-old Eva Bradbury through a challenging start in life.
Eva’s mother, Rachael, and her friend Jo Walding, will be running more than 26 miles on Sunday, October 3, on behalf of the charity, Bliss, which provided invaluable support for Rachael and Eva from the moment she went into labour at 24 weeks.
Thanks to the work done by Bliss across the country, and the support of Leicester-based charity Adapt, Eva, who weighed just 1lb 12oz, has flourished and recently started at Osmaston Primary School, Ashbourne, – and
Rachael says she is ready to take on the challenge of her first marathon.
Rachael, 34, and Jo, 42, will be waved off by friends and family from the park in Ashbourne and make their way through the tunnel to the Tissington Trail – heading up the incline before turning round at just the right point to cover 26.2 miles by the time they get back to the park.
This will be the first proper endurance run they have completed and, before they each had children, the biggest distance they had managed was 10km. But, says Rachael, since July, they have been heading out on regular training sessions to ensure they are as ready as they can be for the challenge.
She said: “It’s a huge challenge, I think I was really naive when I signed up to it, but Jo, bless her, spurs me on.
“As part of the training we’ve done the loop around Carsington, we’ve done the Ashbourne half marathon route, and we’ve done another nine or 10 mile route, but there’s no escaping the hills around here.
“I think the Tissington Trail is the flattest route we can take.
“The longest run we’ve done now is 20 miles, up the trail. We were taking energy gels every half hour just to get through, and we completed it in three hours 15, so I think if we can stay at the pace we’re doing we should do it, and we think we’ll get a decent time.”
Rachael and Jo set out to raise £1,000 for Bliss but ,after an outpouring of support, sponsors have helped them smash this target and they’re now well on the way to a new target of £2,000, which has been gathered up on the virginmoneygiving website.
It’s the support from their friends and family that is now spurring them on, despite the enormity of their challenge already starting to kick in, says Rachael.
“After that 20-mile run, I’m really nervous. It literally broke us towards the end, and you kind of think, where on earth are we going to find another six miles?
“But I think it will be a really emotional day. By the time we’ve completed it, we know it’s for a good cause, our kids will be there to see us at the finishing line and our families, and that’ll be really, really nice, to have their support. And it’ll be emotional.
“The neonatal intensive care unit journey is like running a marathon for both the babies and the parents – it’s a long slog with ups and downs.
“I thought about this on our 20-mile slog to keep myself going. I had hours to go to finish, compared to those starting their intensive care journey having weeks.
“I’m really determined. And Jo’s the most stubborn person I’ve ever met, so when I say can we please walk, she always goes, ‘no - just half an hour more.’ Between the two of us when one of us dips the other will help. And it’s good that there’s two of us, because we won’t have crowds along the trail to push us. So we’ve just got to push each other.”
To find out more, or to support Rachael and Jo, visit uk.virginmoneygiving.com and search for Rachael Bradbury.
But I think it will be a really emotional day. Our kids will be there to see us at the finish
Rachael Bradbury