Running Apes

Chris

Chris Guildford

If you are reading this you either know one of us apes or support the charity MACS for whom we are running for. Either way we are grateful for taking the time to read about us and the amazing charity we are running for.

Running the London Marathon has always been an ambition of mine, as my wife will testify, and every April I watch it on the TV wishing I had got off my lazy back side to be part of it. So what happened this year? What went wrong? (from my legs point of view). Two very important events.

1.  My dad used to work with Barry Stickings who is currently the chairman of MACS. My Dad bumped into Barry at last years Marathon and suddenly I had a connection with a charity and that the money I would raise would make a real difference.

2.  I got drunk. Most of you that know me will not be surprised by this at all however this time there was an important shake of the hands. We were having a birthday celebration at Christopher’s, a fantastic restaurant and bar in the heart of Covent Garden for my boss Mark. (Adrian please note the free plug). I started to tell the party that I wanted to run the marathon for MACS. Two people instantly said they would run it with me. I now had running partners who would force me to run when I didn’t want to!

Since that evening all three of us were granted places and the training has begun. Between the three of us we have exactly 0 years running experience so we invested in a personal trainer. His first job was to look at our running style. He explained the most efficient way of running to us and we joked we felt like running apes. That is how we got to the website name.

Obviously the main reason we are running is to raise money to support the work that MACS is doing. If you haven’t already please either read the little information we have put on our site about the work the charity do or click on the link to their site directly.

If you are able to make a donation, and I beg that you do, you can do so in a couple of ways. Click on the donation link, put in one of our names, and follow the on screen directions. Alternatively go to the contact us part of the website and one of us will help you.

Thank you for your support and if you see us out running please do not drive through a puddle and soak us.

Jess

Jessica Smith

Well I remember a few years back when we were slightly inebriated on a work night out!!! Chris and I were on our way back in the cab and for some reason like you do when you have had a drink! We both decided that we thought we could run a marathon, so that’s where it all started. We shook hands and said that we would do it, but we never said what year! So the weeks went by and it looked like we weren’t as serious as we thought we would be so there was no more mention of it!

So a few years later we were on another works night out, when Chris piped up “Do you remember when we were on the way home in the cab and we said that we would like to run a marathon?”

Well that was it we all decided that this was the year that we would run it.

So here we are at the beginning of October, none of us have any running experience and the training has started. I would be lying if I said it was easy, my legs have no idea what has hit them!!!

So the idea is to train every other day, so that by Christmas time we can run 2 hours. In the first week of running none of us could run more than 20 minutes and it took me at least 4 days to recover, and it doesn’t help that I live in a town house!

Due to much determination and passion I am getting there with my longest run being one hour and 4 minutes (yes as you can see, the minutes are very important to me, those extra 4 minutes nearly killed me!)

I have to say I get most of my determination and motivation from the knowing that all my hard work is going to raise money for such a worth while cause. I am so please that MACS has selected me to be one of their marathon runners.

So I hear you say “Running Apes, why?”

Well we realised that because we weren’t really your usual athletes we would need some personal training. So we met with Dave Lucas one of the personal trainers at David Lloyd, where we work. He spent the first few lessons trying to get our technique perfected. While we were running on the tread mill, and watching each other we all started to laugh as we decided that we looked like a group of running apes! As you can see the name has stuck and now we know when our technique is correct. If you don’t feel like your running like an ape, you’re going wrong!

Louise

Louise Leckey

Hello I am an ape! Hehe! Well I definitely feel like that for agreeing to do the marathon whilst drunk! But hey, now I’m really pleased as the charity I am running for is so deserving and makes it all worthwhile! Oh by the way my name is Louise!!

It has been years since I have run, but I always used to enjoy it and one day thought that I would run a marathon. It is only now after years of not running I realise just how far 26.2 miles really is! This is going to be a real challenge for me… even though I worked in a health club for 5 years; my fitness isn’t as great as it once was. But like Chris said, now I have the motivation (helping to raise money for MACS) and the support, my running apes, Chris and Jess!!

My passion is working with children so when I found out about MACS I just couldn’t go back on my drunken agreement! Thanks Chris!!

Please have a look at the website and be kind enough to make a donation to MACS and help give us running apes the support we need to get to the finish line of the London Marathon 2009!!