Age UK 10K Fun Run - The full report

Lucy, Rog and Hayley at the finish line in the cold, wearing our medals with pride !

Earlier today our little team completed a 10K fun run for Age UK and Age UK Barnet. Myself and Lucy Nowell ran for Age UK Barnet and Hayley Brown ran for the Age UK national charity (Hayley lives outside of the Borough, but wanted to join our team, because it was the team to join !). It was bitterly cold and our times were

Hayley - Time - 52:15 - Position - 232
Rog - Time 1:01:53 - Position - 503
Lucy - Time 1:14:17 - Position 646

A special congratulations to all runners. Having run 10K, it is not easy and it hurts ! I was a tad disappointed to miss my target time of under 1 hour, but it has given me a reason to do it again and train a bit harder !  I had to stop to get a stone out of my shoe, which had a bigger significance than I realised at the time ! Oh well, never mind. The most important thing was the money we raised and to take part in the experience.

A very special thanks to everyone who sponsored and supported Lucy, Hayley and myself. It was a tremendous effort to raise so much money and I am humbled that people have put their faith in us to raise an amount that will make a diffrence to many people who need it.

Rog keeping pace at the 5km mark

So we all made our way to Crystal Palace for a 10am start. After all of the training and efforts, the big day was here. Between us all we have so far raised just under £1,500 for the charities and I'm proud of our team. Age UK Barnet Chair, Dr Julia Hines was the team manager and organised the activities, acted as photographer and drove myself and Lucy down to the event.

Lucy on the home stretch

Today was mothers day and I dedicated my run to the memory of my dear mum, who passed away in 2008. She was 83 when she died and without her love and support, I would be nothing. She sufffered a stroke in December 2000 and made me realise the challenges many elderly locally and nationally face. She was lucky to have a large family to support her. Age UK step in when there is no network. Here is a brief description from Julia of the work Age UK Barnet do and why we should all support them.

Age UK Barnet supports and cares for older people throughout the London Borough of Barnet.
Last year they helped 3,300 people with the support of staff and our 120 volunteers.
Age UK Barnet offers practical support like information and advice, benefits advice, healthy living advice including nutritional advice, toe-nail cutting, personal grants and their handyperson service, doing odd jobs for older people like installing grab rails or even changing a light bulb (so that no-one wobbles around on a chair, falls off and breaks their hip).
Just as important are the social activities – lunch clubs, exercise classes, day trips, befriending, art and music appreciation groups, day centres, bridge, art classes, volunteering opportunities, and computer classes.
Age UK Barnet puts quality at the heart of everything they do, and works with clients to design services which they want.
Here is what one client said to us this year
“The day centres are a lifeline for us elderly people. We meet our friends, talk, discuss various things, laugh, we give birthday Christmas cards, buy cakes for our day, we keep active, we have talks, visiting choirs, tea dances, on Thursday we have Tai Chi, some raffles. We have transport to and from the centres. It’s something to look forward to. If I don’t have Thursday out it means there is nothing, everyday the same.”

The national charity does similar work across the UK helping people who are vulnerable, lonely and isolated. We did our bit today, you can do yours by adding your donation to the coffers. Please click here to donate

https://www.justgiving.com/RogT

Here is  Lucy's race report :-

By Lucy Nowell, 
 
10km? - easy I thought, having run 3 marathons in the last decade.
I was asked to do a charity run for Age UK Barnet, and registered with JustGiving a month ago.  Unfortunately, my training regime did not consist of any running; though I did take the stairs everywhere. I was always going to start running tomorrow, but, 4 weeks on, and I still hadn't bought the trainers. As I was driven to and from Crystal Palace today,  by the lovely Julia Hines, I jotted the things one should not do in preparing for a run......


1) Having a free blood pressure test at Tesco's pharmacy just the day before, and not taking their advice - after 3 scary readings - to go to a walk-in medical centre.
2) Misplacing the running number - finding it hours before setting off.
3) Buying track suit bottoms and new trainers on the day before the run - and breaking them in for the first time, on the race day!
4) No programmed training - just relying on my day to day lifestyle

and experiences on the run itself...
5) Stepping into a puddle, soiling my bright white new trainers instantly, and soaking the extra long tracksuit bottoms.  This ensured I was carrying extra weight whilst squelching my way round the park.
6) Stopping to take 120 photographs and texting my progress, or lack of it.



Would I go through all this again? yes, of course I would. The event was well organised by Age UK; the volunteers and marshals were all very encouraging, and funny. Chocolate bars, water and energy drinks after the race was most welcomed. The money Rog T and I raised for Age UK Barnet was over £1000 with gift aid, so far, and fellow runner Hayley Brown has raised over £300 Age UK. My health most certainly has benefited, by lowering blood pressure. I have also invested in my future; I found out that next year, I will qualify for being helped by Age UK!  This was not the reason for taking the challenge of the race; it is my belief,  the way we treat our elderly is a measure of society itself, and I am more than happy to have helped this worthwhile charity.

Tomorrow - Sunday 10th March is the Age UK Barnet 10K run

Tomorrow at 10am, I will be running 10K for Age UK Barnet. Myself and Lucy who is also running have raised over £1,000 (inc Giftaid) for this great cause.

Thank you to everyone who has sponsored us.

If you haven't yet, please do. Here is our Justgiving pages.


Rog's page
http://www.justgiving.com/RogT

Lucy's page
http://www.justgiving.com/LucyNowell

We'll update you with how we got on tomorrow.

The Barnet Eye - enjoy it while you still can !

On Sunday 10th March, I will be running 10K for Age Concern Barnet. I'm running in memory of my mum, who died in August 2008 from a massive stroke. This was the second major stroke she suffered, the first being in 2001. As a result of the experiences the family had with her care provision by Barnet council, most notably the effects of the outsourcing of the meals on wheels contract in 2007, I became aware of the huge importance of good public services. There are thousands of elderly people like my mum in Barnet who don't have family to look out for them. Age UK Barnet does what it can for them, but in these times of financial hardship they have ever more to do with less money.

I undertook to do the run and use this blog to publicise the cause, because it is such an important issue. Had my mum not survived in 2001 or not had a stroke, I may have been blissfully unaware of the issue. I spend about 17 hours a week writing and researching this blog. I decided when i took the challenge that if I didn't attract £500 in sponsorship, then it probably meant that spending this time couldn't be justified. If I couldn't persuade enough readers of the blog to stump up £500 (which is only 200 readers donating £2 each), it really wasn't worth the effort. With nine days till the event, I am £170 short of my target. If you haven't donated anything yet, and want to save the blog, please click here and show Barnet you care

https://www.justgiving.com/RogT

Thanks to everyone who has already given their support

Why you should stick your hand in your wallet and sponsor me me for the Age UK Barnet 10K run

This blog was started on Saturday 11th October 2008. Since then, I've posted 3,180 blogs. As of now, the blog has had 834,441 hits.

The thing which started me blogging about Barnet Council was the way they treated my mother in the final year of her life, with regards to the outsourcing of the meals on wheels contract. I realsied that they had no concern whatsoever about the well being of the elderly people of Barnet. There only concern was saving a bit of cash by cutting services for the people who most needed it. This was compounded in 2010 when the council caabinet voted themselves a huge rise in allowances as cuts were made almost everywhere else.

So who looks after the elderly people in Barnet who don't have children to stand up for them? There are a few charities who are doing their best in these difficult times. One such organisation is Age UK Barnet. I have decided to do a 10K run on Sunday 3rd March 2013 at Crystal Palace to raise some money for them.

You can donate to this great cause by clicking here - https://www.justgiving.com/RogT  - from my blog stats, I see that 1,000 people look at this blog every day. Times are hard but is there a reader of the Barnet Eye who genuinely couldn't afford to spare £2.00. I have set a target of raising £500. To achieve this, 250 readers of the Barnet Eye need to contribute £2.00 each towards Age UK Barnet. If there are 250 of you who care enough about the blog to contribute £2.00 and who think that the 3,180 blogs I've written have been good value for money (less than 0.2p each for all of you), then I will be forever in your gratitude and it will send a small message out that people care.

If there are not, then to be quite honest, I will have to consider whether it is worth the time I dedicate to writing this blog. So if you are one of the members of Barnet Council, who would dearly love to see the back of this blog, please tell all your friends to keep their wallets shut. If you like what you read, but are too tight to spare £2.00 (less than 15p a day between now and then) to keep the blog running, you will only have yourself to blame, if you wake up on March 4th and this blog has disappeared forever.

Of course I am sure that readers of the Barnet Eye are generous, decent people and they care passionately about looking after the people who have built this Town, this City and this Country and are now in the twilight of the their lives. That is why I'm convinced that on the 3rd March, I will be running the run, proudly representing the people of Barnet and the readers of the Barnet Eye. I will lovingly write the name of every sponsor on my shirt when I do the run, so we can all share in the achievement.

Winter is here and it's going on two years

This morning I stood in the rain for nearly two hours in Cressingham Park, Burnt Oak watching Watling FC beat Ruislip Rangers 6-3. It was miserable and freezing, the experience lightened only by the great football being played. Myself and another dad huddled under an umbrella shivering, looking forward to a nice cup of tea in our comfy centrally heated homes. It felt like winter had come early.

As I shivered, my thoughts turned briefly to Friern Barnet library. During talks with council officials two weeks ago, I asked them if they were aware that for many elderly people, who struggle with electricity and gas bills, a library is a place to stay warm during the winter. They seemed to be slightly put out by the idea that people were not using libraries for their primary purpose. One of the officials said something along the lines "It is not the job of the library service to keep pensioners warm", before realizing how crass this sounded.

There are hundreds of elderly people in Barnet who will struggle this winter. As a community, I believe we should do what we can to support our neighbours. There are many ways that we can do this. Get to know elderly neighbours and make sure they have your telephone number. Tell them that if they are unwell and need shopping or other errands to get in touch. If there is snow or ice, see if they need any help shopping. Let them know it's Ok to ask if they need some help.

Many people worry that they will end up becoming "lumbered" with helping elderly neighbours. Just giving them a bit of support is usually appreciated and most are too proud to ask. If someone becomes too dependent, have a word with Age UK or another charity which deals with the elderly. They have backup services that can help. If you can't help someone or they are becoming too demanding, work with local charities and the local authority to get the help for the person. If they are asking it is because they have a need.

I think we need to act as good neighbours. We may well be there one day ourselves.

Here is the website for Age UK Barnet - If for any reason you can't help, consider giving a few quid so someone else can - http://www.ageuk.org.uk/barnet/