The Santa Fun Run, a Secret revealed, and the 2nd Get Together for People who want to do the Mountain Climbing Thaaang

Well, I'm pleased to say that I did the Santa Fun Run on Sunday 5th December 2010 and I survived.......woooo hooo!  

Myself and a fellow wannabe climber, Yvie, arrived at Bouverie Place Shopping Centre at 11am on a clear bright Sunday to a very surreal experience, being surrounded by hundreds of people dressed as Santa with a few random reindeers thrown in.

We collected our Santa suits which included, jacket, trousers, hat, beard and belt and adorned our outfits in the middle of the heaving throng of Santas and bewildered shoppers.

I did wonder what people who were not from Folkestone or not aware of the Santa Fun Run thought when they turned the corner to be confronted by hundreds of people dressed up as Father Christmas, I'm sure there were a lot of confused faces!

After a photo shoot by the Press........well, Gary from the Kentish Express, we took our positions behind the runners as this was a strictly walking thing for us, as I kept saying to numerous onlookers cheering us on, 'You can't run up Kilimanjaro'.

A countdown began and the runners were off..............leaving a huge gap between them and us, the walkers.  Myself and Yvie found ourselves leading the walking pack so we tried to set an example and sped off  with a maximum speed of at least 2mph.   By the time we got to the traffic lights by Debenhams we were exhausted so we slowed our pace to enable the stragglers to catch up, this included an elderly lady with a dog......

We reached The Leas where we paused to admire the view over the English Channel and take a few photos to show our progress so far and realised that we were possibly the last of the thousand runners/walkers taking part in the event.  As I explained to Yvie, the first and the last are always remembered........

Upon our arrival at the zig zag path we chatted with some other ladies also taking part who kindly took some photos of us whilst we imitated the art of running........we did have to explain to the lady that we were actually pretending to run in a Bionic Man sort of style after she kept urging us to 'Run, run'....

We then proceeded through the coastal park where we debated whether to pose for photos on the drag slide but after deciding that we would have to physically remove the children from them we thought it wouldn't be such a good idea.  The image of children being traumatised by two women dressed as Santa dragging them off the slide was a not a good one.

Now this is where I reveal a secret and only those of you that read this will ever know about it..........as we left the Coastal Park, the stewards monitoring the race directed ourselves and other 'stragglers' towards some wooden stairs leading up the cliff to The Leas.........basically the course was cut short for us as the stewards wanted to 'Get home for dinner before the sun set'....

With heavy hearts we started to climb the wooden steps, and my God this is where we realised how unfit we were and how much training we would need to do for Kilimanjaro!

The steps were endless but luckily there were areas where we could stop, sit and admire the views, which we did........often!  Although we told ourselves that we were just being polite and letting other stragglers pass us.

It was during this time that I asked Yvie if she had prayed for the snow to return or some other calamity, i.e., another Folkestone earthquake, we've only had two, we must be due for another.  She replied........'Yes'..........I reassured her how much fun we were having as we stumbled over the last few steps and found ourselves back at The Leas with Santas running towards us from the official route.

This was the final straight, the finish line was in sight, we were nearly there, although I did have to pose for another photo opportunity on a bench.

The finish line which was located by The Leas Lifts was eventually within  our sight so in true 'Chariots of Fire' style we ran.............those last few steps were the hardest of our journey but we had done it!!!!

We received our medals which are actually made of metal and not plastic, posed for photos and collected our freebies,  a bottle of water and some Mr Men fridge sticky things......no, we have no idea why either.

We had completed the race within an hour!!!!

We then rang my husband to see if he could collect us from Bouverie Place as we were physically and emotionally drained.....

Whilst walking through Bouverie Place we were accosted by some foreign language students who asked if they could buy our medals.  I replied 'No, I'm sorry, we've shed blood,sweat and tears for these',  Yvie's reply.......'Yeah 100 quid!'.........

We sent them off to see the organisers on The Leas and said that they may consider selling some to the students for a donation to charity.

We returned home jubilant!

Our verdict on the Santa Fun Run?   It was brilliant, we had fun, we had a laugh, and it's a great way to raise money for charity!  Due to the fact we registered late we didn't have enough time to do any proper fundraising but next year we aim to take part again and Ciara, my youngest daughter, wants to do the mini run for children.  It's well worth doing and it's always for a great cause!


Googies at 7.30pm.  I shall be showing Caroline and Angies DVD diary again, it's well worth watching!
Please come along if you are interested in doing the mountain climbing thaaang or know anyone else who might be, all are welcome!

A brilliant First Get Together with a Big Brother style Kilimanjaro video diary!

What a brilliant night on Friday for the First Get Together of the peeps who want to do The Mountain Climbing Thaaaaang!

Firstly, I have to thank Caroline Ward and Angie Riddell, who were both fountains of all knowledge concerning climbing Kilimanjaro having completed it in September this year.

Their video diary was touching, funny, fascinating and enjoyed by everyone who came along to find out more.

Ten people turned up and seemed very enthusiastic and eager to learn more.  Caroline and Angie were perfect for answering peoples questions.

They both said it was the hardest thing they had ever done in their lives but was worth every bit of pain in getting to the top.

Angie was fortunate enough to not suffer from altitude sickness and Caroline did not get ill until the summit night on which she said she thought she was going to die she felt so bad, until after finally getting to the summit she turned around to see the sun rise at which point she burst into tears due to the emotion of it all.

A few people were worried about the initial outlay of a £350 deposit but it was suggested that instead of Christmas presents people ask for money instead. This is what I plan to do.  We will probably register our interest and pay our deposits at the end of January when people get paid, we then have ten months to fund raise and train.

We also discussed the Santa Fun Run to be held this Sunday 3rd December, if a minimum of six people sign up for this then we can register as a team, the team name to put down on the form is F2K. Also Primark are selling leopard print fleece blankets for £3 which we can use to wrap around ourselves over our Santa suit so that we stand out and can obtain more publicity, plus it will keep us warm! We can re-use the blankets for future fund raising ventures.

It was a brilliant evening and it was wonderful to see so many enthusiastic and eager people willing to take up this once in a lifetime challenge.

I'm holding another get together this Thursday evening, 1st December, for the people who missed the first one at 7.30pm at Googies.  Come along and join in the fun!

Finally, a big big thank you to Caroline & Angie, you were both brilliant!!!  Also to Keith at Googies who is kindly letting us use Googies as our very own Base Camp!!!

Tonights the Night!!!!!

Tonight will be the first gathering of people interested in doing The Mountain Climbing Thaaang!

Keith from Googies has kindly opened his doors to us from 7.30pm, don't forget to try one of his gorgeous Pizzas whilst you are there!

Caroline and Angie will show their video diaries and are ready to answer any questions we may have, i.e., What would they do differently if they went again? What was the most useful thing to take?  What do they wish they had taken? What was not worth taking? Which guides did they use? How did they fundraise? etc etc

We were also featured in the Kentish Express yesterday with an excellent article by Tricia Jamieson who will be following our 'journey' with great interest.  Especially after asking what experience I had and my reply of    'At the current time I can just about walk up The Old High Street'.......

For those of you that can't make tonight I will be organising a smaller get together next week and will let you know when asap.   It needs to be before Friday really as people need to get registered for the Santa Fun Run which is due to be held on Sunday 5th December.   Im hoping that people join in with this as it raises money for charity and will be a good start for the training(walking) we will need to do!

www.santasfunrun.org.uk

I'd also like to have some sort of theme for our Santa Fun Run team i.e. Safari animal masks, ideas welcome to make sure we stand out and get more publicity please?


I'm going to print some information off for people to take away tonight and read before anyone decides to commit to this great challenge, I personally can't wait to get started!!!

I look forward to seeing/meeting you tonight!!!  Please come along if only for thirty minutes or even to grab some information, I don't want to be Billy no mates........;-)

First Get Together for People who want to do the Mountain Climbing Thaaaaang

The first get together for people who are interested in doing the mountain climbing thaaang is this Friday 26th November 2010, 7.30pm at Googies in Folkestone.   For those of you who aren't able to make this I will organise a smaller one for the following week.

We need to do this asap as I would like  for as many people as possible to enter the Santa Fun Run which is due to take place on Sunday 5th December 2010.  We aim to walk rather than run as no running is possible on Kilimanjaro!

Caroline and her climbing partner Angie will be coming along to talk about their experience and show their video diaries so feel free to ask them any questions.

This is the link for the event on Facebook, unfortunately when I created it FB went mental and created about twenty events, please ensure you rsvp on the event with the photo of Kilimanjaro.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170071186356423

Please pass this information onto others who may also be mental enough to climb a mountain in Africa!

I can't wait to start the ball rolling!!!

Limbo land........Tuesday 9th November 2010

Well, at the moment we are in limbo land, I'm patiently awaiting the return of Caroline who completed the climb in September 2010 and is currently in Oz so that I can arrange the meeting at Googies.  She is due back this week I think, so hopefully I will have a date for everyone soon.

More people are joining the Facebook group, and more links are being put onto the group page, go and watch some of the videos if you need re-inspiring!   Oh and invite your friends to join!

The Santa Fun Run & The 'Mount Kili' Googie Burger - Tuesday 2nd November 2010

Today I contacted the organisers of the Folkestone Santa Fun Run to see what the latest date for registering is and I'm pleased to say that it's actually the day of the run.  Although we can discuss it more at the get together and register earlier  I think this would be a brilliant opportunity for the group to start off our fundraising! We should also walk it rather than run as this is how the climb will be, walking not running!  

The route is approximately 5-6km which equates to just over 3 miles, if we can't manage this then there is no hope for us! lol   

The website is www.santasfunrun.org.uk, it's £10 to register, this reserves your place at the Start and your FREE Santa Suit and Finishers medal. You can also opt to pay 50% towards the Folkestone Channel Rotary Club's charity and 50% towards your own. The date of the run is Sunday 5th December 2010. 

Keith at Googies has kindly offered to create a burger especially to help with fundraising, so the 'Mount Kili' Googies burger has been discussed on the Facebook group and may now possibly become a part of a 'cook off' competition.  T shirts with logos have also been suggested.  I'm meeting with Keith this week to discuss these ideas plus more, the bonus being I also get to have a yummy Googies burger. 

I've also been in touch with a local media contact who is interested in possibly doing an article on the mountain climbing thaaang!  More to follow on this when details of our get together are established. 

Some more links have been posted on the group today, one is a blog that includes video diary clips and another one that has excellent tips.   If you  research anything that you think might be good to share please don't forget to post them on the group wall, thank you to everyone who has done so far!  

Finally, its good to see more people joining the group who seem very enthusiastic, it's getting very exciting!

Research and a Kilimanjaro Thong!

Research, research, research! That's been my mission the last couple of days, although finding a picture of thongs emblazoned with 'I've Climbed Kilimanjaro' may well have been the highlight!  Please note these are not an obligatory part of the kit.

I've also had an email from a local community company, Folkestone Film Factory, who may be interested in making a promotional video to help with the fundraising.

The community side of this project seems to be developing more and more.

More people are asking to join the group and seem very enthusiastic, so I just want to sort a get together now so we can all meet up and ask the things we need to know.

So far I want to know, What are the best boots to buy? How will I cope with my contact lenses? Who is the best company to use? What airline will we be flying with? I'm sure I'll have more!

At the present time we are definitely going for the Marangu Route with the huts and the extra day for acclimatisation.

The Marangu Hotel has very good reviews for its accommodation and its guides and Emirates Airline are also highly recommended for the flight, so I need to find  a company that can incorporate all of these.

If anyone else is researching, please feel free to add links on the Facebook group page.

I'm happy to go with the majority on any decisions we make!

Right, back to the research!