A dedicated follower of fashion

Thanks lots of those who have sponsored me so far - I am currently just over halfway toward my target and looking for other ways I can try and make the full amount.

So I sent my details off to Diabetes UK, who kindly sent me back a pack of information and fund raising ideas for me to read through (most of them mentioning "the London Marathon" - I think they had a few packs to get rid of !). But the crowning glory of this pack was... the Diabetes UK Pink 'n' Black running vest !!!

I think both the fetching cut and colour of this top deserves a little support, so therefore to add incentive to wavering sponsors of my athletic efforts, should I reach my target I pledge to wear this fine outfit along the run, as well as provide all pictures of myself in this fine getup on the blog after the run (assuming I can get a photographer on the day !)

In training, I managed to run / walk / slow jog the race route last weekend, overall in a reasonable time, but I was plagued by cramp from what might of been a too fast starting pace. Such is the peril of training with my slightly faster friend ! Hopefully I can work on setting an even pace over the next month so I can get around the route in under my target time of 1 hour (hoping for 55 mins, at a push).

So hopefully I will find more capers than this simple crime against fashion to help get to the final fund-raising figure, but if you haven't already, then please offer your support at http://www.justgiving.com/runfatbenrun and keep tuned to the blog for more news and progress.

10000 metres for charity

Most blog readers will probably have already seen via other channels that I have decided to run the BUPA London 10,000 road race on behalf of Diabetes UK. I settled upon this charity as it's currently a condition my father lives with, and it was his encouragement that got me started on my current route to better fitness. The run takes place on Bank Holiday Monday, May 26th. If you would like to offer a donation to help me reach my target, then I have set up this charity page for online donations, and can also accept offline donations too (although I cannot claim the 28% Gift Aid on such donations currently). In fitness news, I reached 17 stone 8 (~112kg) this week, which finally brings my BMI under 30 - this equates to me being medically classified as "overweight" rather than "obese". This is a landmark I have been looking forward to for a while, and hopefully along with the 10K run can bolster my determination to keep going toward my ultimate goal of BMI 25.

Horses didn't pay out, but I'm still the Cashback king

Another grand national and once again the turkey I picked in the work sweepstakes fell at an early fence, all it's legs fell off and then it burst into flames... or something slightly less horrific - but equally as useless as a "race winning maneuver" in any case.

This year I also put a "real" bet on - this time using Betfair. I signed up, put 10 pounds down (and then another 2 pounds down on a credit card to prove I was over 18) and bet across two horses, both of which did slightly better by staying on their feet, but forgot to run fast and earn me lots of cash. But I am still 38 quid up on this bet, or at least I will be...

Welcome to the world of cashback websites, the king and most friendly / reliable of which is QuidCo.By simply signing up to QuidCo, and then using the special buttons they provide to go to your favourite internet commerce site, you can get the referral fee that such sites pay to any third party who directs you to them. For instance, when you are on a football fan's site, and he has put amazon links to various football merchandise, if you click that link and buy the merchandise, amazon give a small percentage of that money back to the football fan's website owner. QuidCo do the same, but they then pass the money back to YOU (although they do keep the first five pounds each year to cover costs / make a profit).

So it often happens that some companies offer a particularly good cashback rate for a short promotional time, which QuidCo normally note on their QuidBlog; such as in this case Betfair, who were offering 50 pounds cashback for all new signups who spent 10 pounds on betting. So currently I am 12 quid down on the nags, but come June, I should be around about 38 quid up ! QuidCo really is a safe bet and recommended to all UK money savers out there.

Cheese me

Seven days in the alps a couple of weeks ago were fantastic for my new board and awful for any concept of weight loss I may of been entertaining ! Cheese and beer a plenty kept me fueled for days of piste carving and nights of liver pickling, along with lots of other food things in the category of "not vegetable". Actually the dinners weren't too bad, our catered chalet had some good balanced meals, it was more the lunches of potato, pasta and bread - often all three - that were somewhat nutritionally void.

But the slope conditions for the holiday were unlike more recent holidays - we had powder ! Piles of it ! This came with some nasty winds and hail on a couple of days, but there was some phat, deep snow to play in that made up for it. Being a Euro resort, much of that powder vanished quickly as it got tracked out, but actually I was enjoying the on-piste almost as much, so didn't mind.

Anyhow, lots of photos are online now (hence the delay to this post) and it's been a very good boarding season overall. My boots and bindings are looking a bit shabby though... might be time for some new ones ;)