Keen runner and friend of Caritas Care, Oliver Bullock, was totally made up at completing the Liverpool Marathon on 28th May in just 4 hours, 7 minutes and 22 seconds, a personal best for him.
This wasn’t the only reward for his efforts as he also raised and astonishing £729.00 for Caritas Care! We are truly grateful that Oliver chose to use his personal challenge to benefit the services provided by our charity and want to thank him for the hard work and commitment he, not only put in to the training for this event, but the sponsors he rallied round to donate to his cause.
Oliver said “It was a great day for the run as it was nice and cool albeit a bit windy, perhaps a little too chilly for some as there were some shivers on the starting!
I started in coral No 9 and soon realised that I must have put down an estimated 5 hour completion time, as I was stood behind the 04:45 pacer. Once the race started, I ran up to each pacer (4:45, 4:30), checked how I was feeling and carried on catching up the next one. I was a little surprised when at mile 10 as I was at the 04:15 pace and still felt okay decided to up my pace a bit more, which paid off and I managed the half marathon distance in 2 hours, 1 minute!
The bit I was really nervous about was going beyond the time and distance I had done in training so my wife, Jen and I decided that she, the boys and my Mum and Dad would be at mile 18 point to cheer me on which really worked.
The lads really enjoyed seeing “Daddy in his race” shouting “run Daddy RUN!” which they also had printed on their T-shirts.
The whole event was really well organised and friendly. All the marshals had smiles on their faces, event volunteers handed out jelly babies, drinks, and words of support. The race also had live music throughout the course with DJ stands all shouting words of encouragement to keep your motivation and spirits up. This followed by live music into late afternoon for friends and families to enjoy.
All in all it was a great day and I would recommend it to anyone. I am currently in negotiation with my wife to do another one…watch this space!”
Once again, we would like to thank Oliver for all his efforts in raising money for Caritas Care and congratulate him on a magnificent achievement. We look forward to hearing about your next challenge!
