Member News
Tens of thousands of runners are today preparing themselves ahead of this weekend’s London Marathon, the world's biggest road race.
Four members of Dods staff will be testing themselves to the limit on Sunday.
Keira Roth, Chris Punch, Dean Sowman and John Armstrong are preparing for the 26.2mile-course, each supporting various charities.
The four runners may wish to take the advice of Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman, who told the press this morning that much like the race, the election campaign is a "marathon, not a sprint".
"Don’t watch the runners at the front for the first few miles," she said.
The winner would be the one with" reliance, focus, whose done the preparation, whose got he physical and metal endurance", she added.
The race is expected to see the usual mix of elite runners, celebrities and enthusiastic amateurs, some dressed as animals, firemen or leprechauns.
Keira Roth will pound the streets of the capital on Sunday to raise money for Children with Leukaemia (CwL), after meeting the organisation at a party conference fringe event.
Keira first discussed running for CwL at the DODS Charity Champion awards reception in December last year. Keira has been training since January, when it was still snowing.
"As many of my friends found out who I was running for, I was really shocked to find out how many of them had been affected in one way or another by leukemia, highlighting just how important the work of CwL is," Keira.
Chris Punch has been preparing for the marathon for past six months, inspired to run after seeing a friend complete the course last year.
Gaining his place in the ballot, he aims to complete the marathon in about 4hrs 30mins – he completed a half-marathon in 2009.
Chris will be running for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, a charity close to his heart as his grandfather used to build lifeboats.
He said: "I think they do such an incredibly brave and selfless job and deserve all the help and support that we can get them.
"As an independent charity they couldn't save lives without public donations, and have saved 139,000 lives since their foundation."
Dean Sowman, who is running for the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), said taking part would be one of the most exciting things that he had ever done in his life.
BAAF helps to find families for around 500 children each year.
These children are often very vulnerable, have had extremely difficult starts in life and need special, skilled families to meet their needs.
"I see it as one of the biggest and best events that London has to host and is a completely unique experience,” said Dean.
"The training has been quite hard, especially with the nightmare of a winter that we had, but strangely I have enjoyed it. Honestly! I have been training for about six to eight months and this will be my first long distance run."
Next month members of the Dods Monitoring team will be participating in the Bupa London 10k and the Edinburgh marathon.
Matt Field will be running the Bupa London 10k on May 31, aiming to raise as much money as possible for Prostate UK.
Prostate cancer affects one in two men, yet it is not a high-profile cause. Having seen the debilitating effects the disease can have, Matt wants to help the charity.
He said: "Though this is my first 10k, I'm not looking to amble round. I want to make sure that the money that people generously give is well and truly earned."
Running for the Dogs Trust, Joe Chapman will be participating in the Edinburgh Marathon in May.
To leave a donation for any of the runners go to:
www.bmycharity.com/keiramarathon2010
www.justgiving.com/chris-punch
www.justgiving.com/deansowman
www.justgiving.com/joe-chapman
www.justgiving.com/matthew-field
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.