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Lydia Ferguson is raising money for Shared Lives Plus

Run for Shared Lives

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My story

Why do a single sponsored run when you can set yourself the challenge of doing lots and lots of sponsored runs instead?

In 2023 I am challenging myself to run at least 100km in proper, official, timed events. That could be 10 x 10k runs, 20 x 5k runs, or even a couple of ultra marathons (I mean, it's not going to be a couple of ultra marathons, obviously - that would be ridiculous).

In reality, it's probably going to be a combination of 10Ks, 5Ks and at least one half marathon. My longest race distance to date is 10k (I've done a grand total of two of them so far), but I've been training for a half marathon for a good chunk of the last three years. I'm confident that I can pull this off, but it's going to be a challenge.

Why do this?

I'm doing this to raise money for Shared Lives Plus, the UK membership charity for people who live or work in Shared Lives.

Shared Lives is a model of social care where someone who needs support visits or lives with a Shared Lives carer, sharing their home and family life. Shared Lives is an alternative to more traditional residential care options, providing a more person centred approach, and giving the supported person more opportunity to thrive and develop.

(Disclaimer: I am employed by Shared Lives Plus as their digital communications officer. It is a genuine honour to be able to support their work, and the work of Shared Lives schemes and carers across the country)

Thank you for checking out my page. Making a donation is fast, easy and secure thanks to Give as you Live Donate. They'll take your donation and pass it onto Shared Lives Plus.

My updates

1 month ago

- Goals, Guidelines, and (self imposed) Conditions

The aim of this challenge isn't just to cover the distance, but to do so while improving my race times, and without injuring myself or otherwise putting my (physical or mental) health at risk. So that means balancing the training and the races with everything else going on in my life, building in plenty of flexibility and giving myself what I need to finish the challenge with a smile on my face.

*Run every step - There's no shame in walking, but there's also not much challenge for me.

*Timed events only - parkruns do count, but fun runs don't - and training runs certainly don't.

*Do some strength training and some flexibility training every week.

*Eat sensibly, but don't start worrying about optimising meals for peak performance. I'm not going to be troubling the front of the starting line-up.

Here's a provisional list of some of the races I'm planning to run this year. They're mostly pretty local, apart from the first one (although that's local to my mum, which is where I'll be that weekend). As the challenge starts there are 7 races on the list with a total of 81km. I'll keep the list updated as I go.

*January 15th - Mid Month Mayhem, Cambridge - 10km, entered.

*March 26th - Liverpool Half Marathon - 21km

*April 16th - Mersey Tunnel Run - 10km

*May 7th - Liverpool Spring 10K - 10km

*June 4th - Jubilee Bridge Run, Runcorn/Widnes - 10km

*June 11th - Port Sunlight 10K - 10km

*October 15th - Wirral 10K - 10km