Steven Ellis

[p][b]**UPDATE**:[/b][i] Its in the books! All three runs completed with three new Personal Bests (PB), two pairs of shoes and one belter of a black eye. I've uploaded some photos to google, contact/email me if you want access to see them![/i][/p][p][b]Hi there. I'm Steve, I'm an ugly runner and I'm raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital[/b][/p][p]Now, we've all seen 'proper runners', right? Of course we have; all smooth running, all knees and elbows driving, all effortlessly gliding - skimming almost - across the path, track or road. Biomechanical elegance in motion if you know what I mean. [/p][p]Not me. I'm the other kind of runner. The one that looks like he's in a land war with gravity, possibly about to have some kind of seizure.[/p][p][b]Why[/b] [b]then[/b] [b]do I inflict that on myself? The answer is my daughter Lauren. [/b][/p][p]Lauren has something called "Poly-JIA" and a bunch of other illnesses that make her life unpleasant; they make it hard for her to get up in the morning, she struggles in the cold, gets tired very easily, occasionally needs a wheelchair, and has a drug regime that makes the characters in Trainspotting look like dabblers.[/p][p]And I've wondered what it would be like to really feel like that. As it turns out, running is about as close as I'm prepared to get. [/p][p]So I've been running, outdoors. And I run ugly. And I mostly hate it. But getting it done when you can't face getting it done is the best kind of getting it done you can do. Or so Lauren tells me. At 13, she's wiser than Yoda. And she is the wind beneath my wings. Well, trainers.[/p][p]And talking of wind beneath my wings, GOSH has been there with my family and I since Laurens diagnosis 11ish years ago. Its given us a lot, so its time to give something back and I'm talking cash.[/p][p][b]And there's only one thing an Ugly Runner like me can do to raise cash. Yes, I'm running a marathon![/b][/p][p]Of sorts. Let me qualify. Its marathon distance (26.2miles) split over three consecutive days: 4th, 5th and 6th May. That's not a real marathon you say? Well how about this: it has 'marathon' in the event name: [url=https://midsussexmarathon.co.uk/]mid sussex marathon[/url][/p][p]So we are asking you to donate. [/p][p]Donate because its a good cause, donate because you want to unburden wallet or just donate to see pictures of the state I'll be at the end of day three (spoiler: ugly and sweaty). Lauren and I don't particularly mind which, so long as you do[/p][p]And consider this; my very excellent employer will match the first £500 donation with £500 of its own. So not only are you donating to a very good cause, you are also sticking it to the Man (don't tell them I said that)[/p]