Mutterings for the Minority

The ever popular Cancer Research ‘Race for Life’ came to Swansea once again today and it marked the very first “organised” 5k run that my Mrs had ever taken part in.

Several months ago – well May to be precise – Mrs DDWT had mentioned how much she’d like to get into running – especially seeing as I’d caught the ‘running’ bug. So we sat down and thought of a way forward…

That’s where the ‘Race for Life’ came in and what better way to start running than to support a charity for something which was close to our hearts.

Cancer had claimed the life of my Dad and no doubt countless members of other families across the length and breadth of the UK and indeed the world.

So the goal was set – to run the Swansea Race for Life. This meant that not only would Mrs. DDWT get fit but as we had personal reasons for supporting a charity, it would also give her all the more drive and determination to achieve her goal.

Given her lack of running, she’d also set herself – what I’d call an extremely modest – target of £75 in sponsorship money. And here’s a shameless plug for anyone who’d like to donate online – even if it’s only a £1!

As you can imagine, our two little ‘uns and I were immensely proud to see Mrs DDWT on the starting line today. The stunningly pink site of thousands of women doing their bit for such a wonderful charity was fantastic and spurred everyone on I’ve no doubt (aided by some tub thumping music!).

Here’s a short video clip I took when the “race” started (see if you can spot yourself ladies) ….

Some 37 minutes or so after the start we were cheering Mrs DDWT over the finishing line in a time well under her target of 40 minutes!

At the end of the day though, as she rightly said, it wasn’t about her time – it was about the taking part and feeling part of such a great and touching occasion.

The personal messages that adourned the back of every participant was testament to how much cancer has touched so many lives and for this reason alone it was wonderful to see so many women of all ages, shapes and sizes taking part.

So well done Mrs DDWT and ALL of the other women who took part, you should be extremely proud of yourselves.

I’m glad to report that Team Thomas successfully completed the Swansea Sport Relief Mile 2010.

Thankfully the torrential rain of Saturday was long gone and was replaced by glorious spring sunshine by the time we ventured into Singleton Park – the venue for the Swansea Sport Relief Mile – in readiness for our family challenge.

With me opting to do the 6 miles at 11am and the rest of the Thomas clan doing the mile at noon, time was going to be tight, especially as I wanted to join them for their event.

I was hoping for a sub-50 minute time for the 6 miles, but the rather hilly setting put paid to any chances I had of doing that and I ended up coming home in 51 minutes 41 seconds.

The course was somewhat confusing as the 3 and 6 mile events consisted of doing 3.5 and 5 laps respectively – and shared with the 1 mile participants it all got a little confusing (in terms of keeping tabs on others and pacing yourself!).

In fairness the stewards did a grand job encouraging everyone and making sure that people went the right way – but the layout did nowt for my time keeping! Well I’m not going to blame my fitness levels am I

Still we had lots of fun and even the kids got in on the act with DDWT Junior running off and on for his mile (with Mrs DDWT) and Baby DDWT being quite content to walk along splashing in all the muddy puddles with me (although lagging behind somewhat!).

In fact it was fantastic to see so many families (including pets!) taking part in the events and having so much fun whilst doing so. Most of the kids seemed intrigued by the ‘fire’ juggler and were well chuffed to see Cyril the Swan present as well (well done Cyril for running the 1 mile event). Lee Trundle was also present to start off the proceedings at the 11am event.

The kids were well chuffed with their Sport Relief goodie bags – especially the medals, which my no doubt bring back a memory or two in years to come for both of them. I’m not sure what they made of the mini box of cereal or singular prune sachets, but they were welcome running food for me

I’d also like to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has sponsored us so far. Thus far we’ve raised £66 – our target was £100 – but with more sponsorship pledged I’m still hopeful that we’ll beat our original target.

If you’d like to donate then please feel free to do so via the Team Thomas Sport Relief page.

Did you know that today marked World Book Day 2010? Well nor did I until about a month ago when DDWT Junior came home from school branding a £1 book token and explanatory note!

So what is world book day? Well quite simply it is the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK and Ireland.

I must confess to not being a bookworm by any stretch of the imagination but Mrs T and DDWT Junior are and I think it’s great that such a ‘day’ exists – if only to generate interest in books for children and adults alike.

Our local school also got in on the act by asking all of the kids to dress up as their favourite character from one of the many books written by Roald Dahl – such as The BFG, George’s Marvellous Medicine, The Twits, James & The Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Enormous Crocodile and many more.

Here’s a picture of DDWT Junior sporting his Enormous Crocodile outfit!

Incidentally if you haven’t read ‘The Enormous Crocodile’ – like I hadn’t up until a couple of weeks back – I’d recommend it, it’s quite funny for little kids and big ones!

Yes it’s official, Team Thomas have decided to take part in Sport Relief 2010!

On Sunday 21st March 2010, Team Thomas – all four of us – will be heading down to Singleton Park to take part in the Swansea Sport Relief Mile in order to raise money for poor and vulnerable people.

The Swansea Sport Relief event offers a choice of distances to enter – 1, 3 or 6 miles and to make things a little more fun we’ve decided to do something a wee bit different.

I will kick things off at 11 am by doing the 6 mile event before joining Mrs DDWT and the little ‘uns for the 1 mile event at noon. That is assuming that I run the 6 miles in under an hour of course LOL! We haven’t decided if fancy dress is in order or not yet (any suggestions for costumes?).

We’ve never done a family fundraising event all together in the past, so we thought it was an ideal opportunity to try something different and help people both at home and overseas who aren’t as fortunate as ourselves.

So why not sign up and enter the event, it’s only £5 per adult and £2 for children under 16 or for just £12 you can register 2 adults and 2 children.

If you don’t fancy taking part then why not sponsor Team Thomas instead? Remember every penny helps so even a £1 would be extremely welcome.

So go on you know you want too…

Felt rough as heck this morning but that was nothing to do with alcohol, it was because Mrs T and I were playing Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues on the Wii until gone 2am this morning!

Sleep deprivation coupled with 2 early risers (aged 18 months and 5 years old) are a recipe for non-existent patience syndrome – no matter what day of the week/year it is!

So with our fridge in desperate need of some semi-skimmed milk I decided it was time to take the kids for a walk into the village to stock up at the local co-op, regardless of how cold and frosty it was.

We were suitably frozen by the time we got back some hour and a half later! Little wonder then perhaps that as I type – albeit late evening – that the snow has started to fall quite heavily (and not before bloody time too!).

Let’s just hope it lasts until the morning so that we can have a family snowball fight!

Oh I almost forgot – Happy New Year everyone and all the very best in health and happiness for 2010