Running for fun never really made sense to me. It made even less sense after my first ever run, which lasted for about twenty minutes, was barely a mile and gave me chest pain and a wheeze that lasted for about three days.  I used to think it’d take a miracle to make me brave the unwavering Cardiff drizzle for exercise, and I suppose in the end, my motivation for signing up for this year’s Cardiff Half comes pretty close.

 

I’m this year’s president of Cardiff University Paediatric Society (CUPS). We’re a society for students from all healthcare courses that want to have a fulfilling and successful career caring for children, whatever our chosen profession.  We host educational events, fundraisers, set up volunteering schemes and pair students with research opportunities. Last year CUPS decided to get a team together to run the Cardiff Half Marathon 2014 for charity, and managed to persuade/force twelve members into running for us!

 

Telling someone (who knows you) that you’re going to run 13.1 miles gets a variety of reactions- I think someone genuinely offered me money NOT to do it. The actual majority of our nearest and dearest however, were more supportive than we could have asked for, especially once they knew a bit about who we were raising money for: Serennu children’s centre in Newport. It’s a fantastic centre for local children with complex needs and their families, which acts as a friendlier environment for medical consultations and treatments, as well as providing activities, education, advice, support and respite.

 

Half of our team were already established runners and the other saner half, like me, spent the year dragging ourselves outside for the next impending jog.

We then designed brightly coloured running shirts and spammed all of our Facebook friends (sorry) to drum up sponsorship.

 

The 5th October came round much quicker than expected, but we all headed down to the starting line together in the morning pumped full of a mix of enthusiasm, fear and porridge. The atmosphere was absolutely electric. Sure, it felt incredible being part of the CUPS team but actually, the most invigorating thing was being one of the thousands who were there to run and raise money for the many people who deserve it.  We were all in it together, the crowd cheering us on with pots of jelly babies and chains of children giving us high fives.  The last couple of miles were unsurprisingly the toughest but actually, as I sprinted towards the finish line (which is probably the best thing I’ve ever seen), a year full of blisters, muscle aches, early mornings and more lycra in my wardrobe than should be allowed, it all seemed worth it.

As we congregated in the pub afterwards to ‘refuel’ and compared PBs (congrats Jack Casey 1.20 and Callum Priest 1.27) somebody read out our fundraising total. Unbelievably, we’d raised just over £1110 and to date, the sponsorship is still slowly coming in! I’m so unbelievably proud of our team, and I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated- couldn’t/wouldn’t have done it without you.

 

Amber Davies (CUPS president)