It all started with 5K

The charity TASTE began with the aim of providing water for a village in Nigeria where the people had to travel 5K every day to get their water.  The people reached by the work of TASTE has expanded beyond that initial aim.  I'm trying to get support from my running sponsors to help fund a TASTE project to get water to the inhabitants of 7 different villages.

TASTE started off this project by drilling a borehole in the village of Kadarko. They needed some water to lubricate the drill which was drilling the borehole. The people from neighbouring villages were so desperate for water that they even came and started to collect the muddy water used for drilling.  This really illustrates the desperate need in the area.  The picture below shows them collecting that muddy water.

My running story also started with a 5K distance.  I did a bit of running in my younger days, mostly as part of the school cross-country team, but I haven't really done much in the decades since.  My re-introduction into running started about a year ago with a Saturday morning run at the Abingdon Parkrun.  Parkrun is a weekly timed 5K run, which happens in towns and cities around the country.  

I struggled round my first Parkrun that day in a time in excess of 29 minutes.  It wasn't long before my times started to improve and I really started to enjoy that weekly run. I've completed 24 Parkruns and managed to improve my personal best to a respectable 20:48 even managing 1 top ten finish.  I would really recommend going along to your local Parkrun and try it out.  I walked round part of my first run, so no need to run it all.

The enjoyment I gained inspired me to try a more challenging run.  When the opportunity to run in the World Half Marathon at Cardiff presented itself, I jumped at the chance.

During my training I've managed to run the complete distance of a half marathon once in 1 hr 39 minutes, so I'm sure I'll be able to do it on the day.  Only a few day to go now.

Please support my run and the wonderful TASTE charity by sponsoring me on my JustGiving page. I'm still over £300 short of my £1000 target so your sponsorship is still needed. https://www.justgiving.com/Peter-Akrill