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

H2O Home to Origin

I'm really excited to be running the IAAF World Half Marathon in my home city of Cardiff, the city where I was born and then lived for 25 years. It will be very poignant to see many of the sites and landmarks I knew as a boy, as I'm taking part in such a great event. This is particularly the case for the run around Roath Park lake towards the end of the half marathon course, a place where I loved to go, and the finish outside the university where I studied for three years. It will also be amazing to run past many of the new things that have appeared in the city since I left, like the Principality stadium, the Cardiff Bay barrage and the Wales Millenium Centre

Home is where the heart is - a quote attributed to Pliny the Elder certainly rings true for many.  It is perhaps this love for home which resulted in the formation of TASTE, the charity I'm running to support. TASTE was conceived and by a friend of mine, Ben Udejiofo. Although Ben has lived in the UK for most of his life, he originates from a village of 40,000 people called Amankpunato Achi in Nigeria. The residents have a 5km round trip to their nearest drinking water supply. This desperate need and the love of his homeland inspired Ben to do something about it. TASTE was born.


Please visit my JustGiving page to sponsor me as I run the streets of my home town to support the efforts of TASTE to bring much needed water to Ben's homeland.

Fundraising Update

Latest total - £525, 52% of target

Training Update from the last week

Monday - Easy Run 9.3km, 46 mins

Tuesday - Tempo Run 5.9km, 25 mins

Thursday - X-trainer 50mins

Friday - Intervals 40 mins

Saturday - Long Run 10km, 46 mins

It's All About Water

In researching training plans for my half marathon run, the important part that water plays in training has become apparent. Around 60% of the human body is water and about a litre and hour is lost through exercise.

Maintain hydration levels is important to make sure that training performance is kept up. The recommendation is to drink at least 500ml of water about 4 hours before exercise and than about half as much again about 10 minutes before exercise.

We very much take for granted that we can get hold of drinking water so easily to be able to follow this advice.  Just a turn of the tap and our hydration is maintained.

It's nowhere near as straightforward as this for the residents in the villages that TASTE are looking to support.  I am looking for you all to sponsor my half marathon attempt in aid of TASTE.  The villagers have to trek to local ponds to get the water they need to drink, and they're usually also washing their clothes in the ponds too.

A lot of the burden of this water collection falls on the women and children of the villages. This one-legged woman from the village of  Wadata Arewa is on her way to the water source to wash her family's clothes.

Your ongoing support and encouragement really helps me to get through the training, particularly on my long run days.  The latest one was a 13km run and the encouragement from the recent sponsorship money given really helped me through the difficult last 5 km.

You can sponsor me at my JustGiving page www.justgiving.com/Peter-Akrill

Fundraising Update

Latest total - £230, 23% of target

Training Update from the last week

Monday - Easy Run 8.2km, 48 mins

Tuesday - Tempo Run 5.7km, 25 mins

Thursday - X-trainer 50mins

Friday - Intervals 40 mins

Saturday - Long Run 13km, 59 mins

Two Different Challenges

It's 30 years since I last ran a half marathon. That was in Cardiff too. As a 15 year-old I completed the Pentwyn and Llanedeyrn Half Marathon in 1 hour and 53 minutes. My aim is to finish the IAAF Cardiff World Half Marathon 2016 faster than I did 30 years ago.

To help motivate me to get through my training as I pound the streets of Abingdon, please sponsor me. All the money raised will be going to TASTE. They provided much needed funding and expertise to get water to remote villages in Nigeria where no fresh water is available.

The current project that TASTE are working on has so far provided a borehole in Kadarko in Plateau State, Nigeria. The area around Kadarko has several other villages that remain many kilometers away from water, which is often in the form of a pond. The picture shows what's involved in this daily trek for water, sometimes over many kilometres.

The cost to provide a borehole, two latrines and hygiene education is about £6,000 for each village (and there are 8 villages they hope to reach). This is a major undertaking for a small charity, so your sponsorship support will be very worthwhile and appreciated.

So, running the 21.1 km is a small challenge in comparison to the funds that need to be raised. You can sponsor me on my JustGiving page.

Please subscribe to my blog below to keep my motivation up and for updates on my fundraising, more information about what TASTE are doing and training updates too.