30 October 2007

Fred finishes Venice marathon

Fred writes 30 minutes ago - Had an excellent and very successful weekend in Venice. Returned late last night, Monday. I managed to do 3 hours 20 minutes including a toilet stop in the marathon, (but that doesn't count). I was very pleased with my run taking into account how disrupted my training had been with the broken clavicle. We had very conducive weather on the day, 17 C, no wind and clear skies for most of the morning. Having had the injury, I felt that all I wanted to do was to make sure that I finished. So I felt fairly relaxed at the start of the race, and I decided to get to half way and see how I felt at that stage. I managed to increase my pace from around 14miles, and the lack of preparation only really told in the last couple of miles where I did start to flag slightly. The course was spectacular, particularly in the last few miles, but you tend not to notice too much by that stage. I spent the rest of the weekend doing the usual sightseeing. So I thoroughly enjoyed it. More money will be on it's way soon as my sister is collecting for me also in her home area. I will press for more donors also in the next couple of weeks, so hopefully we shall have a good total.

David - we have had a good deal of sponsorship, mostly following receipt of our 8th newsletter. We need to gather in as much money as possible for Fred's marathon because the parents and children of Gaza have never suffered so much.

We will be announcing another important initiative shortly. Thank you Fred, and thank you all. Photo of Fred shortly.

Picture - February 2003 Ruins in Rafah, Gaza. You can count the shell holes but not the thousands of cannon and rifle pock marks.