Jog on

Posted by: Gavriel Hollander

09/12/2011

It’s midnight on 30 November. And, as I have done on this date for the past few years, I’ve just done a little jig of delight.

Why? Because the hateful spectacle that is Movember is finally behind us.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against people donating money to the fight against prostate cancer. I am, after all, not a monster.

No, what really grinds my gears is the idea that I should give money to grown men for the ability to produce facial hair. To a hardened cynic like me, it’s symbolic of the something for nothing culture that has allowed the likes of Kim Kardashian and the cast of Made in Chelsea to become more famous than Tim Berners-Lee (look him up).

If you want a challenge, I say, do something difficult. That’s why I, along with my fellow masochist on the Inside Housing news desk Nick Duxbury, am running the London Marathon next April in aid of housing charity HACT.

I accept that to some people – Paula Radcliffe, Eddie Izzard, Forrest Gump – running a marathon is no great shakes. But, presumably, all those people enjoy running.

I don’t enjoy running. In fact, it’s fair to say that I hate running. For one, it’s almost mind-numbingly boring. Secondly, I look like an idiot when I try doing it. And, above all, doing it for an extended period of time takes a degree of dedication, discipline and single-mindedness that is beyond the grasp of a humble hack such as me.

So it was that, a couple of weekends ago, I reluctantly pulled on my Sergio Tacchini trackie bottoms, set Eye of the Tiger to play on an endless loop on my iPod and set off on a miserable trudge up and down the Regents Canal, wistfully eyeing my favourite watering holes on the way.

Suffice to say, I am not a bright-eyed convert to the latter day church of physical perfection.

But don’t get me wrong; I’m trying to embrace my new lycra-clad self. I have even joined a Saturday morning running club, along with my mate Anjay - an architect who’s running for Notting Hill Housing Trust – and I’ve worked out that, if you add up all my training runs so far, I’m nearly at full marathon distance. And it’s only taken the best part of a month.

So, having cracked the running part of this gig (Come on Paula – it’s really not that hard), all I’ve got to do now is raise a bit of cash.

That’s where you, dear reader, come in…

HACT was set up to help improve the lives of those in marginalised communities. It is a charity whose raison d’etre is at the heart of what our sector should be about. They do incredible work up and down the country, which Nick and I will be highlighting in our weekly blogs. For readers of Inside Housing, there can surely be no worthier cause.

If you don’t want to sponsor me or Nick (we may have written something nasty about you in the past – sorry), there are 10 hardier souls who will be battling the wind and rain over the next 5 months to line up in Greenwich Park next April for HACT.

And, I can only hope, not a single novelty tache between them.