It's been madder than a sack of squirrels this week in events!

Jo came back from her holiday come recce in Cambodia and we've literally snapped up the Ultimate Travel Company for a trek in the beautiful country next Autumn. Dates for your diaries everyone, Cambodia Trek 3-11 October 2011.



Mums on the run also has come up a beaut, with 15 mums already signed up to run the Bupa London 10000 in May. Adverts have been circulating and postcards will soon be hitting London at doctors, nurseries, dentists, hospitals, you name it in the next week or two so if you want a place in the best 10K run in town then secure your place soon before they all fly off the shelves!
Three Cities Tour has also gone live this week. The website is looking great and we've already had a lot of interest in the new bike tour for 2011 - could this rival the new 6th route for L2P? Watch this space for hot news hitting a weekly near you soon.


and we're happy to announce that the brand new UK challenge Three Peaks Bike and Hike now has 24 teams signed up to hit the Yorkshire Dales this May. There is still space for an Action team so if you fancy joining Kerry for this challenge get your names in quick.


and the fun doesnt stop this week, we thought we couldnt beat the great news that Suzy is moving to a lovely new house, Gem passed her driving test and became an aunty all on the same day, Fin Raziel's new ep is launching and Ols managed to stay in the pub until a record time of 8pm, but seriously next week is going to get off to a cracking start....


Wear you Wellies is getting a face lift! Next wednesday we'll be filming a short video for the website so if you fancy getting your pretty faces on t'internet then just bring your boots in for some seriously fun welly wanging wickedness!

Great North Run - Get 'em while they're hot!

This week we are mostly celebrating the surge of registrations for the Great North Run taking our Action running team to a whopping 94 runners! we have 135 spaces and they are going like hot cakes.. we're already 59 registrations ahead of this time last year so if you know anyone that would like to join the team then do get them to contact us ASAP - when they're gone, they're gone.

Infact as I typed this we had another 2!  96 Action runners and counting!



We are also really looking forward to the lovely Jo coming back from her holiday on Monday! (especially if there are presents)  We've missed you Jo.

This week we've been settling in nicely to our new home and giving everyone a cribs style tour of the new pad... We're also really happy to have our new team member Lizzy with us too, she's been getting right into the swing of things with "ranting thursdays" and "lets eat cake fridays" but has so far managed to avoid most of the temptation and made me realise just how much cake we get through on a weekly basis! We'll wear her down soon enough.




Big news of the week is the Virgin London Marathon ballot is CLOSED! Suzy has given out the last few golden bond places and we now have 81 confirmed golden bond runners and a fantastic 8 own place runners joining us in the worlds greatest marathon in April. We're still after some lovely volunteers to help us cheer on the runners on the day, if you have a free couple of hours on Sunday 25th April, do join us on one of the 4 cheering party spots and help us whoop, cheer and hand out those much needed jelly babies!



and if you dont already know we're a man (or woman) down on the day already as I will be running it this year with my dad (aaah) if you fancy parting with some of your hard earned cash for a great cause then you can sponsor us at www.action.org.uk/sponsor/davidandgemma thanks to all who have sponsored us so far. my sister also made us a really funny link which will be hitting facebook and other websites soon - check it out http://www.gtpi.co.uk/nonweb/marathon/



but enough about me! Matty is also hitting the social media hard this week as team Action Allstars are in the running for a place in the Drambuie Challenge. We have to get into the top five teams on the voting board to get a place in the challenge and the top team voted in get an amazing £2,500 donated to their charity! There is no reason why you shouldnt be voting people - your Action Allstars need you! make sure your friends and family vote too by forwarding on this link http://www.drambuie.co.uk/teams/266



Ols is also after your help too this week. The Active Bike and Triathlon show runs from 21 - 24 April and we're looking for some volunteers to help man the stand. We are also looking for one special person to come down on the Saturday afternoon (24th) to take down the stand and bring it back to VH HQ as Ols will be in Green Park helping with the marathon that afternoon. Just give us a shout if you can lend a hand - and we'll do we what do best in return; give you cake!



and that is about it for another week.. Lizzy really meant it this morning when she said "I dont want to talk about it" so news on BYB and Wellies to Work will come to you another time.

It's looking all Wright for our new 2010 Action Challenge

and that's because we have the lovely Ian Wright backing it!!  I can't give you too many details at the moment but watch this space for a fantastic brand new challenge that will be a first for the UK!

and while we're leading the way in UK challenge events we thought a little bit of leadership training wouldn't go amis, so next friday and saturday the team are off to the Defence Medical Services Training Centre at Keogh Barracks for some serious training from the best of the best; Sergeant Phil Farringdon! 

Lets hope the evid bug that has infected the team for 2 weeks now will have cleared off by then, I'm thinking of moving desks.  Matt and Suzy have me in a corner and there truely is no escape from what they push in my direction - colds, coughs, flu and sometimes the odd cupcake which is nice.  But non of which are helping in my marathon training!

I was hoping to be up to about 4/5 miles by now but have spent most of this week under a duvet sipping lemsip so fingers crossed I'll be back on the road soon.

and on the subject of running, Great North Run and Great South Run have officially opened registrations this week which is fantastic news!  we already have a huge number of runners for the Action Team next year but we're always looking for more so do go to our website for more information on how to sign up! http://www.action.org.uk/event_type/running

and that's about it for this week.  See you next time for updates on how our Army training went and what the lovely Ian Wright is saying about Action Medical Research.

Events comes with a hazard warning this week.

If you havent witnessed the coughing and spluttering coming from the area around Matt and Suzy this week then try to keep it that way - we're diseased!!

 

But soldiering on as ever we have had a great week when it comes to what we do best - Events.

 

L2P registrations are still coming in thick and fast and we've been chatting to our new signups this week to welcome them onto the ride.  We've had the lovely Andy Dewhurst in this week to talk all things Badger , and registration will be open next week for the Giro Toscano. Gemma has been putting the finishing touches on the brochure with the lovely Grant and James working on the webpage so we're pretty much set to get all those lovely badgers signed up for the trip in May.

 

Also, the guys at Global Adventure Challenges have been working their socks off to get the brochure and adverts created for the Trek for Tiny Lives China challenge next November.  Mailings will be sent out around the country any day now and we've already had huge interest in the trip so it's hopefully not going to be long until we're welcoming all those lovely trekkers to the charity.

 

So really, to summarise this week, the wait for the official china and badgers launch is finally over and we're expecting a surge of registrations to finish off the year in style, but whatever you do - stay well clear from us -  we are contaminated and we will make you sick.

This week's weekly news brought to you by Gemma Rooke

Oly tells me this morning that we now have 430 participants for London to Paris!!  which means we are definitely going to hit the magic 500 mark by the end of the month, which means I can officially give it a whoop whoop!

 

and there is more excitement in the cycling department..  Heineken are on the verge of sponsoring our brand new cycle event for 2011, the Three Cities Tour, and Oly has been in discussion with our favourite boys from the US writing up a proposal and aiming to seal the deal by christmas.  The Three Cities Tour will be taking in London, Amsterdam and Brussels and we're hoping a tour of the Heineken factory in Amsterdam will be on the cards, which could even be a bigger selling point than the beer festival which will be on in Brussels when we get there...  we are already fighting over who gets to go on the trip and of course this is not because of said festival, oh no, we just love cycling that much!

 

Oly and Matt are over at the Emirates stadium today hoping to have a go at (some of) the new Stadium Climb event to get an idea of exactly how many steps there are in the challenge and how the participants are going to feel on the day, which I can now tell you will be the 4th July 2010, so put it in your diaries and watch this space for the official staff launch, with prizes to win, coming to a weekly near you...  soon.

 

and you wouldnt think there is anything that could match this in just one week.  But you'd be wrong.  take a seat everyone, it's official, I am running the Virgin London Marathon on the 25th April!!  I'll be running with my lovely dad (aaaah) and we're going to be raising £3500 for our favourite charity Action Medical Research. I wont pester you too much for sponsorship, but we do have a page set up http://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/davidandgemma so if you're feeling generous please go and make a donation.  If you're not, then dont bother, I only want to see big donations in there! (kidding) and dont forget to tick the Gift Aid box.

 

the penultimate news piece this week comes from the lovely Suzy who has secured a stand at the London Boat Show in January.  It's running from 8th - 17th and we'd love for anyone who has some time to spare to come along and give us a hand promoting Sail the Solent 2010.  It's a great opportunity to oggle some rather beautiful boats, and will be a good excuse to get out the house rather than sitting under a blanket watching that carry on film you'd rather not be watching and wishing it was warmer outside.

 

and so last but certainly not least - from all the Events team

 

THANK YOU GRANT AND JAMES! 

 

Thank you very much for being webmaster superstars and getting all of our events on to the website this week.  We now have beautiful landing pages for; Dunsfold, Three Peaks, Race the Sun, Three Peaks Bike and Hike and Sail the Solent.

 

we heart you grant and james 

 

see all our new events on the website http://www.action.org.uk/get_involved

 

Gemma starts her marathon training...

Well, I thought with only 24 weeks until marathon day I had better get cracking! 

 

Week one started pretty well, I ran 3 miles on Monday but only 1.5 miles on tuesday, last night I had a girly night in Balham scheduled in so the trainers were left at home and the water bottle replaced with a glass of wine!  I think I'm going to have to cut down on the alcohol intake as it's made me not want to run today, but it's crack the whip time with myself and I WILL run tonight - I have to because Jo has forced me to eat 2 toffee pops with my tea this afternoon..

 

watch out for more updates next time on Gemma's marathon blog!