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!