This past Sunday, the 10th of May, four Gibe Team members including myself tackled the challenge that is the Great Bristol Run, with the goal of raising money and awareness with the charity that Gibe partnered with this year, Suicide Prevention UK (SPUK). 

Darren, Luke H and Michael took on the challenging 10k, and I attempted to tackle the half marathon.

This was my second year taking on the half marathon, the previous year some of the Gibe team took part to raise money and awareness for the Alfie Nick Foundation. 

My experience 

The day started earlier than I’m used to, but woke up excited and tried to have a good breakfast to keep me going. I trained a lot in the past few months and had a gait analysis to help get me in the perfect shoes, but still had some nerves as I did not have a good time last year!

I got to the start, so many people, I couldn’t even see the start line! I had heard that 23,000 people had signed up across the 10k and the half marathon this year. 

Started a bit slower than I wanted because of the crowds and tight corners, but stayed consistent and tried not to waste any energy.

Once I got to the second half on the Portway, I could really put the pedal to the metal, that in combination with a lot of training and ideal weather conditions meant I was able to cut off over 30 minutes from last year and set a new impressive PB of 1:45:57.

I felt proud of the new PB but also to run with SPUKs number plastered on my back!

I've already got my early bird ticket ready for next year!

Darren's Day

This year the run was more difficult than I had anticipated, but still great fun. I had forgotten to start my running app on my watch so had no reference for how long I had been running so I was a little frustrated to see I passed the line at 1:00:37 as I definitely could have cut down those last seconds.

Running with my brother Jason was fun, but I could tell my new running shoes were going to cause an issue and at 2km in I told him to run on. He managed 00:51:12 and now he is adamant to get sub 50 minutes next year.

Luke & Lunas Run

Conditions were very good this year which I feel were certainly reflected in my time. Managed to hit 53:18. A little way off my PB (over a decade ago to be fair) but 20+ minutes improvement from last year. As always the atmosphere and support was incredible. Even had my own little mascot Luna show up at various stages of the course who was desperate to join in. She made a very good medal model though.

Michael's Mission

Wow, what a day! I may have let the occasion get to me a little and started the race a little too fast, which made it really hard to pace myself and felt myself flagging towards the end. However the Bristol crowd were incredible as always with shouts of "Come on Michael!" throughout - I must have looked like I needed it!

Their support alongside the fact that I was not only running for myself, but to raise awareness for Suicide Prevention UK gave me that push I needed to keep going and make it to the finish, where the complimentary (non-alcoholic) beer was very well received!

Great job to everyone involved, I'm thrilled to be a part of an amazing cause and raise money that will do good for people who are in need of it most.

In summary, we all had a good time, felt very proud of our achievements and succeeded in our mission of trying to raise money and awareness for Suicide Prevention UK. 

We all sound eager and ready to go again next year!

In total so far this year we have raised £1065 towards our year long goal of £2000.

If you would like to support or just keep up to date with what we will do next, follow our Just Giving Page.