Dominic

Duathlon for Parkinson's disease

Tired but grateful

21/10/2015

Hooray, it’s over! I completed my Parkinson’s Challenge on Sunday and am very pleased with myself. Following my injury last month (which stopped me from doing my chosen event in London’s Richmond Park), I signed up to another duathlon, this time in Kent. Only this time, the runs were cross country and not on the roads! So I ended up running up and down 15km of hills in the slippery grass/mud – and it was massively more difficult than I imagined! Add in a 40km bike ride in the middle and I think I earned my supporters’ money :-)

In the end, I came 30^th out of 60 competitors so I am very content with my efforts and ability.

I must now say a final and huge 'thank you' to all my wonderful friends and family for digging deep into their pockets to support people with Parkinson’s. I am deeply grateful and humble that they wanted to support me like they did. So far (the money keeps coming!) I have raised about 2,100 euros, which is simply brilliant. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I woke up the next day barely able to walk – but every ounce of discomfort and pain was worth it. And, importantly, it’s simply nothing compared to what people with Parkinson’s and their families go through every day of their lives. I hope my contribution will go a small way towards improving things for them. Thanks again to everyone!

Duathlon Challenge is done!

19/10/2015

Parkinson's Europe is happy to announce that our bold Dominic has successfully completed his Duathlon challenge yesterday 18th October achieving a very good rank. He is satisfied - though tired - and all the other Challengers are proud of him.

More updates and pictures to come soon!

Thanks so much to everyone who donated to sponsor Dominic's challenge!

Good news and bad news

05/10/2015

Hello, everyone! Good news and bad news from me at this point. Here's the bad news: I was supposed to have completed my duathlon challenge on 20 September. Sadly I pulled up injured (with a pulled calf muscle) a few days before in Tokyo on a work trip.

As you can see from the picture, I was training hard while working/on holiday in Tokyo when my right calf just gave up. I was so worried that I was letting my kind sponsors down that I immediately signed up for another duathlon on 18 October, even though I didn't know whether I would be fit or not! Fortunately, I have been having weekly massages since and have started running again.

I have essentially lost a couple of weeks of training but I hope I have enough time to get back to speed. The good news is that I am still aiming to complete the challenge in less than 2 hours and 35 minutes! Keep your fingers crossed nothing else gets in my way – this was my third (and worst) injury in a month! Surely I can't have any more bad luck?!

Thanks so much for all my last-minute sponsors! I am now over €2,000, and I am so grateful to everyone who has supported me. I hope I can do my sponsors and people with Parkinson's and their families proud on 18 October. Not long to go now! Yikes!

Click here to sponsor me!

Big day is near!

02/09/2015

Eek! My challenge is now less than two weeks away and the nerves are really beginning to settle in! I’m pretty confident I’ll complete the duathlon, but I’m terrified of the extra press-up challenge I just threw in for ‘fun’! What made me offer to do 100 extra press-ups after 15km of running and 40km of cycling?! What an idiot! :-) I’ll do my best with the press-ups but no promises I’ll hit 100!

I’ve recently been on holiday in hilly Wales (cycling) and then in Italy, where I went for a few runs in the hot mountains, so I can’t wait for the cooler weather and flatter terrain in London! Phew!

I’m close to hitting my donation target too, which has made all the training worthwhile. All my friends’ and family’s generosity will really kick in when I’m close to that finishing line. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported me, I promise I won’t let you down!

If anyone would like to boost my donations further, please do – visit my BetterNow page. Thank you one and all for your kind support – I am extremely grateful.

Here are a few pics of my cycling progress (I'm the short one!) – as you can see, there was plenty of reward for our efforts! No pics of running in Italy, sadly (or of my press-up 'progress'!), but I'll get some more for the next update!

Click here to sponsor me!

I woke up the next day barely able to walk – but every ounce of discomfort and pain was worth it.

Doing this challenge for people with Parkinson's has really made me keen to train hard. It would have been easy to have taken things easy otherwise ... but I'm desperate to hit my 2-hour-35-minute duathlon target to repay the faith of my friends.