Pip's Washington DC Marathon-Shifa Health Clinic

The time has come to hang up my marathon shoes and I can't think of a better way to do it than to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC in aid of the Shifa Free Health Clinic which provides health and community support to people who are 200% below the poverty line and do not have health insurance.

When I started volunteering at Shifa a women came in with advanced breast cancer. She had not gone to a doctor as she was too concerned about what it may cost her. Little did I know that many years later I would be diagnosed with breast cancer and undergo treatment and surgery. The contrast between my experience and the lady I encountered could not have been more stark.

Shifa provides a vital health service to all ages, provides a food pantry to those in need, outreach programmes and school supplies to kids at the beginning of the new school year. Any money I raise I will give to the Clinic.

For those who want to learn more - https://www.icnarelief.org/shifaclinics/

Mick and I ran our first marathon in 2003 - the London Marathon - our first kiddie was 17 months old and I had only started running in 2000. It was hard.

In 2013 we had moved to America and once again I roped Mick into running the New York marathon which he duly agreed to and after not running for 1 month due to an injury we got round together!

We had joked in 2013 that we would run a marathon every 10 years. So it had to be done! Foolishly I signed us up for the Marine Corps Marathon in 2023 - a fabulous route which takes you past all the great monuments of Washington DC and is supposed to have amazing crowd support which I hoped would get us round.

This has been the most difficult event I have had to train for. In truth, my body is not what it was and I have enjoyed very little of the training and will be relieved to go back to my shorter runs and never run another marathon. Mick picked up an injury 3 weeks ago so won't be able to run but he deserves a medal for running all the training runs together and once again signing up to my harebrained ideas.

The marathon will be long and I am sure messy but I am hoping to get round. Thank you for any donation you wish to give which will go towards a life changing cause.