Guest Post: Midleton AC do their bit for charity with unusual running initiative... by John Walshe

 

Amanda Cooney, representing Marymount University Hospital & Hospice, accepting a cheque for £2000 from Declan Dorgan (vice-captain) and Marc Dalton (captain) of Midleton AC. Picture: John Walshe

WITH no athletics competitions taking place at present, an unusual initiative for the month of November by the senior members of Midleton Athletic Club has seen Marymount University Hospital & Hospice benefit to the tune of £2,000.

Held over the month of November and called the ‘MOVE-MBER Challenge’, the background of how it came about is explained by club captain, Marc Dalton.

“The club committee held a meeting in late October to come up with a unique plan to get our members out running while stuck in lockdown as because of the restrictions they could not train together or attend training sessions.

"The club always likes to support charities through race takings and always encourages its members to get involved in such campaigns.

“We thought with very little outgoings this year that we would be in a position to help out at least one charity.

"We asked all participants to vote on their chosen charity, and the one chosen by the members was Marymount Hospice.

"It’s very well known and most people in Cork would have some connection to the hospice and the great work they do in providing respite care.”

One thing that every runner talks about is how many miles a week they run, so the challenge was simple – just go out and run as many miles as possible and log it at the end of each week.

As well, weekly tallies were shared on social media platforms to keep all participants motivated throughout.

“The plan was to motivate our runners with a challenge to run a target of 5000 miles for the 30 days of November and we called it MOVE-MBER,” added Marc.

“For the initial goal of every 1000 miles achieved, the club would donate €250 to the chosen charity with the overall target of 5000 miles, if this 5000 target was reached we agreed to allocate a set amount of €2,000.”

A list of previous guest posts from John Walshe can be seen HERE