Bead Barmy

Bead Barmy follower Steve Smith will be running the London Marathon on 25th April 2010. Follow his progress here! 

Sterling Effort!

We are always interested to know when any of our Bead Barmy followers or Beads Unlimited customers do something out of the ordinary even if it’s not bead related! This is especially true when it’s for a good cause and involves sterling effort. Steve Smith contacted us recently to let us know he is running in the 2010 London Marathon. We had sponsored both him and his wife Heather back in 2003 when they were running to support Spinal Research. This year, he is going it alone as Heather has a hip injury.

Steve will be running in aid of Diabetes UK. He has a particular interest in this particular charity as both his Mother and Father suffered from Type 2 Diabetes. We believe that this is a worthy cause and, frankly, rather him than us when it comes to running! So the least we can do is make a donation and broadcast his endeavours to a wider audience.

Keep On Running

Steve gave us a rundown of his training so far:

The miles are building up now, as are the days of training – 5 days a week. Being self employed I’m able to run at times when many others are at work. It just means I have to work later in the evening but it’s still a big commitment as the very long runs can take up to three and a half hours. Last Thursday Pauline, my training partner, and I did 15 miles and tomorrow we have a 16 mile run planned.

For both of us it will be our eighth marathon (not all in London). Our finishing times are similar, however, Pauline will be sixty at the time of the race (unfortunately I’m not that far behind) and she gets a ‘good for age’ place in view of her sub-4 hour time. I’ve had an excellent response to my email. The donations do help and I try to remember them when running the race especially when the going gets tough around miles 1- 26! No seriously, around miles 19-20.

Bead Barmy Steve Goes The Extra Mile

Steve runs countrywide

Steve doesn’t restrict himself to the London Marathon, he runs countrywide. The left hand photo in the insert shows him on the 2008 Great North Run which he’s done seven times! The next picture is from a local 10 mile race in Thornborough where he came second in his age category. The last two are from the 2007 London Marathon.

We wonder where Steve finds the time and energy. Does he have extra hours in his day? On top of all this running around he is also part of a long established family business. Winslow Bobbins has been in existence for thirty seven years making and supplying bobbins to lacemakers all over the world. We took a look at their website and were thrilled by The History of Winslow Bobbins. It’s fantastic to read about traditional skills being kept alive and so successfully!

The Race Is On!

The London Marathon takes place on Sunday 25th April 2010 at 9am. Steve’s running number is 6975. He says that he doubts we’ll be able to pick him out on TV as he won’t be anywhere near the front. We’re still going to be watching and cheering him on from the comfort of our armchairs even if we can’t actually spot him!

As some of you may know, Beads Unlimited’s retail outlet, The Brighton Bead Shop give 10% of their takings to a chosen charity on the last Saturday of every month. On Saturday April 24th the charity will be for Diabetes UK to tie in with Steve’s run.

If you would like to take a look, Steve has his own web page with regular updates on his training and a place to make donations.

We wish Steve the best of luck and will keep you updated with his progress on this post.

The Diabetes UK registered charity number is 215199.

Posted by: BeadsUnlimited