St Giles Photographer Runs For Charity

David Rose has worked with St Giles for 11 years and he is responsible for producing many of the images of our schools and students, on our website and in our brochures. This summer, he was in North America visiting our adult schools and Junior summer centres. Earlier this year, St Giles International sponsored David as he took part in the infamous London Marathon. Now recovered from the event, David talks to us about his charitable motivations to take part in this physically demanding challenge, and tells of his experience during the race.

What made you decide to run the London Marathon?

Running the London Marathon was always an ambition and I decided that I needed to get fit, and the only way to stick to a routine was to set myself a big goal, eg, run a marathon. But having not even run a 5k before, I set the bar a bit high!

How did you train for the event?

I started running just short distances to begin with, gradually building up. I followed a detailed training programme after Christmas right up to race day, a total of 7 months training.(I covered more than 400 miles during training!)

How long did it take you to complete the marathon, and did you hit ‘the wall’?

Amazingly I completed the marathon in 4 hours 36 minutes and managed not to stop at all. My pace was consistent throughout, and I made sure I took on plenty of water which helped me loads. Although the last few miles were tough, thanks to my training I didn’t actually have a “wall” moment, but witnessed plenty of other people who did.

Tell us about the charity you raised money for.

I decided to raise money for a lesser known charity called Phab Kids www.phabkids.co.uk. They have been around for almost 60 years, helping physically disabled as well as able bodied, disadvantaged children across the UK. They run many fun but challenging residential projects at accessible outdoor activity centres across the country.

What was your total amount raised?

With the support of St Giles and many more generous donations, my final total was £2,011 which was more than I expected to raise.