What Cat Did | Money Fit Challenge

If you follow me on Twitter on Instagram (if not, you totally should) you might know that I had been training for the GiffGaff Money Fit Challenge: a 5k charity fun run at Shoreditch Park on the 22nd July. Well, I participated in the run not only for fun but to fulfill a goal and a chance to win money for my chosen charity. I got a good chance to and it might have had something to do with a rodeo pig... Carry on reading if you want to find out more about that!

Before this, I'd never done a 5k run but I'd always wanted to do a run of some sort. If I'm not mistaken 5ks are the shortest runs you can participate in and I thought that would be a good start, especially as my usual runs when I workout are about 3.5k. I wanted to do this run not only to accomplish the goal of having completed a 5k, but to help myself in the journey to getting fitter and raise some money for my chosen charity: The Happy Staffie Rescue.

On the day, the run consisted of 4 laps around Shoreditch park and a inflatable obstacle part way through the course. At the end of the race there was the chance to take part in a random challenge where you would get on a rodeo pig and try to stay on it for as long as possible. The top 3 people would win a nice amount of money towards their chosen charity. I wanted to make sure I raised something for my charity and so set up a Just Giving page along side it and asked for support on both Facebook and Twitter. I raised a lovely £55 for The Happy Staffie Rescue and though its no £1000 top prize, it was still something. A little goes a long way right?

 The race was first thing in the morning about 10am. Ana came along to run with me. She was running for Crisis UK, a charity close to her heart. We ran together and supported each other along the way and had a nice warm up first to get us prepared and warm up our muscles. After that we were ready to start and began by tackling the obstacle course in the first stretch of our run! The obstacle course made the run so much more fun and interesting. Here's a few snapshots from the run... Excuse my weird face.

I personally found the run challenging. I initially felt a little gutted at my time too because I'd tested myself the week before by doing 5k around my local park completing it in a shorter time than I expected. I was feeling confident about the race but then I fell ill the weekend before with food poisoning and I'd got a little cough so I wasn't 100% on the day. Even though my time wasn't the best I got over it quickly and was just happy I'd completed the run. I enjoyed the challenge, the obstacle course and running with my best friend. It did although motivate me to apply for another run at some point and beat my personal best as well as motivating me to get fitter and build up my endurance.

We both ran the race in 33 minutes and 15 seconds holding hands as we crossed the finishing line. It was a great feeling to end the race and we got given medals to congratulate us too as well as a little goody bag we raided when we sat down to catch out breath.

Things weren't over after the race though... We had the challenge after where we'd have 8 people picked at random to participate in the chance to win money for your charity. I happened to be the first person picked... I didn't know how to react because I was so tired and I knew I'd fall off quick, but I gave it a go anyway because it was for charity, I wanted to win some money and at least try! Here's some hillarious pictures of those 6 seconds I lasted on the rodeo pig...!!! It was really hard okay!?

Anyway, I didn't win any money unfortunately but at least I went for it! Looking back at these pictures, I had fun on there. 6 seconds of pig bucking fun. Congrats to the winners though!  Troopers who lasted well over 20 seconds on the thing winning money for their charities.

Full credit to Luke Todd at 'The Race Organisers' for all the photos in this post.

It was a great morning overall and I had lots of fun. I'm also glad to have raised even just £55 for my charity by participating in the run and hope that next time I do a run I can raise more. Have you ever done a 5k run? Share with me your fitness related achievements! I love reading your success stories - they motivate me to be fitter and healthier just like you!