Ben takes on the Birmingham Half Marathon

“I wanted to help make a difference” – Ben takes on the Birmingham Half Marathon

Ben Wright is running the Birmingham Half Marathon for Acorns, a local charity with an inspiring purpose. For this blog, he chatted to us about his reasons for doing it, his journey so far and his determination to do the charity proud.

Acorns is a local Birmingham charity that provides care, support, fun and laughter for Children with life limiting or life threatening conditions and their families.

The children and young people that they help are not expected to reach adulthood and require specialist care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As you can imagine, the cost involved to enable this is extremely high. Ben chose Acorns because he wanted to help make a difference to families in need of this care and support in the local area. In the last year, Acorns has supported 876 children and 1,097 families, including those who are bereaved. This wouldn’t  have been possible without people like Ben, who take time out of their busy lives to help support such an important cause.

Ben has been working incredibly hard, training 6 days a week. He has devised a thirteen-week training plan, running a staggering forty miles per week. He doesn’t intend to take it easy on himself either. Ben is in tough competition with himself, and is aiming to beat an already impressive personal best of 1hr and 27 minutes.

To help him achieve his new personal best, Ben plans to drink plenty of water the day before, to make sure he is fully hydrated. He will also consume lots of protein to help his muscles repair post-event. But that’s not all; he plans to go on a steady 3-mile run to stay loose, ready for the big day – no rest for the wicked!

When it comes to the main event, Ben’s not leaving anything to chance. He’s treating himself to a breakfast of champions in the form of trusty oats and an energising banana for long lasting energy to see him through the race.

If you feel inspired by Ben and want to support Acorns by taking part in one of their events, you can read more here. You can also wish Ben well and sponsor him right now over on his JustGiving page.

Good luck Ben!