May '10 Brighton Marathon completed within my target time of 4 hours, finishing in 3hrs 47 mins which I was happy with for my first road race.
April '10 Jurassic Coast Challenge (80 miles)completed successfully and pretty much injury free! Report to follow soon.
March '10 Deposit fully paid up and place confirmed for this years Jungle Marathon. 220km through the Amazon rainforest in Brazil this October. There will be much more info to come on this one, in fact I think it even warrants it's own page to describe all the things that are waiting to bite, cut, sting and eat me!! This will be by far the toughest race to date. http://www.junglemarathon.com
March '10 2 weeks to go until the next race! The 'Jurassic Coast Challenge' - 80 miles along the South West coast path. Lot's and lot's of hills apparently, nice! Race starts on the 26th March.
Feb '10 Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in the ballot for a place in this years' Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. We do get a priority place for next year though and I'm sure I'll find a substitute race to replace it this year!
To make me feel better I have just booked a place in this years' Jurassic Coast Challenge. 80 miles over three days along the Coast path from Lyme Regis to Poole in Dorset. The race starts March 26th. Having only just started training due to the ankle damage from the Atlantic Coast Challenge, I have now got to get some serious training in to get ready!
December '09 Possibly against my better judgement I am about to pay my deposit to secure a place in the 2010 Jungle Marathon - 200km through the Amazon rainforest in Brazil where nearly everything that lives wants to kill you, in 40 degree heat and 90% humidity, this may not have been one of my most inspired race choices! More to follow....
December '09 My ankle finally feels like it is almost normal again! Did a quick mile or so this week just to give it a test and it felt fine so will be back into full training again after Christmas!
October '09 Atlantic Coast Challenge completed successfully (sort of!) For race report Click Here!
September'09 Palau is to impose an indefinite moratorium on shark fishing in their archipelago waters. This is hopefully the shape of things to come. Please see the Shark and Coral Conservation Trust website for the full article.
'Raising funds for shark and coral conservation'
Welcome to the Running4Reefs website. My name is Daryl Farmer, along with my business partner Paul Curtis I own 'World Of Fishes', a busy aquatics shop in East Grinstead, West Sussex.
I have always had an interest in the natural world, and in particular, life within the oceans. In recent years these enviroments have been coming under increasing pressure due to a combination of threats. One of the biggest concerns is the increasing, and rapid, decline of the worlds shark populations due to the barbaric practice of shark finning. It is estimated that shark populations have decreased by up to 90% in recent times.
So, the plan is to do a series of Marathons and Ultra Marathons, all to raise funds for The Shark And Coral Conservation Trust. The charity focuses on a some of the key issues which are having a disastrous impact on the worlds shark populations and coral reefs but which can still be halted if we act in time.
My goal is to run the equivalent total length of The Great Barrier Reef (1250 miles) within 3 years, training mileage will not count towards the total, only race mileage.
100% of money donated will go directly to the SCCT as all race entries, travel, etc will be funded by World Of Fishes.
Along with the running there will be various events organised to support the races and raise awarenes of the SCCT and their valuable work so please check the website on a regular basis for details of upcoming races and events.
As some of you may know, this year (2009) I trained for, ran and completed the Marathon des Sables to raise money for the learning disability charity Mencap. The support which I received was absolutely incredible and thanks to you I was able to exceed my goal of £6000, ending up with a staggering £11,500, the Mencap team as a whole raised in excess of £100,000 which we all agreed made all the training and pain during the race worthwhile!
So within a few days of getting back into the UK I was looking for my next event. After a quick search around I signed up for the 'Atlantic Coast Challenge' for this September and got myself on the waitlist (no. 60 at the moment which apparently should guarantee me a place!) for the 2012 Marathon des Sables. The next thought was that if this is something I am going to carry on with it would be nice to link up with a charity so that the fundraising side can carry on too.
The charity which I have chosen to work with is The Shark And Coral Conservation Trust (SCCT) which is a relatively young charity but one which is working hard to raise awareness and to help the fight to hang on to the worlds shark populations and its coral reefs before they are lost for ever. More detailed information on the SCCT can be found on the about the SCCT page.
My hope is that together we can not only raise much needed funds to help the cause but also, just as importantly, hopefully we can raise more awareness of the charity and these pressing issues which can still be halted and reversed but only if we act in time.
Along with the races there will also be various events organised along the way so please keep checking the site to see if there is anything lined up!
The races that I hope to take part in vary from normal, traditional marathons to far more stupid ideas like the Grand Union Canal Run which is a 145 mile run from Birmingham to London which is done in one hit with a cut off time of 46 hours!
Anything which you can do to support this cause is hugely appreciated by both myself and the SCCT.
