Lands End to John o’Groats CVE Scotland Fundraiser
Victoria Myles’ Lands End to John o’ Groats Challenge
Update: Victoria has now completed the LEJOG! Please see the month of June for her final progress report. Thank you ever so much for all the sponsorship, prayer support and messages of encouragement. The Stewardship giving page is still open for sponsorship for anyone who had wanted to give but not managed to yet.
Victoria is CVE Scotland’s Senior Administrator and has decided to take on an adventure for CVE Scotland. Victoria writes:
People all over the UK should hear about what CVE Scotland does! I will be running and cycling the distance from Lands End to John o’Groats in the first six months of 2021 to help raise awareness and funds for the fantastic charity I have the privilege of working for.
The charity produces resources for schools, families and churches, runs events and gives support mainly, but not exclusively, for those in Scotland. Those across the seas can, and do, also benefit from our online support and expertise, but I didn’t fancy swimming the challenge as well!
I think that having, or at the least considering, a spiritual aspect of life and what values will shape our lives is vitally important. Ensuring adults have excellent training and materials to share with young people in schools helps young people form their own beliefs based on accurate and relevant information.
CVE Scotland focuses its work on the sharing of Christianity in schools (in line with the Curriculum for Excellence) and families wanting to use resources at home. Education is as much to do with character as it is curriculum and the charity also aims to maintain that what would be considered Christian values (e.g. integrity, justice, wisdom and compassion, to name but four values – as were chosen to be on the mace for the parliament and country) are upheld in educational settings; CVE’s aim is to “support school staff, chaplains and families to communicate the Christian faith, so that children and young people can make informed choices about beliefs and values.” Some of the charity’s work specifically supports Christian adults in schools – but did you know that a lot of the support, training and resources directly benefit those of any faith or none?
You can find out more officially about CVE Scotland by taking a look around the website.
As well as helping CVE Scotland directly, I will also be doing this challenge to get fitter and establish healthier routines. That will have a positive impact for my work, family and friends.
I am aiming to complete the 1744 km (1083 mile) route before the end of June. This works out at an average of 10km every single day for six months. I would like to do over half the distance running. I will need to take some days off as rest days and there will inevitably be some days I can’t exercise outside due to illness, injury or the not-so-bonnie Scottish weather.
Some of you reading this may have known me from my sporty youth and you’re thinking 10K or more a day won’t be too hard for me. Sadly though, I have nowhere near the fitness levels of 20 years ago!
My GPS-tracked runs and cycle rides are logged into a virtual LEJOG Conqueror event, which lets me see exactly how far I’ve done and where on the route I am. Along the way The Conqueror plants some trees for me as a nice bonus…I guess that makes my journey ‘carbon negative’?
What can you do to help cheer me along?
1. Please consider making a donation to the charity by sponsoring this challenge or by setting up regular giving to the charity. Even a very small amount will help (both options can be done through the give.net pages linked). Regular giving means the charity can budget and plan more accurately, and this aids sustainability and growth. In these times of financial difficulties, I’m only aiming to raise £300 from this challenge.
As some examples, £300 could help cover the costs of CVE running one of our Local Education Authority training events for school Senior Management Teams and School Chaplains on topics such as Time for Reflection, go towards producing materials to redress the balance of resources available for the teaching of Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood, or even pay for some of my salary costs (it is difficult getting grants for administration!)– I carry out almost all of the administration for the charity, from events and meetings to communications and the website.
2. Show your support by following and sharing this challenge, and the charity, on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter mainly, the YouTube page is under development still) and/or signing up to receive emails
3. Pray and encourage me
4. By the end of June, who knows, restrictions may have been lifted and you may be able to cheer me on in 3-dimensions along the finishing straight!
You can follow my progress here, on my give.net page and on social media.
THANK YOU!
Monthly Updates
Some beautiful, brisk, blue-skied outings eased me into my challenge. However, injury and illness hit in the middle of the month, hampering my efforts to stay anywhere near the target distance.
Completed: Not even half the km I should have!
The Beast from the East is not friends with my Conqueror challenge! I think bracing is the word to describe a lot of my exercise this month.
My calf injury had either not healed properly or became a recurring injury, so bike rides rather than runs were required much of the first three weeks to let the calf rest.
Completed: 428 km (destination: Salisbury)
Remaining: 1316 km
It is really difficult doing 10K day, after day, after day! Especially with more illness and a house renovation project on the go!
Thank you very much to everyone who has sponsored me so far.
I’m half way through the challenge time-wise but not yet half way distance-wise.
The change of the clocks brought a good boost with the longer evenings to get in some KMs.
Distance completed: 732KM (destination Loughborough)
Distance remaining: 1011KM
Steady progress was made. I’m still behind the target distance I’d like to be. Glad of the signs of spring to cheer me on my way, as well as lots of prayer support and donations!
I managed to get in some longer runs this month including running over the distance of a marathon two weekends in a row. Running over 300km this month has meant I am getting nearer to my target of running over half of the challenge, since I still have a shortfall to make up in that activity compared with cycling. Running so much has also meant I’ve worn out the soles of my trainers I only started running in properly in March!
I still need to run about 10km/day average in June to meet the challenge deadline…this will be a race to the finish but one I am determined to do!
Massive thank you to everyone who has sponsored me – it really is inspiring me to get out there and keep going.
Distance completed = 1430km (around 15 km past Blair Atholl)
Distance remaining = 314km
I was still wanting to complete over half the challenge running and was behind reaching this target so continued to very regularly run 15 or 20kms, sometimes more. I would have loved to have finished the challenge off with a marathon!
I was running an average of around 70km/week (some may call me a little crazy!). In the middle of June I sadly started with a persistent migraine. Under doctor’s orders I had to relinquish the goal of completing over half the challenge running (with the other part being cycled) by the date I had set. Instead I cycled the remaining distance to reach John o’Groats and was around just 30km short of running half of the entire distance.
THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who has supported me in various ways. I, and the CVE Scotland Team, are very grateful.
Over £630 has been raised and there is an increased awareness of CVE Scotland.
Some have sponsored me anonymously, I really have no idea who you are and cannot thank you personally. Thank you very much for your donations!
Distance completed: 1744.2 kms (1083 miles)
Destination: John o’Groats!
Time taken: 173 days
