My challenge for 2011 - Please support me!

[Jason_Fisher]

Website is back online

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Just a quick update - I have run my 7th Half Marathon today. It has been intense, the first one was ok, i felt good, then the second day i woke up in bits! The second and third were extremely grueling, and then they have progressively got easier. A very long way to go, but a good start.

My website is currently offline due to a few changes, but will be back on over the weekend. I have many ideas for fundraising and will keep you updated. I have been speaking to a few people who organise events for sport, including half marathon and marathon events and we are discussing holding an event for people to participate in a half marathon and raise sponsorship for themselves which will be raised towards my target if that makes sense, and they will pay an entry fee which will go to the organisers. For that event we are looking to try and get 4,782 people to enter as they is the total of miles i will be running over the year. If everyone can raise £25, thats £119,550 which will go towards my target, and say the entry fee is £10, the organisers who help me will get £47,820, get a sponsor on board and we're laughing. Very ambitious i know, however these guys do this for a living and you get roughly 5,000 enter half marathon events. Even if we only get 25% of the people enter it would be great towards my target.

Any suggestions or feedback welcome.

Anyone got any feedback on the event idea? I'm only in early talks with them about it, but would be great if i could get some ideas together. I think an event to raise money for the cause would be a great way to generate awareness too!

 

[Parthelan]

Just found this thread - so first of all the very best of luck and I hope you make the challenge and exceed your target.

Couple of things came to mind though as I read it so here goes:

How are you verifying that you've done the run every day/

Are you keeping a video diary? Could be useful at the end as you could have a dvd of highs and lows edited and sell that to raise extra money?

Have you contacted shoe manufacturers and food suppliment companies, not to mention sports aids, energy bars and the likes for sponsorship?

Have you a youtube channel set up? Could be valuable as promotion with a daily video blog?

Best of luck.

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Thanks Tom,

I have contacted the relavent companies for sponsorship etc which has gone well. In regards to the video blog, i thought a channel on youtube would be great, like a daily video diary, but i thought it might get a little boring for people following me, as there wouldn't be much interesting stuff to say each and every day, it would cover the same things allot of the time, might do a weekly one?

Regards tracking my runs, i am using a pedometer, and tracking my progress, and trying to get one person to run with me each run to verify. Without spending lots of money on an expensive piece of kit i thought that was the best way. I will be running as many organised events as i can, as if theose times fit in with my day to day schedule then hopefully that will clarify?

 

[thetime22]

wow thats awesome, i know i will be supporting this.

 

[tms-print]

Just an idea for helping reach your target.

You could try contacting a promotions printing company and see what they can do for you in getting you some pens printed with your website address on, see if they can do them for free.

if you get 100,000 printed and sell them at the events or via your website for £1 then that might help.

just an idea

i would buy some for the guys in the office to start you off.

 

[Parthelan]

Thanks Tom,

I have contacted the relavent companies for sponsorship etc which has gone well. In regards to the video blog, i thought a channel on youtube would be great, like a daily video diary, but i thought it might get a little boring for people following me, as there wouldn't be much interesting stuff to say each and every day, it would cover the same things allot of the time, might do a weekly one?

I dont think so. People love the visual. We're talking about a two minute video here - scenes could change every day - you finishing the run then talking to camera, you talking to cam in the bath after a run, you talking to cam bandaging feet after run, you talking to cam with beautiful wife massaging your back (if you ahvent a beautiful wife, they can hired by the hour or day relatively cheaply ) - just giving a quick update. Flash up a google map of your run as you talk, highlight anything intersting that happened en route, flash up a rolling chart of running time for that run, comparison with previous times, and total miles covered. Sign off with a catch phrase, and where you will be running the next day so people nearby can find you.
Link this channel to everyone you contact. You'll gain followers over time, and who knows, by the end of the year you could have tens of thousands, every one of them potential sponsors.

Regards tracking my runs, i am using a pedometer, and tracking my progress, and trying to get one person to run with me each run to verify. Without spending lots of money on an expensive piece of kit i thought that was the best way. I will be running as many organised events as i can, as if theose times fit in with my day to day schedule then hopefully that will clarify?

I think just about every gps now has tracking, so you can upload your route to google earth and post it on your youtube and web site. You can get gps' for under £100 but make sure it can do what you need it to do. It will be dated and timed and it gives split timings for any point on the route.
Having a witness to confirm is also a good idea as big sponsors, and towards the end if the media get heavily involved, will absolutely want to be able to verify you did in fact run a half marathon every day.

One final thought -is that some sort of record? Have you check with GWR? If not, might be worth exploring as it's a hell of a thing you're doing. Again, if you're setting some sort of record, empirical verification will be of the essence.


As someone who used to regularly run marathons way back in the 80's and 90's and is entered for the Berlin Marathon in september this year, after a moment of madness talking about such things with my daughter, I'll be following your progress with interest.

All the best.

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Just an idea for helping reach your target.

You could try contacting a promotions printing company and see what they can do for you in getting you some pens printed with your website address on, see if they can do them for free.

if you get 100,000 printed and sell them at the events or via your website for £1 then that might help.

just an idea

i would buy some for the guys in the office to start you off.

Thats a great idea! The charity i am fundraising for offered me like small badges and little bits like that, but i had to buy them and they were pretty expensive, don't make much if i sold them for £1. Would the promotions company supply the pens, or do i need to send them the pens to print on?

Thanks for your suggestion!

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Tom that is great advice, i will be looking into this. I am not experienced in editing etc so will have to have a look at a few tutorials or something, with all the extras you mentioned. Its a great idea though! Is there some sort of pedometer with gps in or something that can track how far i have run etc and store the data as proof? that would be ideal! If so where would i find one, as i have not seen one?

Also... do you think they would lend me a beautiful wife for an hour for FREE? It is for charity after all otherwise i will have to try and borrow a friends, and i don't know how that will go down? (i have to go now, the wife has just started reading my posy )

 

[Parthelan]

Tom that is great advice, i will be looking into this. I am not experienced in editing etc so will have to have a look at a few tutorials or something, with all the extras you mentioned. Its a great idea though! Is there some sort of pedometer with gps in or something that can track how far i have run etc and store the data as proof? that would be ideal! If so where would i find one, as i have not seen one?

Also... do you think they would lend me a beautiful wife for an hour for FREE? It is for charity after all otherwise i will have to try and borrow a friends, and i don't know how that will go down? (i have to go now, the wife has just started reading my posy )

Lol

Loads are available and probably cheaper than the Garmin but I use the garmin Vista HCx with european mapping on it. It has a tracking option - all I do with my daughter when we run is set the trip log to 0, and off we go. It tracks the route and gives you totally accurate distance and time. It's then possible via the usb to upload the route you just did with times and distance directly to google earth for linking to websites etc. Easy peasy. And you have a daily log with map, times, distance, speed, elevation, and route.

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Do you think a company would sponsor me one? In return for marketing on the site and pictures with it on etc in the media. A big ask i know, but their price is the wholesale which is a little cheaper?

 

[tms-print]

Do you think a company would sponsor me one? In return for marketing on the site and pictures with it on etc in the media. A big ask i know, but their price is the wholesale which is a little cheaper?

Im sure if you went and visted your local stores like curry's, best buy, maplin and speak to the manager and explain what it is you are doing and what your targets are im sure they will be more than happy to help you out.

Regards Ricky

 

[Jason_Fisher]

I have seen the 'Garmin Forerunner 110' which is the watch version, and you can upload the distance and times etc onto their website, which is all i need really just to help prove i have done what i say i have. I'm pretty sure i wont be able to get someone to run with me EVERY day, although i have done so far

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Thanks Ricky, i am going to wait with them until i get a decent following and then i will be approaching then for raffle prizes. I have done this before for other things and it has gone down well!

 

[tms-print]

ok mate, We wish you all the luck

 

[What If]

Do you think a company would sponsor me one? In return for marketing on the site and pictures with it on etc in the media. A big ask i know, but their price is the wholesale which is a little cheaper?

What phone do you have Jason? You can lots of free 'apps' that would track your marathons (distances, speeds, etc). We use one called 'My Tracks' which is available on Android.

 

[Jason_Fisher]

I have a blackberry, but am thinking about the iphone, so may kill 2 birds with one stone with that?

 

[Jason_Fisher]

I have been thinking of ways to try and raise money rather than just asking for donations, as i am having a very slow start. Businesses have been great and are getting behind me, but i am having a slow start with the justgiving page with the public.

I was thinking of having some t-shirts printed and having a competition or something like that? You buy a t-shirt for '£x', take a picture of you wearing that t-shirt, upload it onto the MS Challenge 2011 facebook page, and then just get as many of your friends to like it as possible, the winner at the end of the year gets a prize of some sort. It will raise money through t-shirt sales, it will get people active in the challenge, it will get their friends etc onto the facebook page, hopefully then looking onto the website etc.

What do you think? Too much, or a possibility. Any other ideas very welcome, either to get more donations or raise awareness of the challenge.

 

[Jason_Fisher]

I have a quote of £1.75+ VAT for the t-shirts + the printing costs, so could perhaps sell them for £5 each, profits go to the challenge?

Or should i stick to 'just trying to get donations'?

 

[Gregan]

I have a garmin forerunner. Real nice piece of kit......highly reccomend.

 

[Parthelan]

I have been thinking of ways to try and raise money rather than just asking for donations, as i am having a very slow start. Businesses have been great and are getting behind me, but i am having a slow start with the justgiving page with the public..

Dont worry about the justgiving page - that will come on in time as you build up a following and those in the businesses behind you kick in. It's early days yet.
I help organise and run a motorcycle charity fundraising event every year. We've always used justgiving as it's a site the public have a lot of confidence in, and we've exceeded our target every year. This year the site shows us 400 quid short of our £25,000 target but we have more than that in two cheques yet to be deposited so once again we will have exceeded our target.
It will come on, dont worry about that.
Once you have built up the numbers following you on youtube/facebook etc, thats the time to introduce stuff to sell as an additional fund earner.
The year is yet young, young grasshopper

 

[puffin]

Are you still chugging on with it?

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Yes i'm still chugging on thank you.

I missed one day, due to circumstances out of my hands but i will make up the miles. I am finding it quite hard now, more mentally than physically. I am also finding that the ice is coming out allot more than when i first started

 

[What If]

Jason, do you do anything to update people on the marathons e.g. pictures, videos, where it was, how long it took? I looked on your site but couldn't find nothing (apologies if I've missed it). It says that live feeds will be available Jan 2011?

I know it must be tough but it would give people more confidence to donate! How much have you raised so far?

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Yeh i am using my website to update people, however i am having a couple of things changed on it which is taking a little longer than expected. I am hoping to have everything done by the end of Feb and then the site will be updated every single day religously. I know this isn't ideal but by the start of March it will be updated every day, including a video blog, working with youtube instead of ustream. I had a vision of the website, not only just updating my progress but other things too, but due to unforseen obstacles it has delaying things a little.

 

[ethical PR]

Hello

Yes I agree, it would be good in terms of credibility and donations if you can do a update on your website of your daily run. You can accompany it with a photo of you on your run, with that days (local or national) paper next to a road sign to indicate where you are.

http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikeru...8/do-more-with-the-nike-gps-app-for-iphone174

Is also good for tracking your runs and encouraging people to support you on route.

 

[What If]

Yeh i am using my website to update people, however i am having a couple of things changed on it which is taking a little longer than expected. I am hoping to have everything done by the end of Feb and then the site will be updated every single day religously. I know this isn't ideal but by the start of March it will be updated every day, including a video blog, working with youtube instead of ustream. I had a vision of the website, not only just updating my progress but other things too, but due to unforseen obstacles it has delaying things a little.

Well good luck. Keep us all informed.

 

[Jason_Fisher]

ethical PR - Do you have any other advice or tips as to how to make this successful as you have experienced this.

Thanks

 

[DancingWithPoodles]

so how you gonna make money out of this and where is the point

 

[devilmaycry]

You should have done 46 runs by now.

And you haven't tweeted since 1st Feb.

Have you done any runs in Feb?

Also, on the justgiving website it says that you have raised £85. How much have you raised in total?

Sorry for a pessimistic sounding post.

 

[devilmaycry]

so how you gonna make money out of this and where is the point

Same question to you about your website...

 

[ethical PR]

Hi Jason

As I think I mentioned to you before, working with the PR team at MS is probably your best bet in terms of putting an effective PR plan in place. They will have established media contacts who they can approach about their work and that of their supporters, in terms of national coverage ie charity press, running and fitness media, men's media, national print.

Larger charities like MS also usually have a PR toolkit they can give out to their fundraisers with ideas to help you generate media coverage.

For regional media coverage (print, online, radio, TV), I would suggest you could also put together a PR plan/approach that you can adapt to promote your runs in the different areas of the country that you are planning to run in.

I do think credibility is going to be important in terms of helping you secure coverage and funding, so do use your website and social media to list your runs, running times, blog about your experiences, take photo's, put up video clips etc. And provide opportunities for your supporters to engage with you.

 

[devilmaycry]

Also, when are you running in South Wales?

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Same question to you about your website...

I don't get the question? The aim of this is not to make money out of it, it is to raise money for the charity. I have had several obstacles preventing me from updating the website. One in particular being the computer not working, as posted in the IT section of this forum, its still not fixed, but will be shortly.

Thanks ethical PR.

 

[Jason_Fisher]

Just realised my post about not being able to update as the computer is not working yet i am still on here. I am on here far less at the moment, using the library computer. All my log ins etc for my website are on my computer as they used to log me in automatically so do not remember all the passwords

 

[What If]

Just realised my post about not being able to update as the computer is not working yet i am still on here. I am on here far less at the moment, using the library computer. All my log ins etc for my website are on my computer as they used to log me in automatically so do not remember all the passwords

Really, you can't remember the passwords for your own website, but you can remember your UKBF password. Think you might need to reorganise your priorities!

 

[Jason_Fisher]

I know, its shocking isn't it. Its not just the password i can't remember, its also the domain of the back office of the site etc

 

[devilmaycry]

I don't get the question? The aim of this is not to make money out of it, it is to raise money for the charity. I have had several obstacles preventing me from updating the website. One in particular being the computer not working, as posted in the IT section of this forum, its still not fixed, but will be shortly.

Thanks ethical PR.

It was sarcasm aimed at Dancing with Poodles after his stupid comment.

 

[papverpoppies]

Just realised my post about not being able to update as the computer is not working yet i am still on here. I am on here far less at the moment, using the library computer. All my log ins etc for my website are on my computer as they used to log me in automatically so do not remember all the passwords

You could upload some photos onto here, your pictures and albums page, at least that way people would be able to see where you are at - you are able to access this site, so why not do that?



Poppy xx

 

[devilmaycry]

So when will you be in South Wales then?