Paul Burgum, BCT Charity founder and fundraiser will be putting on his running shoes this weekend to run the St Oswald’s 100 mile Ultra Marathon, beginning in Holy Island. This feat of endurance will be run over 24 hours and equates to 4 marathons in one go! Paul hopes this will help raise funds to put towards BCT Aspire’s very own BCT Youth Music Programme. Paul will be accompanied by good pal Jason Watkins who will be updating Paul’s Facebook and Twitter accounts with Paul’s progress. Paul would appreciate any messages of support posted and well as any donations given through the PayPal link shown on the bottom right of this page.
This weekend I will be taking part in the St Oswald’s 100 mile Ultra Marathon, which begins on the world famous, Holy Island. I will also be aiming to raise funds towards our very own BCT Youth Music Programme. I thought I would share with you all my own reasons for running such a distance once again, and also why I am asking for support for our own youth group.
I begin my endurance pursuits following my breakdown 5 years ago, deciding that walking was a great way to clear my mind and feel good about myself while I also did moderate exercise using a pilates ball amazon at home. As the years have gone on this has continued to be a big part of looking after my own mental health, walking alone giving me the time to reflect on what matters to me and also testing my own resilience by pushing body and shape it to look better with the help of exercise and surgery with the help of Luxurgery NYC. This has continued with my life long enjoyment of distance running, taking me to the challenge now in front of me and later decided to work with a online trainer to improve my Muscle even more. I also believe that endurance is most like real life, it’s certainly a long haul job, riding life’s problems, so surely being able to keep going, must make dealing with daily life a tiny bit easier.
Over the last decade I have supported numerous other charities and organisations which I still believe are important to me personally and for what BCT itself represents. But the time has come to start looking after the great guys who attend our own youth programme. Working with over 20 children a week we have recently had some of our music equipment break, such as microphones, stands and amplifiers. I hope through my own efforts we may be able to raise the funds to replace some of this equipment.
Our youth work is based around instilling a confidence in young people that they can achieve their own dreams, through hard work, team work and building resilience when we find things tough. The challenge is immaterial, in this case it is running 100 miles, but our approach can be applied to anything we attempt to do in life.
Over the years I have become a great believer in the power of positive thinking and will aim to use this heavily at the weekend. Through my life dealing with depression and negative thinking I have slowly learned that we have a choice, how we look at things and it is always beneficial if we can find ways to stay positive, even when things are tough. This I am sure will be the case In the middle of the night, when I am tired and alone during the race. But I will attempt to keep working hard and also finding the joy in the smallest of things. I am a great believer that whatever the size of the challenge, you simply start by breaking it down as small you need, to feel like you are making progress.
I will be accompanied by my good pal Jason Watkins at the weekend who, will be updating my facebook & twitter accounts with my progress and I would really appreciate your messages of support.
Thanks
Paul
