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Posted at 2:56pm Wednesday 24th September 2008
Olympic handover provides lesson
Somehow no matter what you organise, sometimes something happens that changes everything and threatens to overshadow it. I got involved in helping to co-ordinate an Olympic handover in Southampton.
Posted at 9:28am Tuesday 12th August 2008
Cowes week and getting taller
Before this even started there were moments of stress, the van I had booked ended up in someone else’s hands. Thankfully three days later it was mine butit meant us getting the ferry over later on Thursday than planned. Never mind because we were set up and readyto go on Friday morning after a night settling in at UKSA. The rowing machines were working and attachedto the laptop and everything was neatly presented. On the first day myself and fellow volunteer Craig Biles waited for our first customer. It turned out to be a young lad Joseph, who was quickly followed by two police men who raced against each other.
Posted at 9:24am Tuesday 12th August 2008
Not Behaving Badly
One of the methods for raising funds has been getting the big bath ducks signed. The latest in the collection was signed by Martin Clunes and I got to meet him at the Weldmar fete. It was a really good occasion and well orgainsed. I got to meet the man himself and got my photo with him. I did spend half the day wandering around like a lost child trying to find other people to speak to that I would glance in the distance.
Posted at 9:06am Tuesday 8th July 2008
Long way round for charity
I was very fortunate to be given a place in Jane Tomlinson’s 10km run in Leeds. It was something I was very grateful for and gave me a chance to find out more what it was about this wonderful woman that made her so special. However it was going to prove a little bit of a logistical challenge.
Posted at 10:33am Monday 9th June 2008
A boy named falcon [REVISED]
In case you didn’t know I spend a lot of my time fundraising on the ferry, during the course of doing this though I get to meet a lot of people. Some of these meetings can be quite emotional. It seems over the last couple of weeks I have met people who have different experiences with leukaemia. One very pretty lass in her early twenties thanked me, she had survived leukaemia when she was ten. Whilst rowing away I met one gentleman who had his children with him. He described to his children how his cousin died from leukaemia at the age of 26. Last summer someone thanked me because their daughter died at age of six from the disease. It was last weekend another one of these chance meetings struck me.
Posted at 11:08am Tuesday 13th May 2008
Gearing up to row around the island.
Ok so i don't have so far to go with the challenge on the rowng machine, under 5,000 km to go. This weekend provided a bit of break from riding on top of the Red Funnel ferries. In preperation to row around the Isle of Wight myself and some students are going to row at the Ryde/Shanklin regattas. This basically involves rowing 1000m in a coastal four doing a bouy turn and then racing back another 1000m. The fours are the same as those we will use to row around the Island in. Enduring the seas around means a couple of things including getting up close and personal with the fith most recognised landmark in the UK - the needles!
Posted at 10:18am Wednesday 16th April 2008
London marathon and being stalked by sonic the hedgehog
The London Marathon one of the biggest participation one day sporting events in the world and a tough challenge. For me this one was going to be a battle to continue bringing back my mental toughness. It was also a chance to enjoy a larger than life event and watch some other very colourful colours.
Posted at 9:08am Wednesday 26th March 2008
Gus rides again
What a difference half an hour makes. The last time i graped the seat of my bike, my mothers heart attack from cancer happened within minuites after. I had move it about but because of the strong association with that morning would not touch the seat. I realised that in order to make a difference and complete my aims i would have no other choice.
Posted at 9:01am Thursday 20th March 2008
A dressing down for Sport Relief
So at the beginning of last week an opportunity presented itself. The company I work for, Skandia, was taking part in Sport Relief by having a dress down day on the Friday.
Posted at 10:08am Monday 17th March 2008
Lighter heart equals lighter legs
One of the keys to making the distance is effective training. However if your carrying something on you mind it can make things 'sluggish'. In this particular case it was carrying the blame for the loss of mum. Despite the face the cancer had spread so quickly I felt there was something I could of done to help her. It took a friend outside the family who has some experience in these situations, to help me understand it wasn't.
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This year Gus Mckechnie is planning to raise thousands of pounds for charity by completing several gruelling physical endurance activities. The first two of which includes rowing five million metres by the start of the Olympic rowing regatta on the 9th August. The other is running the London marathon in April, doing the Ironman and cycling around Britain plus other events.
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