On saturday, I will be endeavouring to walk 100km (about 62 miles) in under 30 hours.

After my training walk last week, 30 miles (near as damn it) in the rain, the dark and the cold, I realised how hard it’s likely to be next weekend. To be honest, I’m not 100% certain I’m going to finish it although if I quit, it will be because I absolutely cannot go on. Fortunately, I have the money I’ve raised from sponsorship to give me added incentive to finish because now I have people I can’t let down. If I don’t finish, I don’t get the money - it’s that simple.

All the donations will primarily will go to the Ghurka Welfare Trust. The event itself was started in pre-handover Hong Kong by the Ghurka regiment stationed there and was such a success that rather than stop running it, they got together with Oxfam and started holding it across the world. They’re both good causes. You can read more about them and the event here.

If you’d like to sponsor me to walk the equivalent of nearly two and a half marathons along the South Downs way (and give me that huge incentive to walk, crawl and drag myself over the finish line) then you can do so online via my bMyCharity page.

What follows now is some musings on why I don’t expect to get a lot of sponsorship.

I was bemused earlier after reading Mike’s post about the relative lack of interest in the Shaggy Blog Stories podcast even though it was a mere two pounds sterling, the majority of which went to A Good Cause. I confess, I didn’t shell out for the podcast although I did buy (and promote) the book. But his anatomy on the lack of take up has made me think about whether blogs are good places to try to raise money for charity or to get sponsored for doing an event. I know there are blogathons and many people who enter things like the Race for Life 5km series who appeal for sponsorship and I wonder how much they actually raise via this medium. Must be something as I know I’ll occasionally sponsor people whose blogs are on my lists.

I suppose, in many ways, it’s far easier to raise money by selling stuff, by giving someone something in return for their hard earned cash. Charity pub quizes work as do parties, balls, curry nights and even those guess the name of the teddy bear competitions because you can get something in return. Perhaps charity is belittled these days. There are so many telethons and national events going on that people are bombarded on all sides by appeals to help the aged, the young, the disadvantaged, the persecuted, the starving and the sick and the very sick. Perhaps that’s the way of charity requests these days, making sure people actually get something for the donation rather than it being, you know, just a donation. Just doing something, just attempting a challenge, be it a 5km run, a 10km run, a marathon or a walk nearly two and a half times the distance of a marathon isn’t enough because there’s nothing in it for the donor, just the participant.

To be fair, I’m not that surprised. Why should I be? I relish these challenges. Hell, I pay to take part in them. I do them for fun! There’s something in it for me but not a lot in it for anyone who does choose to sponsor me.

That being said, at the end of the day, one can but ask. If people choose to generously give (as they already have done in few cases) then it’s great. If they don’t then, well, they don’t. That’s all there is to it. It would be nice to be able to give something more to people in return but all I’ve got is me and my legs. As my old English teacher used to say to me “You’re not very clever but at least you can lift heavy weights.” (These days, those weights aren’t as heavy but never mind).

So, in case you missed it (and I won’t be posting again until next week so this will stay at the top), here’s the link to the online sponsorship page again.

(And if that doesn’t walk for you then you can donate via PayPal too)