Training for Machu Picchu...

Hello everyone!

Another wee update! We've got a couple events in the pipeline over the next few months - we're on the final countdown now... 4 months to complete our fundraising and we've only got 25% (around £3000) to go! How exciting!!!

on May 5th a team of eager cyclists will be cycling from Dundee to St Andrews and back (26miles) to raise money for MND Scotland. My mum's nursey friend Janice is the brains behind this one. We've just got the sponsor forms printed out so it's all go now! If i had a bike, im sure i'd be joining in...

On 22nd June we are having another event in Edinburgh. So far we know where it shall be. That is all. My lovely pals Flawson and Aoibheann are on the case organising this - and have told me i need to do nothing but turn up... thats the sort of event i love most! :D I think the idea is some sort of music/acoustic night, but more on this as and when i know! At the moment i'm still largely in the dark!

And of course, we have our take the plunge day on the 23rd June, so far we have 6 signed up for skydive - Julie Glasgow, Gillian Comrie, Aoibheann Keogh, Kirsty Malone, Tommy Malone and Craig Creelman and my Inchture pal Amanda MacBean is going underwater to do the shark dive! Muchos love to you guys for doing something scary to help us raise money! There's still time to sign up - just go here!

http://www.mndscotland.org.uk/fundraising/new-year/

So fundraising efforts are entering the final phases, whereas training has just begun! I joined the gym about a month ago and so far i've been managing to go a bit - i've been doing some running, and some core, strength and cardio classes! Though still need to up my training in order to get my fitness up to scratch. But there's plenty time, so i'm just going to stick at it (i hope!).

As well as a little gymming and a little running, i've also been on a few wee walking expeditions around Edinburgh. I've seen a few strange sights, got lost, got wet and had sore feet more than once! Here are a few photos from my training walks...

Hiding in the trees at Roslin Glen

Down Roslin Glen

Russell doing a spot of climbing...

Me on a style up the Pentland Hills

Russell and Angus

Angus spotted the sheep!

At the top of a hill in the wind and rain...

After sliding down the hill on my bum!

Glencorse Reservoir

Aoibh on a windy Pentland walk

Windswept

Highland coo having a wee drink...

me on a wee bridge

Unicyclist coming down the Pentland hills - Madness!!!

Pentlands

Me and Gus

Looking over Edinburgh

Me on a style, at lothianburn golf course

Peebles

Heya!

So we've been busy with the fundraising the past few weeks and i thought i'd tell you a little of what we'd been up to in Peebles...

On Saturday 18th February myself, Shona and Russell headed down to Peebles to take part in the Tesco bag-pack. We met Cousin Donna there along with Nancy and Caitlin. We donned the MND t-shirts, got our collection buckets out and off we went! Russell had also made up 100 info sheets to hand out - they were gone within the hour!

The bag packing was fun - i started off small, at the 10 items or less aisle and therefore packed almost nothing for the first hour. Meanwhile everyone else was slogging away on the big aisles.... Cousin Lisa and Lynn joined us and Donna, Russell, Shona and I escaped off to the chippy for a tasty lunch! :)

Full of food (almost in a food coma) we returned to Tesco. It turns out some people are funny about getting their bags packed. Russell got a row at one point and more than once as i was packing bags the owner of said bags was unpacking them and re-packing them as i was going! (this may be more to do with my bag-packing skills than anything else though).

All in all we had a brilliant day - lots of support and lots of fun! :D We left Peebles at the back of 4 with heavy buckets and two massive bags of change donated by Auntie Moira and Granny Peebles! Shona and I took a couple buckets each and we spent the evening counting the pennies! A massive £435.99 was raised for our efforts! :D :D

Here are a few pics of our day...

So, after our bag packing success Shona and I returned to Peebles the following Saturday morning to attend our charity coffee morning at the Peebles Rugby Club organised by Cousin Lisa. We had a lovely day - there was a HUGE bake sale, a raffle, a tombola and plenty of coffee, tea and biscuits provided by our lovely servers. The coffee morning was a massive success - it opened at 10am and by around 10.20am we were totally full! Shona and I luckily didnt have much of a role to play during the coffee morning - we were allowed to just mingle and buy cake! However, the raffle was so busy that we got roped into writing, tearing and folding raffle tickets - turns out this is not a fun job!! The support we received was amazing - at 12pm when the coffee morning was finished we counted the cash and Lisa was able to announce to everyone that we'd raised a massive £1233.61!!! Several tears were shed.... We were also given some fantastic news that Peebles Rugby Club are going to make MND Scotland their charity of the year!! Fun and games over, we packed up, had a celebratory drink and went off for a lovely lunch!!

Here are some pics from our day...

Finally, we'd just like to say a massive thanks to Peebles Tesco, Peebles rugby club, everyone who volunteered their time to help us at both events and everyone who came along/donated! Muchos love to you all!!!

The McAdam Clan
xxx