Midnight2Midnight

Started the day meeting Marie-Anne and Kieran in the Kitchen Café at National Film Theatre as they had booked a 121 photography day so they could learn more about their camera. Although I gave them the meeting point details I, inexplicably, went to the Riverside Café at Royal Festival Hall instead. Fortunately they are not far apart and I was soon with them, not long past our agreed start time.

It was a lot colder than I was expecting mainly because the sun which the BBC Weather App had predicted was conspicuous by its absence. Damn you technology.

After a great days teaching I was off to find The Midnight Runners! They are a free running group (as in free to participate rather than Parkour free running....Google it or just watch the opening sequence of Daniel Craig's Casino Royale) who organised the Midnight2Midnight: Run For Refugees in aid of the displaced peoples of Syria.

They had partnered with Syria Relief & Development, a highly respected NGO operating in Syria, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq with the purpose of this central London 24hr run being to raise as much money as possible for the important cause.

The scope was simple, every hour, starting at midnight, a group will set off on one of 3 10km routes. The event ran all through the night, into the following day with the last group leaving at 11pm.

I had signed up to run in the 6pm time slot and after arriving, checking in early and meeting some of the super nice/friendly Midnight Runners I had time to go capture some merry-go-round action on the Southbank.

My 6pm run was on the Hyde Park route and there were 4 of us in total. A nice route but busy at that time of day on a Saturday however it wasn't about how fast we ran. I had a good chat with Greg, one of the main guys at Midnight Runners, about our mutual love of NBA Basketball.

After returning to their temporary HQ (a big table in All Bar One near the London Eye) I met a few more fellow runners and somehow got convinced to run another 10K. I had an energy bar and some pre mixed ectrolyte that I had brought with me before heading out on the 8pm slot to Battersea Park. Unsurprisingly my legs started feeling heavy about half way but I clung on to the last man and made it back where I immediately ordered food and a pint.

I stayed chatting to other runners for a bit after I ate before finally heading home around 10:30pm.

Usually I like to wind down with something off the Sky+ box when I get home. But not tonight. After unpacking my bag it's straight to bed. #Exhausted

If you would like to know more about The Midnight Runners head over to their Facebook page here.

*The most important fact of the day is that the total raised for Syrian Refugees was in the ballpark of £10,000!