The Great North Run

I was born in North Yorkshire and I’ve lived in a lovely part of County Durham for more than twenty years, but insofar as I have a spirit, poor, shrivelled black thing though it must surely be, my spiritual home is Newcastle upon Tyne. I lived there for a long time, worked there for longer and it’s where I met my wife. It’s where I made some of the most important friendships of my life; it’s where I was first truly creative and first truly happy; it’s where I began to form many of the perspectives and the temperament I hold today. It’s where I first began to throw off the shackles of childhood and become whatever it is that I am now. And it’s where I was first paid to sit in a little room by myself and think.

So I’m especially pleased that I’m doing the Great North Run this year. I’ve done two half marathons this year already and they were (for a given definition of) fun and they were challenging in different ways. But everyone knows those other half marathons are wannabes compared to the GNR (sorry, Sheffield and Leeds, but you know it’s true). The GNR is the big one and it’s hard to get into. Well, when I say ‘hard’ I mean that it’s a lottery. I didn’t have to actually do anything other than apply, but there was a significant chance that I wouldn’t get a place.

But I did! And I’m really looking forward to it, even though my excitement will definitely diminish according to a power law as it approaches.

Since I suddenly have a lot of new followers on Twitter because I tweeted a thread about dogs (reminder, tweet more about dogs, people like that) I’m going to briefly tell my already brief story again, then say a bit about the cause I’m raising money for: nia.

In 2020, at age 48, I developed a neurological condition which cost me most of the mobility in my legs and has left me in constant pain. Nobody quite knows what the condition is, least of all my neurologist who keeps describing me, irritatingly, as a ‘medical mystery’. Personally, I prefer ‘medical marvel’ but he doesn’t seem to want to run with that.

This condition has me mostly confined to a wheelchair so naturally I, an unfit, middle-aged man, decided the obvious thing to do was as many wheelchair half marathons as possible.

Well, that’s not really how it happened. The cause came first. The stupid idea came afterwards, around teatime.

The cause is this one: ending domestic and sexual violence against women and girls. These forms of violence are linked. From the nia site (slightly edited, see the site for citations):

We know that the majority of women who have experienced abuse will have experienced multiple forms, they rarely exist in isolation, for example:

54% of rapes reported to the police took place within the context of domestic violence, that is they were committed by husbands/partners/boyfriends or former husbands/partners/boyfriends

As many as 85% women in prostitution report physical abuse in the family, with 45% reporting familial sexual abuse.

Nearly 40% of the cases dealt with by the Forced Marriage Unit concern people under the age of 18 and 85% are women/girls

Nearly three quarters of children on the ‘at risk’ register live in households where domestic violence occurs.

https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/get-informed/what-is-violence-against-women-and-girls/

The common denominator is clear. Like nia, I believe that “artificially created boundaries between different forms of violence against women isolate organisations, reduce political pressure and force women to search out fragmented support”. What’s needed is a coordinated campaign to end all violence against women and girls.

“Violence against women” means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”

United Nations’ General Assembly Declaration of the Elimination of Violence against Women (resolution 48/104 of December 1993)

This includes but is I’m sorry to say not limited to:

  • Domestic/partner violence
  • Female genital mutilation
  • Forced marriage
  • ‘Honour’ based violence
  • Prostitution and trafficking
  • Sexual violence, including rape
  • Sexual exploitation
  • Sexual harassment
  • Stalking
  • Coercive control

There are many organisations aimed at tackling violence against women and girls and shameful it is that they are necessary. So why am I promoting nia in particular and why should you definitely donate to them?

The first reason is the integrated approach I’ve just described. It’s always the radical approach, with me: tackle the common denominator.

The second reason is that nia prioritises women and girls over men at every level.

nia is for all women. nia is a women-led, women-only, secular, rights-based registered charity and has been delivering services to women, girls and children in East London who have been subjected to sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, since 1975.

https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/get-informed/prioritising-women/

I cannot think of a more important qualification than that. Women must be able to describe their own oppression and be given the capability to build the resources they need to protect themselves from violence and to keep developing the political movement to end that violence altogether. The last thing they need is idiots like me telling them how to do it. nia is a feminist organisation, led and run entirely by women, and that’s precisely the way it should be.

Our work to protect single-sex services and spaces for women, particularly but not only women who have been subjected to men’s violence and abuse; and naming men as the agents or perpetrators of sexual and domestic violence and abuse, including prostitution, is not defining women through victimisation, it is not weaponising the violence perpetrated by men upon us and using it against marginalised groups. It is standing against male domination and abuse of women.

Feminism is a movement of all women for the liberation of women from subjugation and male domination under patriarchy. Women are not free until all women are free. nia is for all women.

https://niaendingviolence.org.uk/get-informed/prioritising-women/

Please, please support nia if you can. You can donate at their site, of course, but what you really came here for was my crowdfunder page, right? Right?

This is actually my second crowdfunder page for this cause and is the one that will remain open indefinitely (for full disclosure, the old one is here). So far this year I’ve raised around £2000 for nia through wheelchair half marathons. I’d really like to double that, if I can, and I’ll be annoying you all with repeated demands for money until the GNR in September. Then I’ll take a week off and start again.

If you want to see more about my (wince) journey (sorry), check out the rest of this blog. You can also subscribe to it for updates on my process.

Another half marathon bites the dust

That makes it sound like I’ve done loads, doesn’t it? More precisely, I did my second wheelchair half marathon yesterday. It was the Leeds one, a very good, well-organised event. I’ll do it again next year.

I got around the course OK and enjoyed it for the most part, but it was hard work in a wheelchair. The usual combination of bad camber, rough surfaces and relentless uphill bits was the culprit. I’ve promised myself that I’ll stop talking about cambers, so I will. Except to say: fuck them. I know they are needed for drainage but since there will be no more rain in ten years anyway, it would be much more convenient for me if we started building completely flat roads. Could we just do that?

Camber aside, it was a nice course and beautiful weather. There were a lot of people lining the course, giving obviously sincere encouragement. The course wound through residential areas for a long time. This was nice because there were families camped out on the street making a day of it. They were handing out sweets and oranges and high fives and jogging alongside to chat. In my case, they didn’t have to jog very quickly.

One street had a feral gang of little girls with super-soakers offering to squirt anyone who was too hot. Brilliant stuff.

When people talk about how great the crowds are at events like these, I used to think they meant the big, cheering crowds at the beginning and end. But it’s the scattered families and individuals along the way who are just being nice who make it for me. As far as I know, I was the only wheelchair competitor (I saw one other wheelchair, but they were being pushed, which is so cheating) so I got a lot of attention. People really seemed to realise how difficult these bloody things are and meant it when they said I was doing well.

I wasn’t doing all that well, in reality.

I made it in somewhere between three and three-fifteen.This is not a great time; I met people walking back along the course with their completion medals when I was barely 3/4 of the way through. But in my defence I was nowhere near last; we went for a bite to eat afterwards and the tannoy was still announcing finishers while we were eating. The slow bastards 😉

And I have to say: that woman in her 70s with a walking stick who kept overtaking me on hills is now my lifelong nemesis. Next time, walking-stick-lady. Next time.

Except that she was super-nice. As was the blind runner and her guide who offered some friendly rivalry, the startlingly tall man in African tribal gear who sauntered along chatting to everyone and the very sweet two women who did the whole thing, as far as I can tell, without ever letting go of each other’s hand.

Yeah, I’m totally saying that the back is the best place to be.

Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored me so far. This is not something I do idly, it is really very, very hard work. I do it because the cause is so important: women and girls have always been subject to male violence and never more so than in difficult economic and socially turbulent times. They need immediate help, they need help to get back on their feet and they need ongoing support.

I didn’t push too hard for sponsorship for this particular event because my previous big push for the Sheffield one was so recent. Nevertheless, you have all donated about £2000 for nia so far. Brilliant work, everyone.

And I’m still going. The next event is the Great North Run in September and I’ll be pushing you hard for donations, rest assured.

If you’d like to donate, please do, the link is here. And if you could share the link, that would be great too.