My MND5050 1/2 Marathon Adventure

Donation Link

In 2025, I'll be turning 50 and as a special "reward" for making it this far, I'm going to be challenging myself to run 50 Half Marathons between January 1st and December 31st 2025. To make this even more interesting, I have also entered the Edinburgh (full) Marathon which takes place on 25th May 2025 - this will be my first official full marathon event.

My dad, Fleck, was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2009. By some kind of miracle, he is still here going into 2025. To make my project special, I'm hoping to use my challenge to help raise awareness of (and fundraise for) Motor Neurone Disease charities.

You can follow my progress throughout the year on this blog and, if you wish to donate, you can click here. Any funds raised will be divided equally between the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) and Motor Neurone Disease Scotland. Any expenses incurred in order to compete in events will be taken care of by me and no personal expenses will be taken from your donations.

Most of my half marathons will be local (non-organised) events which I will record on Strava and post in the blog as proof I did it.

The current plan is to start on New Year's Day and, when I get to the last one, to finish with my dad in Cumbria.

I would like to extend an open invitation to anyone who would like to run (or cycle) with me for any length of time during the challenge. I'll mostly be running on Sundays with some evening ones thrown in on occasion through the weeks. If you'd like to run a Half or even part of the distance with me, feel free to send me a message via the contact form. I'm not fast (will be aiming for 1h50 - 2h00 for most events), so I won't be able to speed up too much if you're quick but am happy to slow down for a chat, if pace isn't your thing.

I'd be very grateful to anyone that can share the link to this page on any social media you use to help spread the word about this challenge.

Donation Link

If you'd like to donate to my MNDA and MND Scotland Fundraiser, click the button here:

Donate via Give As You Live

8 of 50

11 Mar 2025 12:01

A quicker run this week on one of my newer routes which is, conveniently, exactly a half marathon. The fundraiser, as of 11th March is sitting at £1881.00 + Gift Aid which is just amazing and I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported this challenge and to everyone who shares my posts or has offered words of encouragement along the way. Both charities support people affected by MND in terms of advice, helping with equipment, advice and respite and in funding research into finding a cure.

7 of 50

2 Mar 2025 15:23

Theme for the first of March was Hills, four big hills and lots of vertical metres which makes for much more fun running down them to get home. That's 7 half marathons completed of 50. Next week's run will be up North in Moray.

6 of 50

22 Feb 2025 15:35

Run number six, a gentle pace with Gordon's company on his bike. Barely noticed the first 13km 🤩. Over £1680 raised plus around £350 in Gift-Aid which is fab. Thank you to everyone who has spread the word, followed and sponsored.

5 of 50

16 Feb 2025 19:23

So January was difficult due to battling the body (and mind) but I'm back. Probably not so wise to do three half marathons in five days going forwards. This week I finally managed half marathon number 5 of 50, so I'll have some catching up to do as the months tick by.

4 of 50

14 Jan 2025 22:44

Sunday was interesting. As you can tell from the attached video, it was very cold and I really didn't feel like running very much but all it took was getting started. I probably stopped feeling the cold 6-7km in and realised that I'd stopped moaning internally about it at around 15-16km 🤪. So that's number four completed and I actually ran in a reasonable time of around 1 hour 51 minutes. I'm updating this on Tuesday night (14th Jan) and am amazed to say that the current fundraising total is standing at £1536.00 plus £317.75 in Gift Aid so a total of £1853.75. Thank you all so much.

3 of 50

5 Jan 2025 20:30

Given how sore my knee was on Friday, I didn't expect to be able to run today. The discomfort had completely disappeared by Friday evening however, so I was good to go.

2 of 50

3 Jan 2025 19:35

Great, cold and crisp weather for today's run. The back roads had very much not been gritted so it was tricky trying not to slide back down the hills or onto my backside at times.

1 of 50

1 Jan 2025 22:36

Today I completed the first half marathon, 21.1km chalked off and 1033.9 half marathon kilometres to go. The biggest ordeal has definitely been the social media and video editing so I think I'll be keeping the videos much simpler and shorter going forward. As my wife reminded me, I also have a full-time job. I'd hoped to run again tomorrow but I think I need to get the miles in more gradually at first as my knee is really aching tonight. One step at a time.

T minus 1

31 Dec 2024 19:59

Just a quick video post today, last warm up run completed, bring on 2025.

Two Days to Go

30 Dec 2024 16:42

I'm getting twitchy and keen to get started now, though the weather for two days time looks... well, it's kind of impossible to tell as the forecast varies from fine to snowing to raining to fine... and... currently we're back to snowing. To be honest, the wind looks more concerning than the snow, though.

The Social Media Challenge

28 Dec 2024 12:38

I've spent most of the last few weeks trying to make the whole social media thing work, this is proving slightly more stressful than the idea of running 50 half marathons.

About Me

My name is Chris Ditchburn and I've come up with the MND5050 challenge, which will involve me running 50 half marathons in a calendar year.

My dad was a keen runner and windsurfer but it took me until my late 30s to put on a pair of running shoes. In 2013 my dad suggested that we don the Great North Run 2014 with a group of us pulling him in his wheelchair to raise money for MNDA. Things didn't work out exactly as planned but I did the training and ran the distance with my sister and, in Forest Gump fashion, I haven't stopped running since.

I now live in the North East Scotland (well half way up but people say North East) while my parents are still in West Cumbria. Being in different countries means we have separate MND charities, hence I'm running for both MNDA and MND Scotland.

The aim is to raise awareness and funds for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) charities, which are crucial for providing support, research, and care to those affected by this debilitating condition. Through sharing my training experiences, running updates, and fundraising efforts, I hope to inspire others to contribute to this cause.

Your support, whether through donations or simply spreading the word, can help make a significant impact.

Join me in this journey to conquer the miles and support MND charities, as every stride brings us closer to a world without MND.