I've been dreading this post ...

I've been so good, I've walked over 100km, I haven't missed a day in the last 3 weeks … but it almost all came unstuck last Sunday.

Let me paint the picture …

Need to do a long walk to really help the preparation for Peru; search online and I find a lovely 15km round route in Garrigal National Park starting and finishing at Roseville Bridge; choose it as its very sentimental as I used to walk in the bush there as a child. Have lots to do on Sunday, but decide if I set off after lunch I'll have plenty of time. Tell Julie I'm walking around Roseville Bridge, print out a Google map. Race around doing stuff in the morning … running late … get the car washed … running later … get to the bridge at 2.30. Phone battery half flat but I'm sure I'll be able to keep up my 5km/h average and get around no worries. Set off on a beautiful afternoon, enjoying the sunshine.

First km goes well, pass a few people, feeling good about the pace. Second km easy. Third not bad, accidentally take a track offshoot that slows me down a bit, but convinced I'll be able to make it up. Fourth bloody slow … hmm, will this work out OK?

Umm, why is the nice wide track turning into a barely marked trail? Uhh, I thought this was nice and flat following the water but now I'm bush-bashing up and down sandstone outcrops. Oops, took the wrong turn again. Realise as I scramble through some scrub that it probably would have been a good idea to bring a first aid kit just in case.

Now about 8km in, on the return track … but its now almost 5pm and its getting dark. Realise my phone battery is almost dead ... pressing on as fast as I can and starting to think I should have put a bit more planning in to this.

9km and its getting very dark - and now the track turns inland. Am I going the right way? I can't check with my phone as I want to save the battery in case I need to call Julie. It's almost pitch black and I think to myself - wouldn't be funny if I trip and break a leg … really should have told Julie exactly where I was walking …

Crap, its pitch black now, can barely see the ground, going as slow as a … well I don't know, but bloody slow. Try to call Julie to tell her I'm still alive but I discover my phone has died completely.

Now 6.30pm and have no idea how far to go, thinking my wife will not be pleased (you'll understand if you know Julie).

Finally reach the western side of Roseville Bridge at about 7pm. Out at last! But I can't see the track up to the bridge as its so dark - have to continue on. I feel so depressed as the Bridge fades away in the darkness behind me.

Continue walking and finally get to a road … that leads to another road … that leads to another - but at last one I know, up in Roseville … finally follow the road to the bridge and across back to the car: I can charge the phone and call Julie!

Oooh - it's almost 8 and she expected me back at 5.30 … but at last the phone works and I call home. Julie answers ... we 'chat' … we 'chat' some more … and some more. I discover that:

• she has filed a missing person's report with the police
• there are aspects to my ancestry I hadn't heard of before
• only idiots … and tourists … and me … head off into the bush totally unprepared and don't tell anyone about it

Its clear … I was an idiot. Peru will be easy after this!

I've been slack ...

But now I'm a changed man! OK, I've compared myself to that Wolverine guy (happens all the time), I've claimed washboard abs (who uses washboards these days anyway? Isn't that what wives are for?), I've made out I'm exercising …

But now I am, I really am!

I am on a roll - and I don't mean the love-handle kind: I've walked 5 days in a row - covering more than 34km! Feeling good? You bet - until of course I think on the fact I have to do almost double that, and up at 4,000m rather than 40m …

But thanks to all of those fantastic people who have so generously sponsored me over the last couple of months I won't give up.

Thanks to:

Ai-Media	Denn Foley	Mark Harper	Peter Mattick
Alasdair King	Elevate Fundraising	Martin Shew	Peter Pritchard x2
Anonymous #1	Evelyn Mason	Martyn Hartley	Rinse Jan Boersma
Anonymous #2	Garlyk Ltd	Melissa Richardson	Rob McLintock
Anonymous #3	GoFundraise	Michael Shepherd	Roz Taylor
Anonymous #4	Hayden & Lea King	Moana Wood	Sharon Everson
Anonymous #5	Healthbase Pty Ltd	More Strategic	The Copy Collective
Anonymous #6	Howard Birley	Natalie Villarroel	The Prospect Shop
Anonymous #7	Ingrid Steyns	Nicole Tofler	THe Squad
Arsenio Alegre	Jan Chisholm	Palin Comms	Timothy Puddle
Chris Ragland	Lisa Humphries	Pareto Fundraising	Tristan Croucher
Dan Geaves	Lysh Hansen	Paul Roberts	Verto Ltd
David Sutton	Maria Muniz	Paula Lucey	Yvonne Keane

And of course my gorgeous family :) 

If you want to see proof, I've been logging my walks here: www.mapmyfitness.com/profile/15921375/

My New Washboard ABS!!

I know what you're already thinking. OMG Jim, looks a LOT like Hugh Jackman…….. 

Frankly I think that goes without saying…

But what I'd like you to focus on here are the abs (and not what I am about to confess) You see the training with the TSK's is going great guns. At least it was. I climbed several "mountains" aka Long Reef golf course in the past few days but due to work commitments the training has taken a little bit of a backseat. 

The good thing is my new shorts work really well. They were all a part of the new clothing package that Julie and Alena splashed out on for my birthday. They are shorts, no pants, no shorts, no pants again….. They have a zip at the thigh so I can adjust them - and funnily enough they appear to have a duel purpose, hiking shorts one minute, appropriate attire for underneath my motorcycle gear the next!!! 

One other piece of great news is that I have been carb loading. I've heard that's great for you when you're training…… I'm not sure if chips and eating out each night (for work purposes of course) is what is meant by "carb loading", but hell, I'm giving it my all. 

So my abs and I are now thrilled to be pumped up and ready to tackle the weekend ahead. Only issue is that after a long arduous trek in the wilds of Collaroy I am ready for a nap by 2pm. I'm sure that's simply due to the long work hours and has nothing whatsoever to do with my fitness levels. 

I'm hoping that despite my likeness to Hugh, I don't get mobbed. I think I'll be OK.

https://shepherdcentreperuchallenge.gofundraise.com.au/page/HungerfordJ

Days 2 and 3 The Quest for the Body Beautiful

Days 2 & 3

It occurred to me early on Saturday morning that perhaps as the time is looming closer, that I should be starting to get serious about my training. Up until now, my 'training' has consisted of walking Hugo and Xanthe my trusty side kicks (TSK's ) around the streets and possibly to the park in the mornings. Don't get me wrong, the TSK's love their morning walk - as do I, because (a) no one else in my family will do it, and (b) I get to listen to all my nerdy pod casts that trust me NO ONE wants to listen to in the rest of the house.

So, I came up with a plan…… It was genius. I devised a pure "Jim Hungerford" method of training…I got the backpack out (it now stinks so no one will be using that one again…), filled it full of weights - now let me explain "weights" I had to improvise here. Similar to MacGiver I searched the house for suitable "weights", fearing Julie would kill me if I stole out anything of substance, I resorted to …… yes filled hot water bottles…… OMG Im a genius. Then I found some old leg and arm weights that Julie had bought me in an earlier lifetime (funnily enough to avoid the whole "hot water bottle scenario" ) and I think I had a decent 10kg in total. How do I know this? because I guestimated - I'm as good as positive - of course it could have been 20kg, it felt like 50kg by the time I returned. Its a bit like catching fish - it just gets bigger.

Anyway, I got off track there for a second (must remember not to do that when I'm actually on the trail), so I set off with the TSK's and we walked for about 3kms…. Please restrain yourself from gasping. After taking the TSK's home I continued on my own with my MacGiver backpack and headed out again into the wilds of Collaroy. Only issue? it pissed down. So there I was, in my new trekking boots, my new shorts and my nerdy pod cast happily blaring away and I looked like a drowned rat. I fear this is a taste of things to come.

To be continued…….

https://shepherdcentreperuchallenge.gofundraise.com.au/page/HungerfordJ

Dodging Llama spit ...

And not just with this!

In June as well as dodging llama spit, quite possibly floods and wondering if I should have laid off the chips a little bit more.

Yes its day one of my training! as you all may know by now I'm preparing to climb the Inca trail in Machu Picchu in June.

At first I thought I would just rock up there and walk it. When Julie couldn't stop laughing at me, I started to re think that plan and figured that perhaps my training should begin around now. So bear with me as I document the trials and tribulations of my "training" with you all. Because I seriously don't want to be the one left at the end of the pack everyday……..

https://shepherdcentreperuchallenge.gofundraise.com.au/page/HungerfordJ

The UK is launching "The Big Ask" to improve how often & how well charities ask

The Funding Commission in the UK (set up by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations) has reviewed the state of individual giving in the UK - from 2007/2008 to 2008/2009 giving declined by 12% in real terms. Our own benchmarking report of the tax campaigns of 28 Australian charities showed that between the 2009 and 2010 campaigns the money raised per donor mailed decreased by 8% (but charities contacted 11% more people so the gross still grew 2%).


The Funding Commission's response is to propose a campaign - the Big Ask - which aims to:

• Improve the quality and effectiveness of all forms of fundraising
• Help develop, support and promote innovative approaches to asking
• Promote the importance of the work of civil society organisations (CSOs)

It will do this by working to "increase the confidence and the competence of all those involved in asking for funds for charities, including trustees, chief executives, paid fundraisers, volunteer fundraisers and communications staff."

A great idea, and I just hope it works! Regardless, I'm sure we will be able to pick up many good ideas by following the process. The paper form the Commission is here:
www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sites/default/files/Paper_7_Individual_Giving_0.pdf

 

Could regret be used to motivate donations?

I was reading the following article about the strong motivating power of feeling regretful:

http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/index.php/Kellogg/article/learning_to_use_regret/

It made me wonder - older donors are already the cornerstone of individual giving. If we asked them "do you wish you had made more of a difference to the world with your life?" (in effect) - and then offered them the opportunity to do that via supporting a charity - would they further increase their giving?