It’s December 2023, and I am sitting on a beach in 19-degree heat in Fuerteventura, looking out at the cool blue backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean – all a far cry from the Breakfast Club at Stokes Bay at this time of year!
However, earlier this month, Stokes Bay played host to the first ever Christmas Pud 5k which was jointly organised by the Absolute 545 RunClub and Gosport Rotary Club. As one of the organisers with Nick Carter, I look back at that event with immense pride.
So, the weather was rubbish, so not everyone was able to sample the mulled wine, but what the club put on was an absolute Christmas cracker, raising just over £2,000 for the Harbour Cancer Trust in Gosport.
What made that cold and damp December day extra special was how everyone embraced the spirit of the occasion.
There were 249 entries, and lined up at the start by the Bayside Cabin was a veritable feast of fancy dress outfits; Christmas puddings, Father Christmases, elves, a gingerbread man, a grinch, a pink unicorn and Rachel Morgan dressed as a Christmas cracker!
In the weeks leading up to the Christmas Pud 5k, Donna Tatem became a one-woman cottage industry producing a fashionable line of Christmas pudding beanies and then, together with Vikki Mackman, each crafted bundles of children’s chocolate treats handed out by Santa at the finish line.
Of course, for Vikki, who has the club place to run in this April’s London Marathon, the Christmas Pud 5k was part of her fund-raising for the Harbour Cancer Trust, which also included a sale of running books donated by club members, organised by Dave Kitching, which raised £328. Add to that the sum raised from the Christmas Pud 5k, and Vikki had already smashed her £1,700 target before the first chimes of Big Ben heralding 2024.
Thank you to everyone at the Absolute 545 RunClub for making the Christmas Pud 5k such a success.
What a wonderful club we have!
The Christmas Pud 5k was all about community. Gosport Rotary Club, of which I am a member, is an amazing organisation which has been around for yonks supporting the disadvantaged and vulnerable.
In 2023, we dished out around £15,000 to several causes in Gosport from the Sea Scouts to a muscular sclerosis group, in addition to our regular support of the Acts of Kindness charity, plus supporting causes around the world, notably funding the eradication of polio.
That sense of community was brought home starkly at the Christmas Pud 5k by the family of Kelly Broster. Kelly, a mother-of-two, lost her battle against bowel cancer just the week before the event.
Kelly’s friend, Laura, wrote to me: “Kelly was looking forward to taking part in the Christmas Pud 5k with her husband of 19 years, Andy, her almost 17-year-old son, Evan, and her 11-year-old son, Niall.
“She’d joked that she wouldn’t be fit enough to run it, but was absolutely determined to take part and to raise as much money as she could for the Harbour Cancer Support Centre.
“Now we, the people who knew and loved Kelly so dearly, are walking it in her memory and, in the last few days, have done all we can to make sure that we have raised as much money for the charity as we can, to make Kelly proud of us all.”
And that they did, on a wonderful day in the drizzle for an event that exhibited the very best of human nature.
Already a date has been scheduled for next year’s Christmas Pud 5k when another charity will benefit from the day. I hope you will get involved. It will take place on Sunday, December 1st, 2024, and the entry website link can be found here: https://bit.ly/xmaspud5k2024
There are also plans for an Easter 5k and a Children’s Easter Mile on Easter Monday, April 1st, 2024, with entry details here: https://bit.ly/easter5k2024
Thank you to everyone at the Absolute 545 RunClub for making the Christmas Pud 5k such a success. What a wonderful club we have – now, where did I leave the suntan lotion?!
