Michael Walker of the Chippenham Community Hub
I am 60 years old and a retired maths and science school teacher. In my retirement I have become the Education Trustee for the Chippenham Community Eco Hub in Wiltshire.
Since retiring I have been careful to remain active. I really do think that the best way to maintain your mental health, is to exercise. I have found that running is perfect for me.
I ran the Chippenham half marathon soon after retirement and several others since – never exceeded 13 miles (best ever time was just less than 2 and half hours). The full Clarendon Marathon will really push me both mentally and physically. I am now at the age where I have developed stamina for long runs. However I am conscious that I shouldn’t overexert myself and try sprinting. I don’t want any torn ligaments or snapped tendons.
I am determined not to think of the 13 mile distance but just run at a sedate speed and mentally focus on the moment. That should work!
I have watched one of the Clarendon videos and the route through the countryside from Salisbury to Winchester looks brilliant.
For more information about Chippenham Community Hub, please do visit our website: www.chippenhamhub.com
We do our best to help anyone in our community in the following manner:
- Signposting those in need e.g. homeless, abused, unskilled and unemployed to various support agencies.
- Helping those same people directly, if we can, should appropriate help not be readily available for them. For example, we provide IT support for job applications, social activities and clubs to help them gain confidence and make friends (we hope to introduce therapeutic gardening and free personal one to one tuition with an online school).
- Provide a meeting room and Hubs with IT support (kindly donated by public) for community groups and other charities to use.
We get no financial aid apart from public donations, and have been in existence for exactly one year in Chippenham town centre. The Community Eco Hub is run by volunteers and our paid marvellous part time manager, Ladonna. Many people say how they love the Eco-Hub and how much happiness it has brought to the town.
When I found out about the Clarendon Marathon on the internet, I seized the opportunity to do something everyone told me was crazy, i.e. run the full 26 mile marathon. However, I wanted to do so to raise some money towards our rent and utility bills in sponsor money.
Mike Walker