Charlotte’s Black Belt Charity Event

Over the past 4 years I have been on an incredible journey with Storm Family Martial Arts. Going from knowing nothing about kickboxing, to falling in love with the sport and relishing in progressing through the belt system.

This year is the greatest challenge so far – my black belt.

As well as many hours of physical testing, we also take this opportunity to give back and raise money for charity.

I chose to attempt the Thames Path Challenge 50km walk from Runnymede to Henley on Sunday 10th September to raise money for Ronald McDonald House Charities. This is a charity very close to my family’s heart after experiencing first hand, whilst our son was critically ill in Southampton hospital for weeks, just how amazing they are.

Luckily, I did not have to embark on this journey alone and managed to rope my husband into joining me!

We set off from Runnymead at 6am Sunday morning bright eyed and bushy tailed, naïve of what was to come.

The route was a beautiful, and the sun was shining which made for a wonderful (if not a tad sweaty) setting for this long walk. We tried to cover as much ground early on as possible to avoid the afternoon heat and managed to reach the lunch stop 30km mark by 12.30.

After a quick sandwich, getting our sore feet taped up by the medics and a fresh pair of socks – we continued onwards. The 2^nd half of the challenge certainly did test us! The flat terrain made for very sore tight muscles, being the same position for hours, but the comradery of the amazing people around us kept our spirits high.

After a long 9 and a half hours we finally saw the finish line, our 3 children ran towards us with flowers and cards making those last few steps all the more bearable. One final push and kick of adrenaline saw us sprint over the finish line all together.

The elation we felt in that moment was incredible and to see our children’s proud little faces made it all worth while.

A burger and massage later (courtesy of the great Ultra Challenge team) we could finally sit back and say – yes – we did it!

In total we raised £1300 thanks to everyone’s generous donations!