Canaries’ season-ticket holder Mark Smith, will be starting the City of Norwich Half-Marathon at 11am, on November 28, at the Norfolk Showground.
His plan is then to cross the finishing line in good time and rush across the city to Carrow Road to watch his beloved team playing against Ipswich Town at 1.15pm.
The 36-year-old, who lives off Dereham Road in Norwich, will be raising money for two charities, Diabetes UK and The Cystic Fibrosis Trust.
Diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic 21 years ago, Mark knows first-hand how difficult it can be living with the condition. He said: “I was 15 and I remember I got sent home from a science lesson because I was sitting in the class falling asleep and looking painfully ill. My mum booked a doctor’s appointment for the following Monday. I was too weak to do the 15-minute walk to the surgery.” After being diagnosed with the condition, Mr Smith spent 10 days in hospital. He said: “When they tell you you’re going to have injections for the rest of your life, it’s quite scary.”
As well as fundraising for Diabetes UK, he wants to show people that diabetics are capable of doing things that other people can do.
A half-marathon is 13.1 miles. Mark has given himself just seven weeks to train and has only ever run the half-marathon distance once in training, completing it in less than two hours.
He said: “I’ve done it in one hour and 49 [minutes]. That’s purely running alone, so I don’t know how much running in a race and having people around you might spur me on. I need to finish the race, pick up the medal, dash to my lift and drive across the city to the match.”
Mr Smith started running for the first time since he was a high school pupil, when he went running with his brother around Whitlingham Broad in July this year. He started taking it seriously after October 12, where he surpassed his expectations to complete a five-mile run and actually ran for eight-and-a-half miles.
Norwich City manager Paul Lambert has sponsored Mr Smith, as well as the club’s chief executive David McNally, club legend Darren Huckerby and joint majority shareholder and husband of Delia Smith, Michael Wynn Jones.
Mr Smith is also raising money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, due to the family member of a close friend who he knows through the football suffering with the condition.
Mark said that “the young half-brother of his friend has cystic fibrosis and he has been quite ill a couple of times this year with it" he also said that it shocked him when he was told that the young lad said that "he wished his time was up" when he was ill in hospital during the summer as he is only five years old,
Mark feels ready for the run now, but is hoping that he can raise a little more for both of the charities, as he aims to continue with his running and would like to enter a full marathon in the new year. He says that "fundraising is new to him and he would like to see just how much he can raise, before deciding on which of these two charities he can support further with his running in 2011."
You can sponsor Mr Smith online at www.justgiving.com/Mark-
