Feature
Charity Fundraising
On Sunday 10 October, Olly Hughes (Deputy Chief Executive of the Hurlingham Polo Association), took part in the Manchester Marathon to raise awareness for men’s mental health and fundraise for two charities which work to prevent male suicide, James’ Place and PAPYRUS. Polo Times spoke to Olly post-marathon to find out more about his reasons for running the marathon and whether he would do it again!
Olly Hughes’
Manchester Marathon
Nearly £8,000 raised for PAPYRUS & James’ Place “
I
’ve been a casual runner for quite a few years and had done a few 10kms and one (nearly) half marathon, but nothing further than that. Occasionally the thought would cross my mind to give a marathon a go, but I found I could talk myself out of that without too much effort. However, in May this year Jason and Clare Dixon’s son, Joe, took his own life. Jason and I grew up together and learnt to play polo together; our other good friend, and Cotswold Pony Club Polo team-mate, was Paddy Cowley. Paddy had also taken his own life, in 2017. I would never have believed that suicide could touch me so closely. I wondered if there was anything I could do and then I thought that perhaps I may be able to raise a bit of money for some good causes. And all I had to do was just keep on running. “I chose the Manchester Marathon for a few reasons: my son lives there, the Hurlingham Polo shop is there and it is quite flat! On Tuesday 1 June I took the plunge and entered the race online – no turning back. The charities I chose to raise money for were James’ Place and PAPYRUS, both charities that work to prevent male suicides. I knew of James’ Place through the polo community and I also knew that Clare Milford Haven and the charity had been a great help to Jason when Joe died. PAPYRUS is a charity that I donated to in the past after Paddy died. This being my first marathon, I thought I’d better find out exactly what I should be doing to train for it. Turns out that it’s
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Polo Times, November 2021
nothing too technical – just keep running and each week go a little bit further. Then about two weeks before the race you do the final long run of about 22 miles. Apparently, you don’t train over the full distance as the last four and a bit miles are all in your head! The last week of training is the fun part when you are ‘tapering’. You reduce your running distance and eat as much as you can, all the time. When you are married to a very good chef, as I am, this makes it all worthwhile! Mind you, Vicky had been preparing all sorts of delicious meals for me throughout my training; now I could have seconds, thirds etc! I even got as serious as considering laying off the wine, however I was reliably informed that in order to have any real effect I would need to stop for a year, which seemed entirely unreasonable. So, I took the sensible option and forsook a glass the night before. After 17 weeks of training, and a week of www.polotimes.co.uk
