Blood, sweat and tears for the kids.
Cardigan second row Rob Connolly will be running in aid of NSPCC when he tackles the London Marathon next month but it was a desire to fight the flab that got the experienced rugby man out on the road in the first place.
The doting father of Mari who has been a regular in the Cardigan strip for many years has never tackled a full marathon before but has been training hard along the roads around Cardigan where he lives and this hard graft has worked wonders for both his fitness and his weight.
“ My initial motivation was purely to lose weight as ten years ago I weighed in at 26 stone 5 pounds and I was really unhappy with my size and decided things needed to change.
“I wanted to lose weight for health reasons mainly but also to be a better rugby player and I am now down to 18 stone flat.”
Rob who has been on a strict alcohol free diet is currently running around 30-35 miles a week and he has put rugby on the back burner over the past few weeks but his plan over the next month is to try and juggle training for the marathon with playing for his home town club.
“I really want to help my club Cardigan achieve its season ambition of securing promotion and to hopefully get to the final of the WRU Bowl if we can get past Amman United in the semi final.
“ I have done a few half marathons over the past few years and really wanted to try a full marathon and test myself physically and mentally and I am looking forward to it”.
Rob who works with BT is running as part of ‘Team BT’ for the charity NSPCC and as a group they are looking to raise a combined amount of about £50,000.
Ambitions for the race?
“ First of all I want to finish it! And secondly I have got my eyes on sub 4:30 and I am hoping I can achieve this as I will have my wife Sami, daughter Mari, my mum Mandy and brother Richard and his girlfriend Gemma waiting at the finish line.
“I feel very privileged to have been given this opportunity to take part in such a highly sought after event and running the marathon will be a huge challenge for me and I would like to thank all who have offered their kind words of support and generous donations so far to this much deserved charity.
“ If anyone would like to make a donation or sponsor me please follow the link below to my just giving page.
Please give generously to this very important charity.
https://www.justgiving.com/R-Connolly1
