Running his first race of any sort in nearly 17 years Sussex Merlin’s Chairman Nick Weston completed the Vitality Brighton Half Marathon on the 26th Feb in a time of 2hrs 19mins.

Facing 13.1 miles on a cold, wet and windy February morning was not what he had in mind when he decided to enter the race in early November. 16 weeks of training later and he was one of 13,000 on the start line for the annual event.

“I hit 40 last October that combined with the news that one of my school friends was receiving palliative care for an aggressive cancer told me I had to get up and do something to help people less fortunate than myself” said Weston

Choosing to run for Chestnut Tree House, a children’s charity providing hospice care services and community support for children and young people with progressive life-shortening conditions throughout East and West Sussex, Brighton and Hove and South East Hampshire. A father of 2 young boys running for the charity gave Weston the extra motivation for those early morning runs. “It was hard, i did the great north run in 2000, since then, nothing. I was away overseas for 3 weeks and unable to train, but knowing that the money raised would help made the getting out of bed before dawn when back in the UK to run bearable during the build-up” Weston continued. Will we be seeing him doing the full 26.2 miles anytime soon? “no chance, those that do are machines.I got injured in this race which affected my time. I’ll definitely do another half this summer and I’ll be back for this one next year with a target of under 2hrs and over £1,000 for charity as my goals”.

Sussex Merlins are a community Rugby League club based in Brighton providing Rugby League for all kids and adults ages 6-60. Founded in 2009 by Nick Weston the club is one of the most prominent in the south east with mini’s juniors, men’s and ladies teams. For more info on the Merlins visit www.sussexmerlins.co.uk

The fund raising page for Nick’s run is still open and can be found at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Nick-Weston3

To find out more about the great work that Chestnut Tree House do please visit http://www.chestnut-tree-house.org.uk/