Paul’s ‘100 miles for Mind’ in October

Me and my running team after the Chester Metric marathon

For anyone who doesn’t know – Mind is a charity that provides advice and supports positive mental health. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness, and promote understanding.

Running helps my mental health in a lot of ways – it helps me stay calm, keeps me active especially on days when you don’t feel like getting out, and it also helps me focus better at work and with everyday tasks. Not forgetting the amount of energy it gives me and keeps the pounds dropping off!

Talking of mental health, when I started at Viva a few weeks ago, Tony mentioned a wellbeing scheme that they have in place for all staff called Juno – you get £40 a month to spend on whatever helps your wellbeing, so it was only right that I spent my first points on some new running gear!

Last week I was amazed to see my fundraising target of £100 smashed, with donations more than double that amount. For those of you who wish to donate, you can do so by clicking this image:

I’m not sure how many miles I’ll be doing on which days, but a lot of my miles will be with my running club, the Blackburn Road Runners, on a Monday and Wednesday.

My current weekly mileage is around 20 miles per week so if I do an extra five I should be on track for a nice round 100 for the month. Anything more would be amazing!

I decided to take on this challenge to maintain my running momentum after this Sunday’s race. Sometimes it’s so easy to undo all the hard work and efforts I’d put in – and forget what a buzz you get out of exercise.

I saw the 100 miles for Mind challenge pop up on my newsfeed and instantly signed up to it – it’s the perfect challenge to keep me going whilst raising much needed funds for the Charity.

It also ties in nicely with their five ways to wellbeing – connect with others, be physically active, learn new skills, give to others, and pay attention to the present.

I signed up for this challenge before I started working at Viva. On my first day I noticed that Lancashire Mind is one of their clients – which made me even more determined to succeed with the challenge.

The support from my family and friends has been amazing, they’ve all made sure they’ve donated and passed on comments of support, some that couldn’t be put in this blog!

I’ll be keeping you up to date with how I’m getting on. You can also keep up to speed with me on Strava.

If you see me pounding the streets of Blackburn and Darwen make sure you give me a beep or a wave!

Paul Cooper
Account Executive