{"id":5309,"date":"2020-10-02T13:48:19","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T13:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=5309"},"modified":"2024-04-11T08:07:32","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T08:07:32","slug":"teamcardiffs-virtual-fundraisers-nelson-selvaraj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2020\/10\/02\/teamcardiffs-virtual-fundraisers-nelson-selvaraj\/","title":{"rendered":"#TeamCardiff\u2019s virtual fundraisers: Nelson Selvaraj"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Nelson Selvaraj (MSc 2015) is a staff member and former student who has just completed an impressive Great North virtual run to raise money for research at Cardiff University. Here he explains what motivated him to take on this test of physical endurance and shares his words of wisdom for those considering doing the same. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a \u2018virtual run\u2019 and how does it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A \u2018virtual run\u2019 pretty much works exactly the same as any other \u2018official\u2019 running event, but the difference is that you can choose your own location, when to do your race, and run at any pace to complete the distance you choose. It can be fun, and you have great control over how you want to run the race, but it still requires a lot of preparation and commitment, especially if it is long-distance running like a half-marathon or marathon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most virtual races work the same. Participants sign up and pay the registration fee, although some virtual runs are free. During the registration, you can select the distance that you want to complete. Once you\u2019ve completed the race, you can upload your times online and then receive the finisher\u2019s medal posted to you by the event organisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you get the idea for this challenge?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\nplan was to run this year\u2019s Cardiff University\/Cardiff Half Marathon in October\nand raise funds for Cardiff University, but due to the current pandemic, a\nnumber of popular running events were cancelled or postponed. But this didn\u2019t\nstop me doing what I wanted to do. I was very determined and started digging\nout information about virtual running events. You can get so much information\nfrom various runners\u2019 blogs, and the local running community has some amazing\n\u2018virtual\u2019 runners. Without a doubt, their passion for running gave me the\nconfidence to do a virtual race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have any previous running experience? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nwish I could say that I loved running from the very first time but actually, that\nwasn\u2019t the case. I was never an \u2018athletic\u2019 person at school or university, although\nI was quite good at long-distance walking with my friends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running\nis pretty new to me; it was a slow and steady process and took many years to\nfine-tune my running techniques. I have many friends and colleagues who are\nexperienced runners, and it\u2019s fascinating to listen to some of their running\nstories. So, I decided to challenge myself and run my first long race. That was\nCardiff Half Marathon in 2016 and I guess I must have picked up the \u2018running\nbug\u2019! After that I started to love long-distance running and began to see myself\ngrow and improve. So far, I have done several parkruns, 10Ks and five official half-marathons\n(Cardiff, Manchester, Bristol, Great North Run and Virtual Great North Run) \u2013 of\nwhich I am very proud!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What motivated you to raise money for Cardiff\nUniversity research?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis clear that the current pandemic has had a huge economic impact on various\nsectors across the globe and cancelled fundraising events have resulted in a\nsignificant loss of research funding for institutions like Cardiff University.\nCardiff University is already leading on several life-saving research\ninitiatives relating to coronavirus<\/a>, and as a member of staff and former student,\nI wanted to spread the good news and raise awareness of some of the amazing\nwork our team of scientists do at Cardiff, especially the current work around developing a new\nvaccine for COVID-19<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What obstacles have you faced while training\nfor your event?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\nof my biggest concerns facing lockdown was not being able to run. With local\nlockdown rules in place, I couldn\u2019t stick to my original training plan and it\nwas quite frustrating. But it didn\u2019t stop me doing \u2018at-home\u2019 workouts (jogging\non the spot, planks, squats and press-ups) to keep me physically active. When\nthe local lockdown restrictions were eased, I was so happy and resumed my\nrunning routines. It was tough at the beginning as I had to have a new training\nplan and start everything from scratch. Despite the initial struggle, I started\nto love every run and my pace of training was back in full force eventually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These runs were like lifelines. Not only did they help me log certain miles per week, but they also helped my mental well-being and put me in a positive mood for the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have any advice for people considering a\nsimilar task?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running\nis not everyone\u2019s cup of tea, but you\u2019re not alone. I\u2019ve been there like many\nof you. My running journey began with bit of a \u2018brisk-walking \/ jog\u2019 and my\nfirst ever long-run was just under 2K! I felt so terrible on that day, but I\nhave never lost confidence in myself and always tried to remain positive, which\nI believe is crucial for anyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare loads of training plans available online for free, which are great but may\nnot work for everyone. My advice is to listen to your own body and try to\ndevelop your own training plans and routines. This will definitely help you to\nenjoy every single run you do and achieve what you want to do. In addition, be\npart of a local running club and you\u2019ll get a great deal of information from\nrunners\u2019 blogs and the community. Involve yourself, and never shy away from\nsharing your ideas and experience (including the ones that didn\u2019t work!),\nsomeone will hugely appreciate your help. And, you will soon realise that\nyou\u2019re doing far better!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou want to raise funds for a charity, go for it! It doesn\u2019t matter whether\nyou\u2019re planning to crawl or run, people who are willing to donate will be keen\nto know about your progress so keep them posted of your achievements and update\nthem with \u2018selfies\u2019 or photos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nmost importantly, say \u2018thanks\u2019 \u2013 which doesn\u2019t cost anything!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have any future fundraising plans?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My experience of fundraising was positive and\nencouraging, so the answer is yes. I would like to register my interest\nwith #TeamCardiff<\/em><\/a> and support some of the upcoming\nfundraising events. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nelson Selvaraj (MSc 2015) is a staff member and former student who has just completed an impressive Great North virtual run to raise money for research at Cardiff University. Here he explains what motivated him to take on this test of physical endurance and shares his words of wisdom for those considering doing the same. ","protected":false},"author":1811,"featured_media":5320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[199,142,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-donate","category-news"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1811"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5309"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5331,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5309\/revisions\/5331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}