All year we have been showcasing some of Jersey’s Cool Beans – islanders who do lots for the community, who show selflessness and genuine camaraderie and dedicate their time to helping others…For our final edition of 2021, we are thrilled to feature these two super cool, kick-ass women, Sofia and Robyn (and of course, beautiful baby Alfie)! Sofia and Robyn embarked on a twelve-month set of challenges in order to raise money for jersey Children’s Charity.
The fun thing these ladies didn’t factor in – pregnancy and the birth of baby Alfie! So, amongst the fund raising and challenges, Robyn had a momentous challenge of her own; preparing for motherhood.
What or who was the instigator of the challenge?
I decided that I wanted to use 2021 to get fit and set myself a different challenge each month. I then roped in Sofia, and we thought we’d do it together for charity. Then, oops, I got pregnant at the beginning of January. Sofia says it was an extreme way to get out of the half marathon in October (when little Alfie was due). When we were planning our challenges, we had to take into consideration that we were complete novices and the world of exercise was pretty new to us, with neither of us having ran more than a 5k before at the start of the year! The challenges were going to be tough!
Why Jersey Children’s Charity?
We chose Jersey Children’s Charity who support sick children in Jersey as we know the great work Robin Ward and the Special Care Baby Unit do for them. As we are both teachers, we wanted to support Jersey’s children in any way we can. We were hoping to raise £500 and so far we have raised more than twice that and we are currently on £1105. But there is still time to double it again…
Give us the lowdown on the challenges…
January: Complete a 10K run without stopping or walking any of it!
February: Do 50 squats every day for the whole month.
March: Do 50 sit ups every day for the whole month.
April: Cycle a total of 400K (unfortunately not on an Evie bike which would be our preferred choice!)
May: Run 3K in under 16 minutes.
June: Sea swim every day for the whole month.
July: Complete our first ever Jersey Super Sprint Triathlon.
August: By 31st August, be able to hold the plank for 4 minutes.
September: Complete half a million steps in the month.
October: Complete our first ever Half Marathon.
November: Complete 50 burpees every day for the whole month.
December: Complete 5K in under 26 minutes.
We both thoroughly enjoyed our sea swims, even though the 6am ones before we had to be in work were tough. Our biggest achievement was completing our first ever Triathlon. As we were both completely clueless (turns out a bike with a basket isn’t quite the right equipment) we both managed to complete July’s challenge! Robyn even managed to complete a deconstructed version being 7 months pregnant!
September’s challenge was clearly Alfie’s favourite after a Sunday stroll to get the steps up made Robyn go into labour 8 days early!
Would you do it again?
Whilst we wouldn’t do the same challenges, it has definitely made us think about future challenges and what else we might be capable of!
Where can we sponsor you?
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sofia-nicolle
If you’d like to donate, you can head to the girls’ JustGiving page – let’s see if we can’t boost those numbers!
