I have to say that when the alarm clock went off at 7am on Saturday morning, the thought of leaping into action to join Trevor Heyworth and the rest of the Tecni-Cable team for its ten mile sponsored hike was enough to make me want to hide under the duvet for the foreseeable future. However, the promise of a sunny day and the opportunity to raise money for Somerset’s Secret World Wildlife Rescue was enough to spur me into action…along with Trevor’s promise (or bribe) to stuff us with copious amounts of beer and food at the finish line!

So at 9.30am, nine slightly apprehensive looking people met outside The Crown pub (which sadly hadn’t opened yet) in the village of Churchill. The day’s explorers consisted of myself and James from ADPR, along with Trevor, Melissa, Bob, Wendy, Ingrid and Dean from Tecni-Cable.

Being an avid lover of the outdoors, James had come fully prepared for the trek with a back pack that was almost the same size as him and crammed full with almost everything we could possibly need to survive any eventuality in the wilderness for a few years! Trevor was also struggling underneath the weight of a heavy back pack, but unlike James his was being weighed down with the essential medicinal items of champagne and beer! To complete the team’s supplies, Bob was fully armed with his latest GPS gadget to ensure that we couldn’t get lost under any circumstances. Feeling fairly safe in the knowledge that we had enough provisions to keep us going for the day we set off into the Somerset countryside for the challenge ahead.

After four miles, several steep hills, and some unique entertainment provided by Bob’s choice of jokes, we decided to take a short break at the highest point of Black Down Hill for a team picture, a few energy bars and a well deserved glass of champagne before heading back down the hill and over the fields for the next few miles of the walk.

I'm not quite sure where the idea of running one marathon a year came from, but 2010 saw me complete my first London marathon, bringing the total so far to five marathons.  Most runners aspire to run London - it's one of the best recognised international marathons and so I was delighted when I got a ballot place back in the summer.  Luckily several of my running friends also got places, so the winter training months passed quite easily with us gradually building up our distances with long runs through the beautiful Somerset countryside, along with some quite tough races such as the infamous Grizzly off road race.  With several runs of over 20 miles under our belt, my running partner Sue and I had our sights set on trying to get as close to 4 hours as possible - which would mean knocking 16 minutes off our finish time from Paris Marathon last year and 12 minutes off my previous PB.

To be honest, we weren't convinced in the crowds of the London race we could achieve that, but it gave us a training target.  Luckily we managed to get through the snow and ice of the winter without injury, and then even had a couple of hot weather runs just pre race day to get acclimatised to what may well be the total of the English summer! 

On the race day we made sure we met early to catch the train to Blackheath, and had plenty of time to enjoy the crowds and the camaraderie before the start.  In the Blue start we didn't see many fancy dress runners, but we did overtake Princess Beatrice and Sir Richard Branson just after the start.  The supporters along the route were fantastic, and I don't think there was really a single length of road without people there clapping and calling out encouragement! 

With a lot of our focus on not tripping over discarded water bottles, or other runners, it meant that much of the time you didn't really look around, so the miles passed in a bit of a blur. It was great that each mile marker was easy to spot with huge red balloon arches, and it seemed that we very quickly reached the halfway point and were crossing Tower Bridge.  My husband and children were on the bridge and shouted at me, but I have to admit I didn't see or hear them!  From there it's a long haul out along the Highway to the City and we seemed to take forever running around residential streets before finally enjoying the spectacle of Canary Wharf with its gleaming sky scrapers.  That's the point where you usually hit your lowest point with the 17- 22 mile stage being the time when you really feel the pain and stand a chance of 'hitting the wall'.  Luckily our training plan worked well and we had maintained a steady speed so we had some reserve in hand for the final few miles.  It was humbling running past people who were suffering injuries as you really felt that it could so easily be you going through that pain and disappointment.  But the crowds were fantastic, and were being really supportive.  With almost every runner sporting a charity vest, I decided I'd take my mind off the pain in my legs and try and work out what sort of figures were being raised for charity.  Even without asking many people to support my chosen charity which is Breast Cancer Care, I'd raised over £1400 ... so that's 36,000 people times let's say £500 each...oh and look, another mile has gone by!

At 24.5 miles I knew my family were at the Breast Cancer Care cheering point along the Embankment, and that was a highlight.  With only a couple of miles to go, Sue and I were really aware that if we could just keep the pace up, we were going to be pretty close to our 4 hour target.  So we kept our heads down and powered on past the Houses of Parliament and up to Buckingham Palace.  At this stage Sue was slightly ahead of me, and I have to say I didn't look around to enjoy the crowds or the sights - I was totally focussed on keeping up with her - typically competitive!!  The sign showing the 26 mile marker

was fantastic, but then there's that annoying 0.2 of a mile to go to the finish!!  Agony!  As we crossed the line within 4 seconds of each other, we realised that we had achieved an amazing time of 4 hours and 1 minute - better than we could have hoped!  We were handed our (extremely heavy) goody bags, T-shirt and medals, and hobbled off to collect our bags form the luggage store.

The support from Breast Cancer Care was fantastic, as they had a reception for their runners, with a welcoming glass of champagne and  masseurs to help us stretch and release all that lactic acid!  Would I do it again - well of course I would!  But I think having now done marathons in Paris and London, it's got to be New York next....

This week it has been plane sailing for ADPR...literally!

On Tuesday Alice and James headed down to the Solent to meet with Chemring Marine Managing Director Robert Hill, as the sun was shining we decided to be creative with our client meeting…

Thanks to Robert’s love of aviation and expert piloting skills, he kindly invited us to take a flight in his small aircraft over the Isle of Wight and the Solent. After safety checks, which made Alice and myself feel a lot better about flying and while many other Brits were stuck on the ground, due to the volcanic ash issue, we were able to take off and experience a truly wonderful flight in clear and sunny conditions, which of course we couldn’t spend much time admiring as we had serious PR matters to discuss…

As we flew out over the Solent, we saw ferries, ships and yachts cruising through the water, we then circled over the Isle of Wight and took in fantastic views of Cowes, Newtown, Sandown, Bembridge and Ryde before flying over Osbourne House. We then headed towards Hayling Island before turning back to land.

We then raced off to Port Solent to meet with the Halyard/ADPR yacht crew for the Marine Industry Regatta and once we had loaded kit, met the crew and checked over the Sunsail 37ft yacht that we were racing on, we headed to the bar for a much needed and refreshing drink.

We were able to catch up with old faces from boat shows and previous regattas before sitting down for dinner which consisted of some wonderful curry, pitchers of beer and dessert. As the drinks were flowing ADPR was able to talk with journalists, show organisers and members of the BMF as well as current and past clients before heading to bed for the night for some much needed rest. Alice enjoyed the comforts of her camper van, while Rebecca from marine trade publication IBI, James from Halyard, Rob from Zazuni and James from ADPR retired to the boat to sleep onboard.

0600 on the 25^th and life sprung into action onboard, by 0700 we had bacon rolls, coffee  while Alice, Carol Grazebrook and Robert Hill  attended the race briefing. We then set off and once out of Port Solent headed towards the open waters  proudly flying the Queen's Award for Innovation flag, which Halyard had received that morning.  Amazing, a second Queen's Award for Innovation for Halyard in four years.  

The Halyard/ADPR crew and their positions onboard were:

Carol Grazebrook – Skipper

Alice Driscoll – Main Sheet

Rob Buttress & Graham Clapp – Pit

Robert Hill – Tactician

Rebecca Watson – Crew

James Gilliam & James Tuck - Foredeck

Unfortunately we suffered a very slight grounding on the way to the Solent, with much embarrassment for ourselves, but giving everyone else in the regatta something to laugh at, which we thought was very kind of us and the only reason we did it was to grab attention for the Queen’s  Award flag (of course…)

We managed to get in a bit of team race training and using the spinnaker before the first race started. As with all races the start line is highly competitive and highly risky onboar d  a yacht with every boat trying to find clean air and space.   We didn't perform so well - with a slight navigation error taking us beyond the first mark, and came last in our first race but decided we were going to pace ourselves and things could only get better from here…

For the second race and under expert helming from Carol and some great advice from James G, we got a fantastic start and continued to battle it out with the other competitors. At the first mark we were in 4^th place and raised the spinnaker, we passed a grounded Barton Marine and battled it out with team Sunsail, we beat them to the 2^nd mark and were in second place. Unfortunately we just couldn’t catch the yacht in 1^st place but came a very respectable 2^nd.

After lunch it was time for the third and final race, with wind conditions less than perfect and unpredictable we fought hard wanting to beat our previous second place finish but it wasn’t meant to be and we had to settle for a 5^th, which out of 11 boats we are still very pleased with.

We then headed back to Port Solent for the award ceremony and to handover the yacht.

We were hoping that our grounding earlier in the day had gone unnoticed, however unfortunately it hadn't, and once the prizes for 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and best placing boat with two novices onboard had been awarded, the Halyard/ADPR team were awarded with a case of Belgium beer from race sponsors Saltwater for the outstanding manoeuver of the race… But we were still very proud of our 5^th overall, which is our highest overall result to date.

Thanks Team!

Tip 1 – Maintain regular PR. PR is a long-term process that achieves maximum results through repeated publicity. Successful firms will make PR a priority, as statistics show that a message needs to be repeated six times in order to be remembered and taken in thoroughly.

Tip 2 – Increase brand awareness. Increased external communications with customers will keep your brand in the public eye and help gain new business. For instance, ADPR has helped high profile clients such as adventure clothing company Helly Hansen achieve an increased level of brand awareness with the launch of its Adventure Challenge series, where successful PR input helped it reach a new target market of adventure sports and racing enthusiasts.

Tip 3 – Well written press releases. A concise press release can ensure that the correct message is delivered. Editors have scores of press releases arrive each day, so to get noticed, the release must be well written with a strong angle and imagery. ADPR has a team of professionals including ex-journalists who can identify exactly what the press want to see.

Tip 4 – Choose a reputable PR agency. Choosing a PR agency can be difficult. Look for credible associations such as a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), which governs the profession and implements guidelines and codes of conduct, ensuring that a quality service is provided.

Tip 5 – Make use of all PR services. A PR agency can do more than just write and issue press releases. ADPR is able to manage and implement social media campaigns, search for specific forward features, liaise with journalists, manage events, create and write newsletters and identify crucial press lists and more.

Alice Driscoll says, “ADPR recently secured press coverage for a client, which was worth 20 times their monthly fee. In another instance, working with one client’s marketing department for just £1,500 per month, we achieved more than £5.5 million of media coverage in one year.”

ADPR Ltd is a long established, full-service public relations agency. Its services include creating press campaigns, crisis management, newsletters, events and media training. Among its clients are inward investment organization Into Somerset; Taunton-based business centre Exchange House; Helly Hansen, global adventure clothing specialists; and marine electronics giant Raymarine.

Anyone interested in more information on how PR can help their business grow can contact ADPR on 01460 241641 or email Alice at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .