Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I’m running the Manchester marathon on 6 April 2014.  I put the application in months ago in an attempt to make myself believe I could do it.  I got my details confirmed back to me by e-mail, and it got me thinking.  The questions were:- ‘Would I like to raise money for a charity?’ ‘No’.  Would I like to be part of a ‘pace pack’?’  ‘No’.  Would I like further info about similar events and activities?’ ‘No’.  Hmmm.  I met friends and colleagues from a previous job recently, and that got me thinking some more:- ‘you’re running a marathon?? Wow! I’ll sponsor you!  Who are you running for?  What?? No-one??!  You’ve got to run for someone!  You don’t have to dress up as the rear end of a donkey or wear a tiara – you could just like – be yourself – that will be amusing enough'! 

I came away and thought ‘They’re right’, although to be fair to myself, the reason I didn’t want to run for charity was that I have visions of having to be carried off on a stretcher when I hit ‘The Wall’ mid-route. 

Why Big Issue in the North (BIITN) Trust?  Well, I used to work for BIITN, so it feels more genuine to raise money for this charity than any other.  I have met quite a few vendors, and admire their ability to keep going, despite difficult circumstances.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to do the same. 

The training’s been going OK so far, though the long runs have not been without incident.  I have been chased by geese, threatened by an Alsatian (it turned out to be chained up – Thank God!) and brought abruptly out of some reverie or other by the local shoot.  All this has made me come to expect the unexpected!

There are quite a few things going for me as well.  We’ve been fairly lucky in S Yorks this winter so far – not had the severe flooding experienced in some parts of the country, and no big freezes.  Although the ground is saturated, you can still run rather than skate.  And I’ve been consulting the ‘All New Runners Handbook’ by Bob Glover et al.  First published in 1978, this ‘Best Selling Classic’ is full of helpful suggestions for the novice marathoner:- ‘Avoid the temptation to over-train.  If you train too much, you won’t make it to the starting line.  If you train too little, you won’t make it to the finish line’ (p144).

It’s important to put miles in the bank, so that’s what I’m going to be doing over the next few weeks.  My longest run has been 14 miles.  According to Bob, I need to get up to 18-20 miles, and run that distance 3 times before marathon day; ideally  a couple of weeks before.  So although the marathon isn’t until the beginning of April, it looks like the race starts  now!