18 months ago, I was a balding, middle aged and somewhat overweight Engineer. Then in December last year, I discovered trail running. Come May, I had completed four trail 10k races and thoroughly enjoyed them in a completely mad and masochistic way, given that they featured hills, "water hazards", beaches, mud, and all kinds of other things to make them much more challenging than a typical 10k. I was still middle aged, still balding, and still an Engineer - but decidedly less overweight.

So I thought to myself "what next"? How can I keep the challenge going? And I came up with a challenge for myself. During the course of the winter and spring of 2009/2010, I would undertake four trail running half marathons, and I would add committment and motiviation by doing them in aid of four of my favourite charities.

I'm going to do four half marathons in the Endurancelife "Coastal Trail Series".

5 Dec 2009 - Gower

27 Feb 2010 -

27 Mar 2010 - Pembrokeshire

22 May 2010 -

These are no ordinary half marathons - if you don't believe me, see the elevation data for the Gower race! Completing these and staying fit through the whole of the winter is going to mean a lot of miles of training!

One of my chosen charities is The National Trust Coastline Campaign - the races are over some of the most spectacular coastline in the country, much of it owned by the National Trust - but they need help to maintain it, and to protect more of it.

So please give generously to this worthy cause, and help to motivate me through the pain of the next 6 months!

For details of my progress through the challenge, and for information about the other charities I am supporting, please visit my blog at http://mikepercival.blogspot.com/

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Please dig deep and donate now