Friends On 29 January I will be running the Tough Guy. For those who don't know, this is the Endurance Course gone mad: eight miles through mud, submerged tunnels, ice, fire, broken glass, barbed wire and electric fences. There will be no GaGa theme tune. Over a third of even those mad enough to start fail to finish in a typical year; most of these are from hypothermia. During its history two people have actually died. I have already signed my "death warrant" to absolve the organisers of any claim should I catch it up during the event. The organizers claim that running the course involves risking barbed wire, cuts, scrapes, burns, dehydration, hypothermia, acrophobia, claustrophobia, electric shocks, sprains, twists, joint dislocation and broken bones.

I am raising money for the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund; this was a charity very close to a good friend of mine David Fairbrother who unfortunately passed away whilst on patrol in Afghanistan last year.

David loved running tough guy and did on multiple occasions, once as a smurf and once in a mankini.

Unfortunately at 18 stone though I’m not quite the athlete David was which will make this a very tough challenge for me but I know with the memory of David with me and a good group of friends running alongside me we will all finish and make him proud.

I understand its January and money is tight at the moment but please dig deep and give all you can to this amazing cause.