It is usually not a good idea to race an Ethiopian, especially in their own back yard.  Yet this year I will be lining up alongside two-time Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie and an estimated 40,000 others to do just this!

I love running.  My friends and family will attest to my tendency to eulogise about the benefits of running - both physical and mental - to anyone willing to listen and sometimes to those who are not!  So when the opportunity came along to combine running with my passion for travel – together with some serious fundraising for a great cause – this was an opportunity I could not resist.

However it has not always been like this.  A little over 3 years ago, the thought of running a mile made me break out in a cold sweat!  They say a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.  Well my journey began with a lot less Eastern mysticism and a lot more Western middle aged reality.  "Daddy you've got boobies!"   The honesty of children is universal and my then 7-year-old son did me a huge favour by providing me with the catalyst I needed to start my amazing running journey. 

In November 2015 I will compete in The Great Ethiopian Run, the biggest road race in Africa, to raise money for Vision Aid Overseas.  I completed my first ever marathon last year and am some 2 stone lighter than before I began to run, so the distance itself should not be a problem.  However this 10k race comes with its own unique challenges.  Addis Ababa is the highest city in Africa.  Elevation at the highest point of the run is almost 2,500m (8,202 feet) above sea level.  Because of the reduced air pressure at higher altitudes, oxygen diffuses into your red blood cells more slowly.  This means that your blood passes through your lungs without being completely recharged with oxygen from the air. This drop in blood oxygenation corresponds with a drop in VO2 max, a direct measurement of the oxygen absorbed by your body during exercise. 

So without getting too scientific, this is going to be tough!  Just being at altitude, let alone running at altitude, affects people in different ways. Just being in Addis Ababa many people will suffer from altitude sickness and shortness of breath even when taking a sedate walk.  For this reason our itinerary includes 3 days of acclimatisation before we are allowed to run. Then there is the heat. The average temperature in November is 23⁰C, compared to an average of 9⁰C in my home city of Manchester!

It is extremely hard to prepare for running at altitude, but over the coming months I will be training as hard as I can to get my cardio vascular system in as good shape as possible.  Part of my training plan includes a couple of runs up Snowdon.  It is likely to be raining and at just under half the height of Addis, it’s not quite going to replicate the conditions, but as my ‘local’ mountain, it’s the best I can do!  I will be posting regular updates on how both my training and fundraising are going.

Vision Aid is an international charity dedicated to fighting poverty by transforming access to eye care in developing countries. 670 million people worldwide (one in ten of the world’s population!) are disadvantaged by poor vision and a lack of spectacles. Amazing when you consider that we work with spectacles every day and may have hundreds or even thousands of frames in our practice! Vision Aid don’t just distribute unwanted spectacles to those in need, the charity also trains doctors, nurses, ophthalmic clinical officers and technicians to provide them with the skills needed to work in optics. The dream is that eye care services in these countries eventually become self-sufficient.

Whilst I am in Ethiopia I will be visiting one of Vision Aid’s rural projects.  To go into rural areas safely I will have to have extra vaccination, but it will be a unique opportunity to see a real-life project first hand and to witness the benefits Vision Aid bring to real deserving people.