It seems that after my valiant attempts to win the 2008 Manchester 10k (the margin between me and first was only about 40 minutes, so given that the earth is 4.54 billion years old, that's nowt), Usain Bolt and Haile Gebrselassie have decided to pitch in, in what is effectively a three-way race for the title.  I have the disadvantage of running in the pink wave, but Usain Bolt will probably stop trying properly about 2k from the end, waving his arms to the crowd, and if Gebrselassie is anything like me, he'll still be feeling a bit queasy from doing the Dubai Marathon back in January.  Advantage Brunger.

Anyway, regardless of whether your credits have been crunched or not, £5 will be put to loads of good use by Chicks, so do not for yourself alone and give me all your money to give to someone else, or else.

I would make the same vain boast as last year, that if you give me lots of money I'll do it in fancy dress, but you have to actually give me enough notice to get a costume.  And in this year's vain boast I would point out that I am not going to go as ANY of America's Most Wanted, or as a Rangers fan being chased by a riot policeman.  Manchester has had enough of the latter, and I am too scared to be the former.

If I raise over £500, I'll carry it around the course with me, in 1p coins (unless it turns out that 50,000 one pences is too much to run with, or that the temptation to just buy 50,000 Fruit Salad chews will be so great as to be detrimental to charity).

MONEY.  AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.  FOR THE KIDS.

Ta.