Well that's it! After 5 months of training I completed the London Marathon is 3 hours 55 minutes. It was an incredible experience - thanks to all of you for your donations!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. My name is Pete Etherington and I am running my first ever marathon - the London Marathon - on April 23rd to raise money for Alzheimer's Research UK. I have been training since the end of November and I'm following a 'sub-4' plan to hopefully get me round in under 4 hours. This is ambitious given it is my first attempt but you've got to have a stretch goal!

Dementia is now the number one cause of death in the UK - with one in three people born today developing dementia in their lifetime. Dementia costs the UK economy in the region of £26bn, which is greater than the cost of cancer and heart disease combined. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's Disease and the money I raise through donations to this page will go towards helping Alzheimer's Research UK continue the amazing work they do to better understand the causes; develop treatments and ultimately find a cure for this terrible disease. They believe in the power of research to change the future - and their mission is to bring about the first life-changing dementia treatment by 2025.

I have lost both my grandmothers to Alzheimer's Disease and dementia - and most recently we lost John Etherington, my Uncle John. Uncle John passed away in the evening of the October 2nd 2022 - the day of last year's London Marathon to which I'd applied but been unsuccessful. The ballot for 2023 opened on October 7th and I applied immediately. I somehow knew that I would get a place and could run in memory of Uncle John, my Gran and my Nan - and with your help, hopefully raise lots of money to help find a cure for this awful disease. By the end of October I had my place confirmed and I contacted Alzheimer's Research to offer to raise money and benefit from the support of Team ARUK!

Interestingly, in 1993 when he was 48 years old, Uncle John ran the London Marathon. I was very proud of him doing this but at the time I was a little concerned that he was doing it 'at his age'. When I line up in Greenwich at the start of the 2023 London Marathon, I'll be very nearly 54!

I am relatively new to running - and never thought I would be able to run any great distance due to arthritis in my big toes - and to be fair, the thought that it was just too hard! Nevertheless, in 2016 at the age of 47, I signed up for a 10k and downloaded a 'couch to 10k' training plan. It is surprising how quickly you increase your distances when you do it properly and don't try to do too much too soon. The best guidance I received was to run very slowly - most of your running should be at a pace where you can hold a conversation. I wish I'd known this when I was younger and maybe I wouldn't have had to wait until middle age to be the fittest in my life!

I think my running really began to take off during lockdown as I worked from home and saved the 3.5 hour commute into Central London - taking advantage of my 'allowable exercise' time! Since the start of lockdown in March 2020 I have covered nearly 4,500 miles. Although I have been running enough weekly miles for marathon training, I'd always written off being able to actually run 26.2 miles in one go! Yes, I'd worked my way up to half marathons and did the amazing Great North Run but afterwards I thought: could I really run another 13 miles!!

If you've read this far - thanks again for your time! All donations would be very much appreciated - it doesn't matter how much. 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. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

I'll keep you posted on how the training is going and you can see my runs on Strava below.

Kind regards,

Pete.