After last years efforts of running the Edinburgh Half-marathon and Crystal Palace Triathlon, this year I've decided to step it up a notch and run the Chester Marathon to raise money for Mental Health Research UK, in memory of my uncle, Mark Robinson.

MHRUK is the first UK charity dedicated to raising funds for research into the causes of mental illnesses in order to develop more effective treatments with fewer side-effects. It's an extremely worthy cause, so please give generously.

My training for the run has now begun in earnest, and 26.2 miles is starting to feel like a very long way to run indeed!