Back when I was the tender age of 29, I wanted to run a marathon before I hit my thirties, and so I entered the 2000 London Marathon.

I then did the 2000 New York Marathon, and the 2001 and 2003 London Marathons.

Now, twenty years after my first marathon, and 17 years since the last time I did one (!) I am going to take part in the 2020 Virtual London Marathon on Sunday 4 October.

This time I have 24 hours to complete the 26.2 miles, so the original plan was to start at one minute past midnight from my house to Good Hope Hospital and back for the first 9 miles, then after a quick nap, heading to Lichfield and back for breakfast (another 9 miles) and then doing the Sutton Fun Run route in the afternoon (8.5 miles).

With the sogginess of the day, in the end I decided to simply start at half past midnight and plough on throughout the night doing the house to Good Hope Hospital lap three times.

As well as proving I can still do 26.2 miles in a day now I'm 50, I am trying to raise some money for the Birmingham Transplant Centre at Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is Europe's largest organ transplant centre, carrying out the most heart, lung, liver and kidney transplants in the UK each year, but still nearly half of people die whilst waiting for a transplant.

The Birmingham Transplant Centre will be a centre for organ transplant research, with the aim of increasing the number of organs available for transplant, and the number of patients who can have a transplant.

If you can, please sponsor me something related to the 26.2 mile course - £2.62, or £26.20, or £13.10 (half marathon - and encourage someone else to sponsor me for the other half!)

(Please note - you don't have to pay any fee to JustGiving - you can choose "Other" and pick £0 when donating)

I wanted to get to £262 in sponsorship and you've helped me blitz that thank you, so let's see how far we can get - the Birmingham Transplant Centre needs £2 million :) :)

Mike