Shoot the runner

... But I've done it, I've already taken on the beast and emerged victorious?! What's more I said to my own father that if the idea ever surfaced again, he had full permission to shoot me! I hated the cold winter nights of training in solitude, the aching limbs, the self discipline it required to run further than my previous furthest ever distance every single week!... So why?, why go through all that again, and 8 years older too!

Four reasons actually. Two of them will be running it with me, third is that I now consider running as something close to a hobby (I say close to as I'm not sure how many hobbies make you groan at the thought of it) and once it became so, it was always something that was in the back of my mind to have another crack at. Last and by no means least is the charity we are raising money for, WellChild. The biggest changes in my life have probably come in the years between this marathon and the last and perhaps the biggest of all is that I now have a child of my own, so running it for WellChild is a real privilege and their amazing work holds real resonance with me.

So there it is, with a whole year to prepare and fundraise, April 21 2013 is in the diary, let's just hope my dad forgot the deal I made with him.