I’m not a runner. In fact I hated running all my life really. I could never do it. I didn’t want to do it. I’d barely jog for a bus. I’m overweight, I’m unfit and the idea of running for fun was compeltely alien – even when I was at my fittest. I am pretty much there again but in January 2013 I managed to plod round a half marathon. So why did I do that? I did it because I wanted to raise money in memory of my best friend who had died tragically the year before and I wanted to do do something which was a huge challenge and big event. So, I plodded, with the help of my girlfriend Kath, round the 13.1 mile course at Disney World in Florida and then I didn’t run again really.

So this blog is about picking up that journey. I don’t know why I want to run again, but I do and I want to tackle that challenge that is a full marathon. The notion that I can do that is of course utterly ridiculous – but so was the idea that I could do a half marathon.

We have booked our trip to Disney World for January 2016 and we are there for the Marathon weekend. Registration opens soon and I will register – that will hopefully keep me going on the days where I really do not want to put my trainers on – and there will be lots of them.

I’ve been reading stuff about running online, I’ve been looking at training programmes… The thing is, most people seem to go on about how brilliant that sense of achievement is when you have completed a hard run but very rarely do you hear/read people admitting that some times it isn’t fine, it’s bloody awful, it’s hard and demoralising rather than insipiring. This blog will be nothing if not honest. I’ll share my stupidly slow times, my running ups and downs and my thoughts as I progress through the training programmes. If it helps anyone that’s great, if it gives you a giggle that’s fine too; I am afterall lapping everyone on the couch (thanks to my friend Donna for that one!)