The Beginning...

OK, so here's the story:
Having partied through my youth up until my current age of 27, I managed to blag my way through school and university, gradually receiving worse grades as time went by. I now work for a large company in the wine trade, which, although highly enjoyable and a superb place to work, does present a certain temptation to get carried away with excesses. I have smoked moderately for 10 years (10 a day, more if drinking) and have consumed a lifetime's quantity of alcohol and junk food, amounts that older generations would  not have thought possible in their youth. However, on 10th March 2010 I decided enough was enough, and crunched up a full packet of cigarettes and threw them in a bin in the other side of the street in Baker Street, London.

I decided it was time to change. Signing up for a marathon was the first step, actually doing enough training to get a good time was the next. I wanted to prove to myself that I was not too old to still achieve a sporting goal, and that I hadn't completely ruined my health (fingers crossed, then!). I guess giving up smoking was the important thing, but I have always had an adventurous spirit and I felt I had lost this and my life was going nowhere, so the moment on Baker Street was fairly revelatory - I still had that spirit and desire to really achieve something!

Obviously I have had these kind of moments before and gone off the rails/given up pretty swiftly afterwards, so hopefully writing this blog will give me some kind of motivation, as the more people who read it will be more people I let down if I give up! I also hope that I can help other people to achieve their goals (or they can help me!) by sharing their experiences with mine.

Unfortunately, I don't think that either of these things are really enough to keep my focus in the long-term, so I really wanted to challenge myself. The challenge is: to run this marathon in under 3 hours, with no previous training or distance-running experience. Madness? Perhaps, but if I don't set my sights high, I have the potential to lose interest unbelievably quickly!

Fortunately, I have always possessed a high metabolism and fairly wiry physique, yet have never had the fitness or stamina for long distance running, and my first run confirmed this; I arrived back at home after a mile and a half run barely able to breathe, let alone walk or run. I was horrendously out of shape and this was going to be hard.....

ps. I am not a self-help guru, I am genuinely doing this off my own back and hope I can really be an inspiration to others