OK, so the easy bit was getting the place in the ballot....

So here we go. The first post of many in the hope that will allow you to share the pain and pleasure of training for and running the Flora London Marathon in April. If just one person reads this and becomes motivated to get outdoors and run, then I will think I have been successful. I truely mean that.

To kick off with a bit about myself - I am a pretty regular 42 year old British male, 1.75m and 79 kgs (must loose some weight before April) living in Holland who for some unknown reason, after promising himself never to run a marathon again after Chicago in October this year recently received the coverted letter confirming that I won a place in the FLM 2006 ballot. Hurrah! The fact that I had forgotten that I had even entered the ballot shows you how expectant I was. But there is probably a reason for this, which I will expand upon later.

I am not a great athlete but I run regularly (am regularly injured of course) and have competed in two marathons in the last two years - Berlin in 4:13:38 and Chicago 4:00:21 (damm!). I'll keep my ambitions for my FLM time to myself just in case the competition (Mrs B.) is reading this.......

Anyway here I am, getting ready to start my 18 week (!) training program which I reckon I need to begin on Dec 19. Still a couple of weeks to indulge myself in eating and drinking whatever I want before the serious work begins. I will follow a Hal Higdon training plan Intermediate 1. I'd love to try the Intermediate 2 but feel that with the demands of my job I would just never be able to follow. That, by the way is the first and last reference to work on this blog although I may mention KLM in the next few months as I spend a great deal of my time on KLM planes and am not happy with what they are up to at the moment......

But as always to any story there is more to it than just me and a marathon. My wife, Mrs B. is also running FLM 2006 and I am not saying that she is competitive but there has been a sudden and dramatic interest in my training program in the last few days. Mrs B has a charity place and I have offered to help raise funds as well - more of that later. She is also on past records faster than me.

So there we have it - the first post of many. Lots to tell and lots to share. Stay with it.