Last year I trained for the biggest physical challenge of my life - the Greater Manchester Marathon! The training was a real hard slog but I completed the 26.2 miles in a time of 4 hrs 9 m 37 s. It was a fantastic feeling when I finished and actually realising that I was going to complete the distance when I got to the 23-24 mile stage. I also raised nearly £1,000 for Charity thanks to so many kind donations.

You may call me mad but yes I have decided to run the same marathon again this year. I got such a buzz last year that I want to do it all again for the experience and hopefully beat my time. I'm aiming for 4 hours this year but I'm not too sure whether I'm quite on track for that in my training. That said, my main aim is to try to beat last years time and if I can break 4 hours in the process, it will be a massive achievement for me. 

I am currently up to 21 miles in my training with 4.5 weeks to go and I have been running the 15.5 miles into work a few times as I stepped up my training the last few weeks.

I am conscious that many people get asked to donate for Charity but as I have been putting in the long hours on the road, in the early hours, cold, dark, wet and wind, I felt I had to try to raise some money for a good cause.

I have decided to run on behalf of Cancer Research this year. Many of us have people who have suffered from Cancer and my Dad died of Cancer 3 years ago so I would like to try to raise some money to help to conquer this awful Illness.

The money raised by Cancer Research supporters for this event will go towards More Tomorrows, a unique campaign to fund the construction of groundbreaking laboratories for the Manchester Cancer Research Centre.

I know everyone gets so many requests to donate to Charity so any donation whatsoever would be very much appreciated. if you can't don't worry about it.

Please Gift Aid it too in order to raise some extra cash!

Many thanks for your support.

David.