This is my second challenge I've set in the past three years. I may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew this time though.

Recently a good friend's father passed away from kidney failure at the age of 63. I'm dedicating this challenge to his family to raise money for their chosen charity - the Royal Free Kidney Patients Association.

So knowing that I'm only running a small distance I thought I'd set the challenge high and try to beat 40 minutes. About two years ago I trained for a couple months, stopped drinking alcohol for a month, ate like an athlete and ran two 10k's in times of 47 and 46 minutes respectively.

So the 6 minutes off my personal best is pretty daunting. I've been already told I'm unlikely to succeed without significant training, sobriety and a lot of pain.

As I really hate asking for money I thought I'd use this site to make it easy for you to donate if you want to.

So what if I fail? I thought I'd pay a pound for every 3 seconds I'm over 40 minutes. That should get me running.

So that's it. Challenge set. I'm a little scared to be honest.