2 Challenges over two months and just one request

In April I'll be racing in the Marathon Des Sables. It's said to be the world's toughest foot race and involves running 150 miles across the Sahara desert over six days. Temperatures will reach a body busting 49 degrees, the sand dunes are said to suck all the energy out of your legs, sand storms can reduce a grown man to tears and to cap it all I will have to carry all my supplies for the event.

To put that in perspective that's like running from London to Manchester carrying a small child running in temperatures not unlike an oven through treacle-like sand. It is probably the hardest thing I've ever faced.

The following month I'll be cycling nearly a thousand miles from Land's End to John O'Groat's. Myself and three others will be covering the distance in eight days averaging well over one hundred miles a day. In itself it's a tricky challenge but the question is whether I'll have recovered sufficiently from the marathons in the sand.

You all know the drill with Just Giving. You pledge some money to go to the charity and then they shave off their pound of flesh from the Gift Aid part. All pretty straight forward. For these events I've chosen the Royal British Legion and the Disaster Emergency Committee fund as my charities. The work of the Legion is well known; they provide help and support for ex servicemen and women from conflicts in the distant past right up to the present day. The DEC is the group that organises help and aid whenever there's a major disaster, most recently in Haiti, although there are plenty of other examples.

So that's it. Nothing much more to say. I've added a few photos and I've pinched a video from YouTube to help illustrate.