Last year the air ambulance charity came to see us at work, everybody knows of them and the great work they do and so I was given an opportunity to help them. 

Jumping out of a plane is a lot of people's idea of hell, but for me it's different, I have always loved to do things to scare myself and have always wanted to do the jump. So when I was confronted with a list of fundraising activities to help the air ambulance, I opted for the skydive! Easy choice.

My problem is that when it came to raising money for the event I feel a tad guilty, I am sat here writing down reasons why my friends and family should essentially pay for the skydive I have always wanted to do! I tell myself that all the money will go to a good cause and I know it will! But I feel that in order to justify raising the cash I would have to do more than just allowing gravity and a trained parachute to help me fall over the edge of a plane (although the closer I get to September the more I realise I may have underestimated the task!).

So as mentioned the Skydive is in September, that gives me the first major part of the year to fit a few things in. First up was the Upper Heyford Half marathon on the 20th March (yes it's been and gone :-|), I did a half marathon a few years ago but this one was special, it was set at the airbase where I did my apprenticeship, and it also fit in conviniently halfway through my full marathon training. I came 35th from the 223 people in the race with a time of 1 hour 35 mins. Not as fast as my last one but I'm really chuffed with the result and now I'm focused and determined to do well in Stratford too.

I signed up for the Shakespeare Stratford Marathon 10 weeks before the event on the 24th April, apparently 10 weeks isn't enough time to train for a marathon (according to various internet sources), but it was the most suitably dated local marathon available and so I booked in and I have been hitting the running hard ever since. Training schedules, diet plans and no alcohol mean I haven't really done much else recently other than thinking about running! I run at least three times a week with every other day a "cross training day" (cycling, circuit training, yoga or leg weights), one of those weekly runs is the dedicated long one that has been creeping up in mileage every week since I started, as of yesterday (27/03) I'm just over the 15 mile (25 kilometre) mark and will be running an additional 3 miles next weekend (my birthday weekend with no alcohol!) and every weekend following until the date of marathon, with a total distance of 26.2 miles on the day.

Two weeks after the marathon is the Rough Runner 15 kilometre obstacle course. Rough Runner is a "game show" style obstacle course that some friends and I have had planned for a while now, if you've seen the TV show "Total Wipeout" it's that but on a bigger scale! Here's the link if you'd like to see the sort of thing we'll be doing http://roughrunner.com/events/oxford-may-2016/

After that I have a shared fundraiser bike ride (with Christian who's also doing the skydive), the basic principle of this ride is to visit some of the places in the local area that have an amusing or silly name and get a picture. While the event is still well within the pre-planning phase I expect it will be an enormous 100mile loop and stop in places rife with silly innuendo. More info to come!

Hopefully that lot will earn me the right to jump out of a plane and float to the ground without a heavy conscience weighing me down. Thanks for reading and indeed donating if you've been so kind :-) more updates to follow on event progress and results.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.