I have been press ganged into running the New York marathon on 7th November 2010.  So, in a few days time, I will be hammering around the Bronx and stuff at 20km/hr to notch up a 26.5 mile victory!  They say you should rest properly just before a marathon and I'm OK as been resting for 52 years now.  Now it's time to step up and be counted (hopefully not out!).  I'm pumped and ready to go for it and will be running with a good mate, Danny, who is younger and fitter that me (but drinks like me) so I will tag along in his slipstream.

If I'm to go through all this pain, then I think it is crucial I raise a few bob for a worthy cause.  I have chosen to support the Noah's Ark Appeal in Wales which is focused on building the  only specialist children's hospital in Wales (can you believe Wales is one of the few countries in Europe that doesn't have one!).

I really hope you give generously (£20 or £100 or £1,000) to motivate me around the streets and enable me to make the cash available to fund the Noah's Ark Appeal for the continued building and equipping of this first ever Welsh Children's Hospital.

When we were young lads growing up in Port Talbot, me and my mates could easily have ended up spending many a good stay in a children's hospital if there had been one.  Instead, after yet another horrific skin peeling accident off the back of a moving milk float, one of us would be carted off to our local Beach Hospital to be mixed in with all the old men recuperating from lots of strange operations on bits falling off them (we got that to look forward to later).  Seriously, this Noah's Ark Appeal is a fabulous initiative and something I got involved with several years ago when a tiny little girl called Charlotte Church sang for us all (including my mam) in the Celtic Manor, Newport.  To build and equip and run a specialist children's hospital from scratch is no easy task and raising the cash to do all this is even harder.  They need a proper paediatric Intensive Care Unit (an area I do know a lot about) and properly equipped little children's operating theatres.  These lovely people who have dedicated themselves to doing this deserve all the help they can get. Hence my Herculian marathon effort!

So please do support me with something...and for you thousands of buggers out there that I've been sponsoring for donkey's years...it's pay back time guys so cough up £500 a piece as this run is going to hurt!

Thanks everyone.  Means a lot to me to have your donation whatever the size and will mean even more to the poor little kids who will need to depend on the Welsh Children's Hospital  in future years.  The hardest part of all this marathon training is having to ration my intake of beer - so beware once I've got this thing over and done with!

Cheers.

Chris

STOP PRESS:  Whilst I've badly torn my calf muscle running too fast up a hill, I have a witch doctor, a great physio, a complete nutter and a horse vet all teating my leg with great urgency.  May not be fit but will be there on the day!