A combination of idiocy, a desire to prove that we can and a vague sense that it will be an adventure.

Not really. That's what everyone who does a marathon says, and I think it's most often not the case. In the end you're just trying to persuade other people to give money to charity and then taking some of the credit for their good deed. That said, since I'm running anyway I thought I'd take the opportunity to remind you to give some money to charity (we all forget sometimes) and to point out a charity that I think you should consider donating to.

I'm fundraising for the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) a charity run by Imperial College that aims "to control or eliminate the seven most prevalent NTDs". Neglected Tropical Diseases are often debilitating, painful and humiliating and cause an enormous amount of poverty and suffering, however they cost almost nothing to cure. SCI needs as little as 25 pence per person per year to facilitate delivery of treatments in Africa.

According to the Disease Control Priorities Project (DCP2) treating NTDs will provide about 450 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) per £1000 spent. If you guys meet my arbitrary target of £500 that means you will have funded health benefits roughly on a par with saving about 7 lives ~ at a conservative estimate.

Despite the low cost of treatment there are 500 million people in africa who have two or more NTDs, two thirds of the population of the continent. Come on boffins, let's get this sorted!

I'm sure you have a good point. It's probably nicely refuted here.

And of course, all money from this page goes to SCI (aside from JustGiving's fee), not to my gadding about in Switzerland.