Wow. Incredibly humbled by everyone's generosity – that's 17.5 donors AN will be able to add to the registry in addition to Amy who skipped the middleman and joined in place of donating!

Here's the moment I crossed the line.

Managed to finish in 4:09:58 – hugely pleased, but I put it solely down to the excessive Ibuprofen I consumed pre- and during the race. This thankfully drowned out the Iliotilial Band Syndrome which dogged me the last couple of weeks – could have been a stupid move, but seems to have worked!

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From Before:

See that photo above? That's me after my first training session. See the sweat? See the redness of my cheeks? See the cheeky pout? It's all in aid of Anthony Nolan – saving the lives of people with blood cancer who need a blood stem cell transplant.

After missing out on the London ballot one too many times, I thought I'd look a bit further afield to pop my 26.2 mile cherry. Achilles-willing, on Sunday September 28th I'll be running in the 41st Berlin Marathon.

Anthony Nolan is a genuinely brilliant charity – it costs £100 to add a new donor to the database, so I'm hoping we'll be able to add 15 people, and (potentially) save 15 lives. Powerful stuff.

If you want to check in on how I'm doing follow me @zakazaka.

If you're really interested, you can see how I'm getting on at http://www.strava.com/athletes/5867886 – over the last three months I've racked up over 260km (160 miles) and climbed the equivalent of The Shard, Eiffel Tower, Empire State, Canary Wharf, Tower 42, The Gherkin, The London Eye, and Croydon's very own Nestle Building – combined. Not statted out yet? In 12 weeks I've been running for a combined 25 hours which has allowed me to listen to the audiobook version of Andew Marr's "A History of the World (unabridged)".

Thanks all – wünscht mir Glück, as they say!

Tom

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Anthony Nolan is a brilliant charity and your donation will be put to good use, but If you're unable to donate for any reason, do have a think about joining the register – especially if you're under 30.

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.