A few months ago I had a crazy idea.

At first I kept this idea to myself thinking it would never become more than an idea, but then I had the foolish notion of sharing it with someone. I told my wife. I told her I would like to run across the country in two days to raise money for charity. It was a mistake to tell her but I felt sure she would quickly point out the obvious folly of such a hair brained idea and it would simply die there.

"That's a great idea she replied you should go for it!"

Bollocks! She called my bluff, now I'm actually going to have to do something about it!!

So here I am contemplating how I'm going to run 130 - 160 miles (I don't even know how far it is!) quicker than it takes some people to cycle it! Well one thing is for sure if I'm going to risk my life, sanity and marriage for some hairbrained idea that will take over every waking thought for the next few months I'm going to have to do it for a bloody good cause. I thought of two. St Oswalds childrens hospice in Newcastle and Unicef. St Oswald provide care, support and respite for children and adults and their who have a health condition that will not get better. Unicef helps children who face the worst conditions imaginable - extreme poverty, disasters, war and abuse. You can denote to one of or both of the charities.

Thankfully I've now manged to rope in Stuart Grey to also take part so we can now begin training. My training will involve running 10 miles by Christmas. After christmas run to and from work everyday running further each day. Then run 20 miles in January, cycle the coast to coast and run 40-50 miles down the Northumberland coast over 2 days in February. Do a 40 mile run in March and if we survive that complete the coast to coast on the 17 and 18 April 2010. Stu is training for a Iron man event in France so this will be his warm up!

Please, please, please support us and our two charities by giving as much as you can and maybe my idiotic idea will turn into something positive! By denoting on this page you are donating to UNICEF click on the link if you would prefer to denote to St Oswald's http://www.justgiving.com/carl-rutherford

Thanks Carl