Both to get my arse in gear, but more importantly do something useful, I’m going to run 500km in 2021 to raise some money for a worthy cause.

Megan Baker House is a Herefordshire based charity who run highly specialised sessional services for children and adults with neurological disorders. They focus on all-round education through actively involved learning to provide support and better the lives of those they work with. Like almost all charities at the moment, it’s not an easy time with lots of adjustments needed, so it’s more impactful than ever to make a donation.

500km in a year isn’t anything remotely spectacular, some people reading this will probably do double that without a challenge or even thinking about it. But it does represent almost 24 half marathons, which in the space of a year doesn’t seem too bad seeing as I’ve only managed 3 in the previous 30.

When you donate to justgiving the money is transferred at the end of the week, so lest you feel cheated if I give up at somepoint, I’m pledging in the case that I don’t finish for some reason (and barring some illness or injury), I’ll match the donation total myself at the end of the year. Trying to apply as many incentives as possible!

You can follow here to laugh at my times and harass me if I’m not keeping pace https://www.strava.com/athletes/27319511

As I’ll be doing this mostly in bitesize 5k chunks, a secondary goal is to try and do a sub-20 minute 5k, which is both again not that spectacular, but also seems hilariously impossible at the moment.