I've done it - 4:38:40 and the rain stayed off 

Thanks to everyone who has contributed  - you have gone way past my £500 fundraising target! Your sponsorship gave me great encouragement - every mile I ran clocked up £30 for BHF.

But how did come about? It was when I realised that shortly after this year's Edinburgh Marathon Festival (EMF) I would be 56 - a significant age in our family. Our grandfather and uncle died of heart attacks at this age and our father had his first heart attack at the same age - though he survived for nearly three decades before suffering a fatal attack. Our mother too died of heart disease in her mid 60's.

The joke used to be that when I approached 56 I would get wrapped up in cotton wool. As the date approached I found myself instead taking on the challenge of training for and now completing my first marathon in memory of our mum & dad and other family members. 

In his youth our dad was a sprinter and a roller skate racer but due to wartime injury he suffered severe back trouble. In my youth I was never very sporty therefore it was a surprise to me that at the age of 52 I would decide to take up running having been inspired by our youngest son Thomas. He had just taken part in a Kids' 2.5Km race the same weekend as his mum had run a 10K. I went out secretly that same week to see if I could manage the same 2.5Km distance along our nearby river and surprised myself that I could, albeit ending out of puff. Slowly increasing, and with my wife as an encouraging and more experienced running buddy, I entered 5K, 10K and then 1/2 Marathon runs. This year she couldn't make the date for the EMF 1/2 - at which point I had the crazy idea that if I was going to have to run by myself I may as well go the whole way. I hope I can be an inspiration to other 'late starters' to have a go. 

Those of you who have known me a long time will know physical exercise doesn't come naturally to me. That's why I have needed support from friends old and new to get me through my training and and over the finishing line. My aim was to finish within 5 hours and then still have enough energy to walk home past Luca's for a celebratory ice cream. My time was better than I could have imagined and the ice cream tasted great.

I was originally aiming to cover at least 500Km of training runs which would have equated to £1 fundraising for every 1Km I needed to run - in order to match your generosity I have finally reached over 832Km while running on Iona getting ready for our next ½ marathon challenge. 

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Bungie