I ran the London marathon last year and promised myself (and Chris) that I'd never do it again. Running for four hours is really, really hard! (Photographic evidence attached). "Never say never" my wise old fairy godmother Maggie said to me at the time. Little did I know that Maggie's words would come full circle with an email I saw spreading the word about Womankind's work and the how important raising funds is for them to carry on doing this work. A bunch of folks were cc-ed on that email and, of course, there I saw Maggie's name (as well as the name of another kick-ass woman in my life, Annie Kelly) so, well, it all just felt like a big old sign and I put myself forward for the task of running again. Because I don't want running to get too much in the way of family life and whatnot, I seem to be rising inordinately early to get my runs in before everyone wakes up in the morning. Having done an  8 miler in the sleet last week in the dark, I really do promise that I would not be doing this if I did not have to train and if I did not think that raising money for Womankind was a really important thing to be doing. 

So, in short: please will you sponsor me?! Anything and everything very gratefully received. Thank you so, so much. And (purely in a competitive spirit directly solely at my brothers, I've attached my timings from last year which I dream of beating. Double your bets if I achieve the oft-dreamed-of-and-never-achieved sub-four?!) And, really, this is the last time! 

For more on Womankind and what they do please see: 

https://www.womankind.org.uk/

Womankind Worldwide is a global women’s rights organisation working in partnership with women’s movements to transform the lives of women and girls. Together with our partners, we are working towards; an end to all violence against women, women's economic rights and control over resources, and women's equal influence in decision making and ability to exercise political power. Our vision is of a just world where the rights of all women are respected, valued and realised