Hi

Thanks very much for checking out my London Marathon JustGiving page.

At the time of writing this fundraising page, I have now been "training" for the 2020 London Marathon (on and off) for approximately 1 year and 8 months, having originally started training in December 2019, only for the marathon to be cancelled in March 2020. With 20 months of training under my belt, you would be forgiven for assuming that I will be incredibly well prepared for the rescheduled race on 3 October this year. However, it would be fair to say that my training has been more "off" than "on" over the past year (and my lockdown lifestyle has not been entirely fitness-friendly!), so I am now facing the somewhat depressing prospect of training for a second time for the same marathon...   

Fortunately, there is ample motivation to get back in the saddle  because of the fantastic opportunity to support Place2Be, the incredible kids' mental health charity that is White & Case's charity partner this year. Place2Be provides amazing support and counselling to children with mental health issues - estimated by the NHS to be as many as 1 in 6 children in the UK. White & Case has partnered up with Place2Be over the past year to raise funds through all sorts of events, from the Three Peaks Challenge and London-to-Paris cycle race to pro bono advice and participating in schools workshops. Place2Be do difficult and hugely important work, and I am proud to be raising funds for them.

As for the running itself, notwithstanding the lengthy "training" period, I am frankly still pretty clueless - the longest race I have ever run was 10k and I seem to remember being unable to stand up properly after that, so the marathon is certainly a bit of a leap into the unknown. But I have dusted off my training plan, bought some new socks and am ready to crack on once more - at least this time training during the summer which means morning runs are in the daylight and (mostly) dry this time around...

Suffice to say my primary ambition is to survive the full 26 miles with my pride intact - but also to raise as much cash as possible for Place2Be. All donations are hugely appreciated, and I promise to do my very best to make them proud on the streets of London on October 3rd.

Cheers
Ian