So, at the start of 2017 I made a list of New Year's resolutions and for some stupid reason, amongst other things (haven't improved the Spanish or learnt to cook more dishes), put 'run a half marathon' on that list...

I signed up for the Royal Parks half marathon, at the time thinking that I'd have a full 10 months to train and maybe even chuck in a couple of 10k's in the build up to October. That didn't happen...

What actually happened was that I went pretty much a whole year playing no football, doing minimal running and spending sessions in the gym thinking about how heavy the weights were that I could lift or how squats would help me with boozy nights on the dance floor. There's definitely been progress on that front.

With 12 weeks to go until race day I panicked and, to my relief, found an achievable 12-week half marathon training plan for beginners. I've made decent progress with the training plan but running this race will not be a walk in the park (pun intended). There will be times that I regret how much beer I've drunk in 2017 so far and many more that I curse the horrendous lack of natural pace with which I was born and/or my complete lack of a 'runner's frame'. But I'm gonna make sure I get round.

No particular sob story or heart strings to be pulled with my choice of charity but it does have personal significance to me. My granny suffered from Alzheimer's and I can attest that it is a horrible disease. Over a good 10 years we saw a deterioration from a healthy functioning woman, to someone pretty forgetful and confused, to someone who no longer knew who we were, who could hardly eat and had without exaggeration zero quality of life for at least 3 of those years.

It is a horrible disease and the Alzheimer's Society is a cause that I feel is well worthy of a little support. I know everyone asks for sponsorship for everything these days but please help me raise £500 for them and in return I'll put my legs through a pounding the likes of which they have never seen before.

Cheers!

Jamie