2020 is set to be a big year in the Houston house. Before having Naomi, we joked that I only ran marathons in even years, having run one in 2012, 2014 and 2016. I gave myself 2018 off... I went back into full time work, had a child to keep alive, a new horse to take out to play with... and frankly, I had no desire to run for more than 45 minutes! 

Whilst out supporting John doing his various ultra marathons, I was slightly jealous - and also felt like I wanted to show people that I used to be able to do this stuff too. I knew I used to be capable of it, but actually, being too busy was an ideal excuse to avoid finding out that I couldn't any more!

Roll on to 2020 and I have committed to running Race to the Stones with John; Team Houston are getting back on the road... and for once, there will be no running buggy involved! On the 4th and 5th July, we will be running 100km (over two days, we're not completely nuts....!) from Lewknor, along the Ridgeway to the Avebury stones. I've only just managed a marathon before, so this is a whole new ball game. 

I was also extremely lucky to be picked in my running club raffle to be given a place in the London Marathon; this is both super terrifying and super exciting. London was my first ever marathon and it was the most amazing rollercoaster of a day. I'm just about to embark on a 16 week training programme to take me (hopefully) from chubby mum to super plodder extraordinaire ready for the 26th April. Wish me luck! 

Wiltshire Air Ambulance is a charity that provides an essential Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) across Wiltshire and surrounding counties. It needs to raise £3.75m a year to continue saving lives, but is not directly funded by the Government and receives no National Lottery funding, so relies on generous public donations. This allows the Air Ambulance to be active for 19 hours a day, 365 days a year - and they can get to any patient in their geography, within 11 minutes.

I strongly feel that the HEMS services in the UK provide life saving care where the NHS can't manage. They can access remote locations and get to patients in a fraction of the time in a land ambulance. They can also bring hospital procedures to the patient. A great friend of mine was rescued by an air ambulance from a catastrophic riding accident and I'm sure being taken to a specialist hospital within 15 minutes of her accident saved her life - or certainly stopped her accident from being life changing.

As I will be running most of the Ridgeway in the Wiltshire Air Ambulance geography, it seems only fit to fundraise for them in 2020.