Steve Burnhope used to run a few marathons when he was younger, but his last effort was the New York Marathon, way back in 1983. After giving up running 20 years ago, he decided to 'come out of retirement' at the ripe old age of 47 to run the 2004 London Marathon for this year's Harlequins' supported charity, the British Paralympic Association.

Steve has a few challenges to overcome to run this race. Firstly, there's the small question of training to go from 'nothing' to '26.2 miles' in just over 4 months! Secondly, he's had some early injury problems to contend with that have hampered his preparations. Thirdly, as well as being 20+ years older, he's 'a few stone heavier' than when he last ran seriously.

With a personal best for the marathon of 3 hours 19 minutes, when he was aged 26, Steve has set himself a tough target of 4 hours this time around.

Steve writes: "Raising money for the BPA is a huge incentive to me. It means I'm not just doing it for me, but more importantly for a really worthy cause. That helps a lot when it comes to putting in the hard graft in training. To run a marathon means you need to do hours and hours of running in training, even when it's cold and rainy, and of course, these hours have to be fitted in around work and family commitments, which is never easy.

Knowing there's a lot of sponsorship money depending on me to do it is a real motivator, so do please give whatever you can.

If you are a UK taxpayer your donation will be increased by almost a third at no cost to you. Many thanks for your support -------------------------------------------------------- Steve is sponsored by Quinssa and you you can follow his progress on the Quinssa website http://www.quinssa.org.uk