They say a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.  Well my journey began with a lot less Eastern mysticism and a lot more Western middle aged reality.  "Daddy you've got boobies!"   The honesty of children is universal and my 7 year old son did me a huge favour by providing me with the catalyst I needed to start my amazing journey. 

On May 25th I will be taking part in my first Marathon.  For people reading this who know me well, you will know that things don't usually come to me easily.  Generally I have to work incredibly hard to achieve and make things happen, but I pretty much always get there in the end.  And when I do get there, the achievement feels all the sweeter.

My marathon journey so far looks to be taking the same path!  

To get myself into shape and capable of running 26.2 miles  it has been a hell of journey (so far) and not always an easy one.   

I have spent the last few months training as often as possible around family and work commitments.   During this time there have been massive personal highs and lows.  

My mother in law became critically ill and sadly passed away in late February 2014. During this month my training plan had been to achieve 120 miles.  I managed a measly 12 miles as the priorities of supporting my wife and young family naturally took over.  So in early March I had pretty much had to start my marathon training again.  This did not leave me much time and with running, if you train too hard, too fast you are always in danger of picking up an injury and having to write off the whole event.  Since March I have been training right on the edge of what is safe, but in order to get my fitness up I have had no choice!  

Life has a funny way of balancing out the good and the bad things it throws out at you.  Some people call it Karma.  Having lost one family member I had the great fortune to  gain another!  In early April 2014 after several years of working with our local authority, agencies and numerous social workers my wife and I completed the legal adoption of our second son.

With this great news as motivation I really stepped things up in April, upping my mileage to a massive 140+ miles and getting my training plan back on track - thankfully without injury.  During this month I was up at 5:30 am more times than I would care to remember in wind, rain and even hail.  I took any window of opportunity to train.  I even took to running through the woods at night with a head torch which was pretty surreal! 

The man boobs have now gone (I have actually lost 2 stone) and in training I have got up to 20 (hilly) miles.  I get butterflies thinking about how tired I was at 20 and how I will have to keep going for a further 6.2 miles on the day.  I think that the more sponsorship I manage to raise, the more pressure (and motivation) I will have to keep going in those last agonizing stages.......so here is where I would like you to come in; to help me and to help an amazing cause!  

So please (like I have with my training and will need to on the day) dig deep and donate now.

Sight is the most treasured of our five senses. We see the world and its myriad of colours and shapes through the windows of our eyes. We learn with them. We laugh with them. We communicate with them. We provide for our families with them. We see our loved ones with them.

670 million people worldwide are blind or vision impaired simply because they cannot get the glasses they need. Optometry Giving Sight funds the solution - an eye exam and a pair of glasses. Delivered through sustainable primary eye care programs, we can give sight to millions in need.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.