In February I received an email from Bupa Great North Run to say that I had been successful in the ballot and had a place in the 2014 event on 7^th September. As someone who left school in 1971 and hadn't run in the intervening 43 years I realised that I was going to have to make some changes and 'hit the road' long before the big day. So it was then that on a frosty morning a week later that set out along the banks of the River Tees on my first training. It was intended to be a not too challenging first step but even a flat 5k jog required a couple of stategically placed walking section in order to be successfully completed. After a couple of weeks I was managing to get around without the walks and a running friend suggested that I might like to try a 'Parkrun', this is an international movement of weekly volunteer lead free runs. And so on 19^th April I completed my first run with a group of other runners and discovered that there is a great difference between this and running alone.

Following this run I decided that it would be useful to take part in smaller events, both in terms of length of run and numbers of runners, to gain experience – a half marathon with 40,000 participants was probably not the best event for my first race. An entry was therefore made into the Riverside 5k event in Middlesbrough on 1^st June which was successfully completed without mishap and in the afterglow of this sights were set on the Great North 10k event in Gateshead in July. These two runs plus the Great North Run mean that the total run in official events will total 36k, that is one kilometer for each of the 36 years that we have been married.