Anyone that know us, knows that we run. Sometimes we run well and sometimes we don't, but we are usually there.

However, since Juliet came along to double our workload we have, quite sensibly, avoided doing marathon training at the same time. Effectively we have taken it in turns to go through the cycle of lots of miles and hours and hours out of the house getting fit enough to complete the 26.2 miles of a marathon. This has meant that family life has not been entirely dictated by running. Mostly, but not entirely!

However, it has somehow occurred that both of us have ended up with entries for the Berlin marathon in September. There are various things to blame; 40th birthdays, vagaries of the ballot and a certain amount of foolishness.

Now, it would be fair to say that we are both confident we will finish the race, even if it's a major struggle. We've done them before, we can generally get across the finish line, illness and injury permitting. The challenge is to get to start line in the first place! We have a lot of things to overcome:

• The aforementioned illness and injury - Amy is coming back from a stress fracture and I spent most of the winter ill. We still have three months to avoid repeats!
• The battle for weekends - squeezing in 3-4 hours running each, every weekend. That's not including the time it might take if we try to do any events in the build up......
• The battle for evenings - We do have to do some sort of child maintenance like bathing and feeding I am told! We still have to eat ourselves and ideally we'd like to run with other people so try to make it to club runs.
• Children having lives too - They like to do stuff that doesn't involve running. Crazy but true!
• Occasionally see each other - Amy isn't fussed about this but Andy wanted to try!
• Trying to earn some money - We need to fit some work in around training.

That doesn't even include all the really tedious stuff like the odd bit of washing and ironing, stopping the garden becoming a jungle!

So if you think that running a marathon is a challenge, add in your partner doing the same training but at different times of day, then add in keeping two kids alive and not mentally scarring them from barely seeing their parents together.

If you think that's worth a donation to a cause that is very close to our hearts then please put down whatever you can.

Wheelpower is the national charity for wheelchair sport and you can read all about them here: www.wheelpower.org.uk. Additionally they are the major voice behind the hugely important story of the Paralympic movement, which all began in 1948 in Aylesbury and that is a story worth shouting about.

Amy & Andy