10 Months To Go - Place CONFIRMED!!

On Thursday, it will be precisely 10 months until I run the Virgin London Marathon, and if that is not enough to fill me with fear and anxiety, then I don't know what will.

It's been a few weeks since I have been able to update this blog, but finally I am able to bring you a few bits of news that might be of interest to you.

First and foremost, I can now officially confirm that I have been granted a place in the Marathon. I will be running for The British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society - a cause very close to my heart.

As you will have read in previous blogs, my dad suffers from the hereditary disease, and sadly he is going blind. 

Whilst for many sufferers, the early signs are tunnel vision, for my dad it is quite the opposite. In his current condition he is almost totally blind out of the front of his eyes, but still retains a fair amount of sight in the periphery. Unfortunately, however, that is slowly fading too.

The target for me is to raise a minimum of £2,000. At this stage, raising that sum of money seems even more daunting that the prospect of having to run 26.2 miles, so I would be eternally grateful if you could contribute in any way at all.

I've set up a Virgin Money Giving account, which can be found at www.virginmoneygiving.com/WilliamTaylorLondonMarathon. Donating is really easy and will not take long at all. I'm sure I can count on your support!

Of course, all this fundraising is all well and good, but if I'm unable to complete the race on the day, I'll feel like a complete fraud, and you'll no doubt feel like you've been mugged off. So I guess you're wondering how my training is going, then?

Well, better than I thought about a week ago would be the best answer!

My hectic life seems to have got in the way of any sort of solid training regime, but I am due to run in the Diss 10k on Sunday (16th June), I was determined to up my mileage.

Yesterday I completed a seven mile circuit around Elmsett, Whatfield and Aldham (near where I live). It is more than the 10k I will be running at the weekend, and I'm pleased to say I made it all the way round without stopping to walk at any point.

Admittedly it was a bit slow - it took me pretty much bang on the hour - and this morning I nearly collapsed into a heap as I attempted to get out of bed, but the sense of achievement was still there.

I think I will try and get my times at this distance a bit better before I extend it again!

In the mean time, wish me luck for next Sunday, and feel free to donate to what really is an excellent cause. I'd also love it if as many of you as possible could share this blog on your Facebook and Twitter pages, as the only way I am going to raise this money is by getting the word out there!

Cheers,

Will x

Pace Training And Continued Search For A Charity

Completing the London Marathon and raising lots of money for charity has got to be my priority. Getting a good time, however, is also highly important to me. In an ideal world, I'd love to be coming in sub-three hours, but I am a realist: this will be my first Marathon, and anything around the four hour mark would be a phenomenal achievement in my books.

I recently read about the training regime of a relative who has considerable experience when it comes to long-distance running. In the build up, he used to do two long runs a week (over 20 miles), as well as a couple of shorter distance ones to build up his speed. This was an area I wanted to focus on.

In comparison to a marathon, 2.5 miles isn't much. But with very little running under my belt in recent months, I was keen to see how fast I could run this. Already somewhat fatigued from playing 90 minutes of football earlier in the afternoon, I set out with my cousin (who works as a personal trainer). We got round in 22 minutes, which isn't bad considering how long it has been, although over the next couple of months, I could really do with getting that closer to the 15 minute mark.

The main benefit I'll get from this run is fitness. Every little helps. Equally, keeping a fast pace is hard work, and it will help me with the mental aspect of running – to keep going, give everything I have got and push myself through the pain barrier, no matter what. As an old football coach of mine once said: 'never leave anything out there.'

Despite all this, endurance will be the key on marathon day. That's got to be the next aim. Within the next week or so, I anticipate giving a 6-10 mile circuit a go. It doesn't have to be quick, and I may not even bother taking a stopwatch with me, but if I can get round without walking at any point, it will be a great platform to build on.

Away from the training, the search for a charity goes on. I know this is my most realistic chance of getting a place in the London Marathon, so I'm continuing to sound out potential charities who will welcome me on board.

Last week, I registered my interest with the RNIB, on the basis that it is a cause close to my heart, due to my dad's registered blindness. In my previous post, I spoke about his condition, Retinitis Pigmentosa, and you'll probably not be surprised to hear that there is a dedicated charity aimed specifically at sufferers of the condition.

I sounded them out a few years back, but was put off by the amount of money I would be required to raise – over £2,000. However, with almost a year to raise it, I'm confident I could raise such a fee. I have written to the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society (BRPS), regarding running for them in the London Marathon. We'll hopefully find out where I stand with that soon.

Finally, I'll probably give a mention to the ballot. It opens this Monday, and if it increases my chances of getting into the Marathon, it's worth entering. I'm pessimistic about my chances, but I'll give it a go nonetheless.

Wish me luck!

Day 1 – 'First' Training Run and Search For Charity

My sister and I will run the Marathon

Let me introduce you to Sarah Taylor. She's one of my sisters, and whether or not she was drunk when she decided to join me for next year's Marathon is open to debate. She's a visual merchandiser by trade, and part time fashion blogger. From the picture, you would assume she was more pre-occupied with wearing the brightest fucking outfit I've ever seen, but in reality, she seems hell-bent on torturing herself for the next year – much like myself. Fair play.

She and I, along with my other sister Charlotte (who might yet be convinced to join us), set out on our first 'official' training run this evening. Now, I'm not going to lie, in recent years I have been quite a keen runner, so to call this the 'first training run' is just about the biggest load of crap I'm likely to tell you on this blog. It was nice to see what they could do, and especially in Sarah's case (considering she's spent the last year of her life necking the voddy, partying and doing **** all exercise), it was a pretty impressive start. Even for me though, that 26.2 miles looks a bloody long way away still.

At this point I suppose I better give you some news about where we stand regarding what we're really all here for. Charity.

As some of you will most probably already know, there are two main ways of entering into the London Marathon each year. The first is through the ballot, which I believe opens on April 29. It's a good option if you don't think you can commit to raising money alongside your training regime, but with places limited, your chances of getting in via that route are about one in four.

The second option is to sign up to a charity, pledge to raise shit loads of money for them and raise awareness for their cause. I'm going do it this way, because if I play my cards right, I should have my MBE by 40. Only kidding! I have far more sincere, philanthropic reasons for raising money for charity.

The first charity I have applied to is one that is particularly close to my heart. The RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) are a wonderful organisation who not only work tirelessly with scientists to help find ways of preventing blindness, but also make life so much easier for those who are blind or partially sighted.

My dad is registered blind. He suffers from a rare condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa, which he was born with. It affects roughly one in 4,000 people worldwide, and as yet is incurable. Throughout my childhood, I have made numerous trips to the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, where they have monitored the deterioration of his eyesight. One day he will lose his sight completely. It's a horrible, horrible condition, and how he copes everyday, I'll never know. For that reason, he's my hero, and always will be. For more information check out this link: RP (Wiki)

Today, I received and email from the RNIB, stating that they had received my registration, and would inform me soon as to whether or not they'll let me run for them. In 2013, they had 115 people run for them in the London Marathon, so out of 36,000, it's not an awful lot. The email I received gave me all the ins and outs of the process, but stated that I probably wouldn't find out until July, if I had a place. It said:

"As we only have a limited number of guaranteed charity places, your application will be subject to a selection process. We will start looking through applications in May/June and contacting successful applicants July/August. We hope to contact you by email or phone to let you know if you have been successful. If you have not heard from us by August, it is likely that you may not have secured a place with Team RNIB - if you would like to then be put onto our reserve list, then please do get in touch. 

"If your application is successful, we will ask you to pay a registration fee of £100 and raise a minimum of £1,650 in sponsorship."

As soon as I have a charity, you'll be the first to know, and I'd be so grateful if you would be willing to donate anything – no matter how small. Because, looking at how much I have to raise there has just made me s**t my pants!

Welcome to my Marathon blog!!

I'm no stranger to blogging. In fact, I'm one of those sad little nerds who, over the years, have had at least one crappy little blog on the go at any said time. One was an ill-fated blog about the comings and goings at Ipswich Town Football Club; my pathetic little musings and what I made of something that was ultimately out of my control entirely. Strangely though, I loved it, and even if only in my head, I really did think I was Martin Samuel.

So why have I set this one up? To most of you reading, this is yet another boring, egotistic blog, which in the back of you're mind you're already only giving a month until I get bored, forget about or simply give up on, with my tail between my legs. You could very well be right, but lets see, hey!

Snigger as you might, but in April 2014, I WILL take part in the 34^th London Marathon – my first! Oh dear Lord, what have I got myself into?!

At school, I was always that fat ginger kid who would come last in the cross country, wouldn't get picked in football, and would be forced by my PE teachers to field at deep fine leg in the cricket – just about the only position I couldn't mess up. Why on earth, therefore, did it ever come into my head that I could ever possibly run for 26.2 miles on live national television?

Now, you're probably thinking that me sitting here drivelling on monotonously is hardly going to help me run a marathon. Well, hopefully I can prove you wrong on that count, as I have three main reasons for setting up this blog.

The first is a little thing called accountability, and I've seen this done before with many other blogs. You know the ones; some chubby Asian-American bloke claims he can get ripped in six weeks simply by eating eggs and exercising for no more than fifteen minutes a day. Somehow he achieves his goal, ends up looking like the Incredible Hulk, but for the majority of that six weeks, he's most likely been honing his Photoshop technique.

Anyway, by going public with my decision to enter the Marathon, and indeed by writing a blog about it, suddenly it is a lot harder for me to back out. In the past I have said I would do things, only for them to be put on the back burner and ultimately forgotten about. This, though, I am serious about, and I'm willing to make myself look a right plonker if it goes balls up.

The second reason is to raise awareness for the charity I'll be running on behalf of, and hopefully to get a few donations along the way. Believe it or not, I don't actually have a charity yet, so it's not exactly a good start – but I am on the lookout, and there are a selection that are close to my heart and I've already registered an interest with.

Finally, it's an opportunity for you guys to follow my progress and offer the sort of unhelpful discouragement that will lead to my demise. I shall post updates on my training, pictures of me afterwards looking like Susan Boyle first thing in the morning, and my times in some of the shorter distance races I endeavour to drag myself through along the way.

I do hope you will take time to follow me on my journey, make donations as and when is appropriate, and above all, enjoy what I have to offer you.

Best Wishes

William Taylor

Marathon Masochist

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