My 12 in 12 challenge! That's 12 marathons in 12 months.

Hi all,

I am just an ordinary bloke who somewhere along the line got lazy. Lazy living life, lazy physically and lazy mentally. And I could find all kinds of circumstances and people to blame for my laziness. And you would believe me and sympathise with me. Because some parts of my story would make you say 'Awww that must not have been easy to deal with, I understand he bailed out there!'

But I'm not going to because I have since found out that to let things go you need to move on. You need to live in the Now, you need to forgive the past and create the future one day at a time. So I'm letting go of my laziness by getting active. You see 7 years ago in 2008 I decided to run Dublin Marathon for charity. My first run was 3/4 mile and I had to walk back home after that. That's how lazy I got. But I stuck to it and finished Dublin 2008. Since then I have ran 17 marathons or an average of 2.5 per year.

And that's where the danger of getting lazy crept in again. I am getting stronger and can do these Marathons with less training. So it's time to move on again.

This was my post on FB last night after watching an episode of a Flemish TV program called Tomtesterom where the presenter Tom Waes went from scartch to finishing the Marathon des Sables, one of the toughest foot races in the World:

'Just watched something about running online I needed to watch and it came to me by 'accident'. I know my limits are self imposed. I know I can do stuff in running 99.5% of the population find unthinkable. I made a decision this year that my 17 marathons in 7 years (that's just under 2.5 a year) were only a beginners attempt at running long distance. So my ex 30 cigs a day smoker/ex 35 pints a week drinker attitude from a mere 7 years ago simply needs to be transformed into a 'real' long distance runner. First challenge Minimum 12 Marathons in 12 months for Gorta/ Self Help Africa in 2015. I'm going to need your support for that. Can I count on you?'

So there goes, it's Public now. I am running a Minimum of 12 Marathons in 12 months starting January 2015, just 47 days from now as my first running challenge at the tender age of 48 (I know I don't look and feel that age ;) And I am going to need your help. This Blog will be kept going as a Challenge blog. I will keep you updated on my progress and on How you can Help. You can also find more info as the Challenge progresses on my Facebook page.

I am of to a Gorta/Self Help Africa charity event in Galway tomorrow evening to talk to them about the event in more detail. Mean time feel free to check out the charity on their website http://www.selfhelpafrica.org/ie/

One more mention goes to Marathon Club Ireland. http://marathonclubireland.asocion.com/ These women and men are the most inspirational bunch of runners I have had the pleasure to meet and run with. Without them this would have been so much harder to plan. You'll here them mentioned loads of times!!

Run Proud! Run Happy! Run Smiling!