Edinburgh Marathon 2014, Venture Scotland & a promised pint :-)

Just a little bit of uncharactersistic, self-promotion on the blog today I'm afraid ...

... as some friends, family and colleagues know; I reach a fairly significant age-milestone this coming December, 2013  :-(

And ... somewhat insanely I know ... I plan to run the Edinburgh Marathon in May 2014 (next year) when I will indeed be a stately 50-years old ;-)

I have run 5 Marathons before, a very long time ago in 1983/1984, when I was a mere-youth at 19/20years of age. The five I completed, none of them at any great speed I hasten to add, were:

1. Belfast, May 1983 (Northern Ireland)
2. Glasgow, September 1983 (Scotland)
3. Dublin, October 1983 (Eire)
4. Seven Sisters, Eastbourne; February 1984 (England)
5. Barmouth, April 1984 (Wales)

... and, rather foolishly in hindsight, at the completion of the last one in April 1984, I bet my Dad I'd run another when I turned 50-years old.

The bet was for a pint and a fiver.

I'm not bothered about the fiver, but I do want to win that pint :-)

I also plan to do the run for the charity, Venture Scotland - you can read more about them here ... and my JustGiving page is here (that was an unsubtle hint!).

I was involved in the early days (1988) of Venture Scotland, when it was initially formed, and established its unique brand of personal development programmes for young people aged 16-30, who face complex and difficult problems. They are a great charity and really do deserve as much support as possible.

And, for the duration of my training, I also intend to keep a blipfoto diary (for 1-year only) from May 2013 through to late May 2014, to record my running and fundraising exploits ... you can see that here.

My last blipfoto entry will hopefully be of me, drinking that pint :-))

I now promise to keep all-things fundraising on the blipfoto diary, and via twitter, and the blog will promptly return to much more important matters, such as the shocking progress with my Allotment-crops this year ;-)