Day One, Week One

Well, here goes. Day One, Week One. If you're not bored yet you may be asking, Day One, Week One of what?

Maybe I should begin by introducing myself. I'm a fat (19 stone) Early Middle Aged (34) Over Tall (6ft 6ins) non running, unfit, average bloke. I haven't done any exercise of any sort since I was 14 years old. I go to work. I watch TV and I sleep.

I am going to run the London Marathon. I am doing this not to prove something to myself, or to prove something to anyone else. I'm not trying to raise huge amounts of money for charity (although that will be a nice by-product) or to make any political statements. I am simply interested in what happens when you run a Marathon.

Every April I find myself on FLM (that's what real Runners call the Flora London Marathon) day sat on my sofa watching thousands of people running, walking, staggering around London, each achieving their own personal goal. It's like watching thousands of It's a Knockout contestants climbing their very own Everest but without Stuart Hall laughing at them in commentary.

This year I finally thought, "Why?" You would think that this question would have struck me during one of the last 25 runnings of the event. Not so. In previous years I have simply accepted that this happens. Every April, thousands of people descend on London, covered in Vaseline and hemorrhoid cream and run.

So, without any other agenda, I am going to run the London Marathon. Simply to find out what it is that makes people do it. Why they keep coming back and why some of them insist on making it harder on themselves by dressing up in all manor of costumes.

So, today is Day One of Week One of the 50 week build up to the FLM 2009. Sorry, I am not a runner so I am not allowed to call it that. For now, I will just call it The London Marathon.......don't want to get ahead of myself.