In seventeen weeks today, if all goes to plan, I will have completed my second full marathon.

I really enjoyed the multi-event escapade last year and it certainly kept me fit throughout the whole year. However as the year clocked on, I lost a bit of motivation with regard to the training which meant that my times rather flat-lined and I didn’t come close to any of my top three half-marathon times which I’d set in 2012.

I had said in 2012 that I would NEVER run another full marathon.

There were a couple of reasons to this thinking. Firstly, the training (to do it properly) is intense, especially when you’re trying to fit it around a shift pattern; life becomes a rota of sleep, work and run with food interspersed in the mix. Secondly, due to the amount of training I seemed to be devoting too much time to that, and didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have wanted to with Mark. So the large amount of training covers a big regret, although I know Mark was over the moon that I had succeeded and that I’d done it for him and to raise the money for Myeloma UK.

In fact, my intention for the fund-raising in 2014 involved two long distance bike rides. I had enjoyed Manchester-Blackpool last year, and there are two cycle-fests in North Wales which should be spectacular. I just need a road bike as I don’t fancy tackling the Snowdonia National Park on my hefty machine!

So why the change of heart?

To be honest, it was a weak moment. My running friend has been working up to this year’s London Marathon and if I’m honest I began to feel I was missing out. Then I received an email mentioning Edinburgh Marathon Festival and as Myeloma UK are based in Edinburgh, I knew I wanted to do it. In fact I think I entered before I had a chance to change my mind!

On Friday, last year’s Challenge website closed down and I wanted to give a little time in between the pages to prevent confusion and to stop people feeling I was always asking for sponsorship. However I did start to design the ‘advert’ (for want of a better word) for the forthcoming event(s).

Yes, events as in plural. I still need to sort out getting the relevant time off work to participate as well as getting a bike (!).

More to follow. But as I mentioned at the head of this piece, with 17 weeks to go, that means the 16 week 5-days per week training plan kicks off tomorrow!!!!