In April this year I shall be running from Hornsea near Hull on the East coast to Southport on the West Coast over 5 days, over a marathon a day. I am doing this to raise funds for two organisations, Derian House Hospice in Chorley and Trinity Methodist Scout Group. In my younger days I ran quite a lot, 27 marathons, over 100 Half Marathons and even 50 mile Ultra Marathons. But this is something else, and as I build up the training mileage I will be keeping people informed through Facebook and a Blog of my progress. I also hope to publish updates daily on line as the event progresses.

Derian House Children’s Hospice is focused on specialist palliative respite and terminal care for children who may not live to reach adulthood. Support for children and their families are offered with both vision and experience, warmth and sensitivity in a “home from home” environment. You can learn more at http://www.derianhouse.co.uk

I now work as a scout leader with Trinity Methodist Scouts and would like to help them raise funds for the extra equipment they need for camping and outdoor activities.

I am asking you to help us out this year by giving whatever you can afford. I will split all funds I receive 75% to Derian House and 25% to the Scout Group. If you prefer you can donate direct to Derian House only on line through my web page http://www.justgiving.com/Andy-LewisCtoC

If you require additional information about either organisation please contact me and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you for your consideration Derian House and the Scouts couldn't do what they do without the generosity of donors like yourself.

Please return Sponsor Forms with monies collected to

Andrew Lewis, 2 Strawberry Fields, Chorley PR7 1PQ.  Home 01257278011 Mobile 07846634451 alew141@sky.com

And here's me thinkimg I might NOT do any marathons this year!

Most marathons (and HMs, really) are in Spring or Autumn, so you'll be spoilt for choice Derek.

Thanks Brian, and let us know how you get on with the HM. Like you I might consider my first full marathon in end of Sept begining of October as this is where there is a gap where the club summer road races finishes and the start of their cross country season. 

Hi Paul and everyone else who has contributed to this topic. We (at GRG) will have a meeting to see what we can do to help. A league table does seem a possibility and perhaps link this to a forum topic. Will let you know. Meanwhile, if any of you want to link up to each other as 'training friends' - this is under the training log menu - there's lots of information you can share to motivate each other through that section. just checked my mileage - have just scraped over 1000 miles myself - less than usual - so will definitely try and up this next year. Sometimes, though, its good to have a bit of a mileage rest to give your body a bit of recovery time and avoid injury (that's my excuse anyway!) Happy New Year.

Hi everybody.

Thanks again for all your contributions. I have emailed GRG to see if they have any suggestions as to how we can do this through the site. If this is not possible we could use something like a facebook group site to keep in touch throughout 2011 as we progress towards our personal goals. I do however feel that it would be good if we could keep this within GRG.

Please keep your eye on this topic and I will keep you posted.

Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for a great running year in 2011!!!!

I might consider my first full marathon probably Sept/Oct as I am currently running 40 - 50 miles per week and long runs of 16 - 18 miles each week.

I have completed 19 races in my first competitive year ranging from 5k to half marathons and the last day of the year tomorrow will see me exceed the 1800 miles clocked this year as I'm only 3 miles off it today after an intensive XC pyramid session through our local nature reserve.

But next year's priority is a) to complete the club league races with 2 to go I am currently leading division 2 and looking to be promoted to the premier team, b) to compete in the majority of this years races next year and go for new PB's, and c) go for 2011 miles in total for 2011.

I am also mulling over the idea of competing in some track events such as 3000 m and classical mile but we shall see. 

Having picked up running again in July 2010 my 2011 goals are (slightly off topic i.e times over distance, sorry :(

Improve age related score to 80% or more in three distances;

Times required 5k - 20:11 v 21:29 PB in 2010 Improvement required 1:18;

Times required 10k - 42:05 v 44:05 PB in 2010 Improvement required 2:00;

Times required HM - 1:32:20 v 1:40:59 in 2010 Improvements required 8:39

Hi everyone!

Sounds like a good idea! I'm going to try to build up to 1000 miles this year too - have done nearly 700 miles this year (I have 14 to fit in between now and Fridat to achieve this!) so I think 1000 is a realistic increment.

Good luck everyone!

Karen

Thanks for the responses Yannick, Marge and Derrick.

Very impressed with Derrick's target and distance achieved this year! I have only just this year started to take running seriously and I am on track for achieving 750 miles by the end of the year. On that basis, from my perspective, I would like to set a target of 1,200 for next year like Yannick but would be very pleased with anything above 1,000.

I think a member league sounds great but I was hoping for something a little but more dynamic where we can share experiences throughout the year and post messages of encouragement. It would be great to see individuals reaching milestones throughout the year. Perhaps a group forum area might be a way forward where it would be possible to post messages along with current distance against target, (i.e. 750/1200 steady 5 mile run today in the cold).

If there is enough interest in this perhaps somebody from GRG could give us some advice as how to best tackle this.

Thanks again for the positive responses!

Hi Paul, my target is strangely 2011 miles for 2011. This year is my first year of competitive racing and hopefully get to 1800 miles in 5 days time for the year, just done my longest long run today at 17.75 miles so it's looking good with 30 miles to go.

Maybe the GRG team can set us up a league table as a christmas present based on our recorded mileage in our logs.