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On the afternoon of 30th September 2012, having covered 42.2km (26.2 miles in old money) in just under 5 hours, I crossed the finish line of the Berlin Marathon, sparked up a cigarette, gave myself a pat on the back, and said 'never again'.....

....four months from today, on 6th April 2014, I will be ready to embark on my second marathon, in the lovely city of Paris.  Along the way I am hoping to raise a few quid for a good cause.

My chosen charity this year is my local branch of the Samaritans, in Hillingdon.  I recently attended an information session there, with a view to becoming a listening volunteer.  Unfortunately, I'm unable to commit to the next 8 weekend induction training in the spring, but it is definitely something I want to revisit when I have more spare time, hopefully later in the year.

During the information session, one of the volunteers explained that the branch costs £17,000 per annum to run, almost all of which has to be raised via donations.  So, whilst I am disappointed not to have enough time to give just now, I wanted to choose them to be the beneficiaries of any money I can raise doing my little race.

Training starts soon (it really needs to, I've not run more than 5k since the last marathon!) - edit - apart from a single 10k in the Summer that i'd forgotten about

If anyone would like to make a donation, then please click the linky below - thanks :)

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/clairemacgregor1

Have you decided to do this so you can 'spark up another cigarette'?  ;)

Good luck much respect  :)up

Thanks Graham :)

got off my bum for the first time in a couple of months this morning and went out for my first training run.  Only covered a mile, so a lot of work to be done, but don't want to risk overdoing it straight off the bat.  I know from last time round that, as long as I can comfortably cover a half-marathon-ish distance beforehand I'll be able to get around the course on the day. I'm also probably a bit too cautious since pulling a muscle last summer which resulted in being on crutches for a week and not being able to run at all for three weeks.

I picked up a new pair of running shoes the other day which are by far the comfiest I've ever had - they seem to be doing a lot of the work for me, which I'm obviously very much in favour of :)

Healthy eating starts this week as well - have put on a bit of weight over the past few months and feeling generally run-down/lethargic.  On top of getting my fitness back I'd like to drop a few pounds and feel good inside and out on the run up to getting married in July. 

This is going to be a fantastic year :)up

Blimey! I haven't asked you yet.

I have a plan b just in case x

well that didn't go quite to plan!

I got lazy and training never really got off the ground - a 5k parkun every 2-3 weeks (my last being a month ago) was pretty much the extent of my running over the past few months.  After discussing it with Dan about 4-5 weeks ago I made the decision that I wasn't going to be fit enough to take part, decided I wouldn't race, and closed down my fundraising page before anyone donated.

The trip to Paris was all booked though, and over the last week or so I figured it would be a shame to waste the entry, and I knew I'd feel terrible pangs of jealousy watching everyone else take part, so decided that I'd give it a bash anyway, with no pressure on myself to do a particular time or even finish if my body told me to stop.

So, perhaps rather foolishly, I found myself lining up at the start of the Paris Marathon yesterday morning, and finally crossing the finish line some 5 hours, 20 minutes and 32 seconds later.  An amazingly beautiful course around the city, weather was perfect and atmosphere fantastic.  I'm really paying for the lack of training now - my legs are absolutely killing me - but that's massively over-ridden by the sense of achievement :) 

Here's a few video clips of my race (I'm wearing the same top as in my avatar pic).  I think you can see from my face in the shots from 35k just how tough going it was.

Would I do another one?  why the hell not!?

http://www.asics.fr/runnerstv/?r=61914&e=MP14M&n=MACGREGOR+Claire&nt_s1=00:00:00&ct_s1=08:45:31&nt_f=06:25:43&ct_f=15:11:13&nt_s2=01:39:57&ct_s2=10:25:27&nt_s3=02:16:59&ct_s3=11:02:29&nt_s4=02:53:50&ct_s4=11:39:20&nt_s5=03:30:20&ct_s5=12:15:51&nt_s6=03:39:17&ct_s6=12:24:47&nt_s7=04:11:08&ct_s7=12:56:38&nt_s8=04:49:39&ct_s8=13:35:09&nt_s9=05:31:19&ct_s9=14:16:50&nt_s10=06:08:42&ct_s10=14:54:13&k=21k&l=en&gotostream=true

Terrific effort Claire.