October 9^th 2011, Baia Hotel Bodrum Peninsula Turkey.

We are on holiday, me, my Turkish wife and 18 month boy. I am 42 years old & have just been surprised by a fat stranger in our bathroom.

Staring at myself in a full length mirror dressed only in my underpants this is definitely NOT me, how can it be? In my mind I’m built like a muscly athlete, tall (when surrounded by short people), above averagely handsome & still attractive to the opposite sex, of a similar age, with the mentality of a younger person.

Unfortunately only the last part is actually true….  I do like to tell people that I’m above average height, though at 5ft 9¾, it’s by ¼ inch!

Taking a few photos of my stomach, just in case the mirror is faulty, proves harder than it should be,  then its shorts on & straight down to the fitness centre and the weighing scales…

At 93kgs (14st 7lbs) I am 10kgs (2 St.) overweight. This can’t be right, these digital scales are rubbish!

I go to the running machine, very p****ed off  and struggle through half an hour of what should be an easy & gentle jog but turns me purple, feeling sick and ready to collapse.  It is time for a change not only do I need to lose the weight and get fit but also I need a goal, a challenge, something tough to go for. Bent double from my recent excursions I look up at the overhead TV screen & pictures of runners in the ‘Istanbul Marathon’ appear, is this an omen perhaps?

How difficult can it be; on the one hand, once or twice a week,  I play racquet sports and enjoy walking, (our business involves mainly walking holidays in Turkey www.bespoketurkey.com  and The Cotswolds www.thecotswoldwalkingcompany.com , though I am rarely employed as a guide) on the other, as an ex-smoker, overindulgent eater & drinker,  an athlete, I’m most definitely not.

In truth, the Marathon is one of my ‘things to do before you die’-  not a life ambition but perhaps the missing challenge, something to focus on, something difficult but by no means impossible and also something in the future to boast about to my son.

If I’m going to do it, it has to be sooner than later, I might think I’m still 25 but my body and particularly my ankles and hip joint are telling me otherwise.  The couple of people I know that have done it are also not regular athletes and have previously told me, in no uncertain terms, that it is very tough and not going to be repeated by either of them. However, if it was easy then it would not be much of a challenge and giving myself a year to prepare should mean that there is enough time to train properly, that is, as long as I can stay motivated? I have a history littered with projects started and not finished. The motivation leads me on to my next thoughts; if I’m going to do it, I want to raise money for a good cause, which then leads me on to even more thoughts.

My previous experience of raising money; doing a walk for a local children’s charity, 10 years ago, wasn’t great; the money raised was sent off but I never found out how it got used? Did it help pay for childcare, or perhaps some equipment or did it get used up in administration costs?  In fact I needed to enquire several weeks later to check that it had been received?  The response was apologetic with a certificate and ‘letter of thanks’ in the post but still felt very detached from the whole process, it was blind faith on my part.

So, again that got me thinking; why not pay for something of tangible benefit & donate it, create a charity if necessary, how hard can this be?

Now both my brain and body hurt….

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