At the start of the year, like millions of others, I made some New Years resolutions: to write more, to take more photos and to run the Berlin Marathon.

At the time, this seemed like a good idea.

Well it's now July, I've failed the first two and I don't have any excuses. What I do have however, is a chance of coming good on resolution number 3.

So in 10 weeks time I'm going to attempt to run all 26.21875 miles of the Berlin Marathon. Gulp!

For anyone who doesn't know me, I've never run a marathon before. In fact, before this, I'd never run more than 10k before. Running just isn't something that comes very naturally to me.

So what the hell was I thinking? Well aside from the fact I was looking for a challenge in 2012, I think what I was thinking was that I wanted to enjoy running. I wanted to want to go for a run.

Has it worked?

Has the miles and miles of lonely, monotonous repetition, the sweat, the injury, the agony worked? Hmmmmmmm. I'm not so sure. In hindsight maybe this wasn't such a good idea but...I've started so i'll finish.

The thing I am sure about is that my running has certainly improved. Where previously 1 mile felt like a struggle, I'll now happily (well, willingly) go out and run 13 miles or more. Yesterday I managed 15 miles and although the final 2 miles were a struggle, this is my furthest distance to date.

I realise I've still got a long way to go, but I've still got 10 very important training weeks to go and so long as I don't pick up an injuries, I'm determined I can do it.

I don't want to rabbit on too much more but one final thing...

I usualy don't like asking for sponsorship but on this occasion and because this means a lot to me, I'd be soooo incredibly grateful if you'd support my first (and probably last) marathon attempt by donating a few pound to Big C and the wonderful work they do by visiting here or by texting ROBB85 and the amount you wish to donate e.g. £1,000,000 to 70070. Really, any contribution would be massively appreciated.

Thanks everyone. I'll do another update a bit closer to the run.

Wish me luck

Rob