Choices, choices

My original plan had been that I would run the London Marathon. Reading around, I discovered just how small my chances are of getting a place through the ballot system - I'm looking at something like 1 in 5. Considering that both of us (the other half and myself) want to run, the chances of us both getting a place through the ballot in the same year looks even smaller.

I suppose we could have run for charity. Around a quarter of all places on the marathon are 'sold' to charity (10,000ish places out of a total of 45,000).

Theres plenty of charities offering places, but the prospect of having to raise £2,400 or more for the two of us to enter was just too daunting. Don't get me wrong, its great that so many people raise so much for causes they believe in, but the 'price tag' of £1,200+ a place seems very high indeed - far too high for me to manage, anyway.

Other marathons don't seem to have this huge 'do it for charidee' aspect; you can run them for charity if you like, but otherwise its simply for the personal achievement. You can simply apply directly - no ballot or anything.

So in September, we're going to cough up our 50 euros and sign up for the Paris marathon in April, 2007. If by some miracle we both get into London, then I suppose we'll just write off the Paris entry fee - but I'd rather get our entries in now, before everyone else who gets rejected from London has the same idea.

In the meantime, though, it seemed like a good idea to do some shorter events, to get used to running in a proper race, since its going to feel quite different than just going for a run after work. Once again, the Runner's World site was a source of inspiration, and I found myself eyeing up several different runs with an air of enthusiasm that I wouldn't have believed possible that first time I staggered round my first run.

One 'race' a month seems about the right number. It means I've got something to aim for every month, rather than just one big event in Spring next year.

So: September 10th is the Grunty Fen half marathon, October 15th is the Great Eastern Run, and November 12th is the Hellrunner.

Out of all of them, I think I'm looking forward to the Hellrunner the most. Classed as 'adventure running', it goes through woods, and mud, and water, and then up sandy hills. Its all off road, and its going to be very hard indeed for me with my pavement, on-the-flat running, but you get a teeshirt at the end, and I'm hoping its going to be a cool one (I'll be devestated if I do it all and the teeshirt doesn't say 'Hellrunner' on it!). And it'll certainly be an experience!