Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, two cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

The Decision Is Made

by Russell Turner - 16:22 on 28 August 2026

There’s no going back. I’ve accepted the Comic Relief place for the first London Marathon of the Double weekend, on Saturday April 24, and chosen to use the Enthuse fundraising page that comes with it rather than my usual JustGiving page. Amazingly, I’m already at 23% of the required £2,500, mostly thanks to a very generous Chatterbox contribution. If you’d like to add a little more, go to 2027tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/russell-turner

Cats Protection had turned me down earlier this week, leaving only Breast Cancer Now to reply and time running out to say yes to Comic Relief.

The only major decision left to make is what nights we’ll stay in London. Two or three? Leaving Sunday or Monday? It would be good to strut around on Sunday, in my finisher’s medal and shirt, to watch the second race, but come the day I might want nothing more than quiet and a comfy seat.

One decision already made is that earlier in the week I’ll stay with friends outside London so I can dash in and out again to hit the Expo while it’s relatively quiet. Visiting on Thursday or Friday might be best avoided; I certainly wouldn’t want to be a Sunday runner going there on Saturday. Another decision is that I’ve rethought my training plan and reduced it from five days to four: Tuesday to Thursday, long run on Saturday. If gigs get in the way (although the diary is currently worryingly empty) I’ll swap the long run and a midweek one.

That’s four months away, to the start of marathon training. In the meantime I’m preparing as best I can for next weekend’s post-lurgi Banbury 10k. After that there’ll be some base building, then a half marathon plan ending with the 10-mile Lossiemouth Turkey Trot on December 13. If a gig gets in the way, no matter – the training plan is the important thing, getting me ready to begin London training which begins on December 29.

I’m not going to fixate on a target time; I just want to enjoy the day and finish happy – preferably without fainting. If training goes so well that I get a good time, that will be a bonus.

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