First post !

OK, I've been planning to commit to this challenge for a while and today's the day ! During 2009 I'm aiming to run a total of 500 miles and get sponsorship to raise funds for a charity I'm personally very commited to, Practical Action.

The charity

Practical Action aims to help communities in developing countries alleviate poverty by making use of simple technology to improve aspects of their day-to-day lives - for example to extract smoke from open fires used for cooking in homes, or install toilets which improve hygiene and eradicate disease.

You can find out more about Practical Action on their website.

The challenge

During the calendar year 2009 I'm aiming to run a total of 500 miles. That includes day-to-day training runs, as well as any races I sign up for. So about 10 miles per week, which might not seem a lot, but sustaining it over a year, and fitting it in around work and personal life, will be hard and I'm going to have to up my mileage significantly if I'm going to achieve it.

As a further incentive to reaching a total of 500 miles by the end of December, for every 1 mile I fall short of the target, I'm going to donate £1 to Practical Action.

If you'd like to support Practical Action by sponsoring my running in 2009, you can do so via my justgiving page.