we don't stop, you can't stop....

"Can we tempt you back to run Nottingham?"

Eight little words in an email that make it sound so easy; a stroll in the park. 13.1 miles. 11th September. How hard can it be? I've done it before, after all....

I'm going to do it, of course. Even though I say I haven't made up my mind and I haven't formally entered, I'm definitely going to be running the damn race. For all my procrastinating, I know myself better than that. The chances are that you probably know me better than that too. My rational brain is telling me that I should be cautious; that although I seem to be running as fast now as I ever have, my endurance seems to be dropping away and I'm really struggling to run much more than 4 miles in one go. I'm exhausted by the thought of all the additional mileage that I will have to take on in the build up to the half marathon.

But since when has my rational brain had anything to do with it? My rational brain also tells me that the time I managed in 2009 (1hr 56 minutes and 52 seconds) is neither here nor there. The time that I run this year is irrelevant and it will be all about the money we raise for the MS Society.

Yeah, right.

Like there isn't a part of me that will be ENORMOUSLY disappointed if I don't break 2 hours. Rationality has got nothing to do with it.

It's MS Week this week, and Wednesday is World MS day. 100,000 people in the UK have been diagnosed with MS, and countless others - family, friends, carers - are affected by it too. The aim of this week is to spread awareness and understanding of this life altering disease. I'm not going to be baking cakes or dressing in green or blue or whatever colour your chosen MS charity suggests on Wednesday or anything like that, but if I can help the MS Society to continue to fund fantastic, worthwhile projects like the brilliant MS Nurses by running a little race through Nottingham in September, then I damn well will.

My prediction? PAIN.