How hard can it be to run? I have always held a secret ambition to run a marathon - but being a non runner it was a real non starter. Never one to give up I decided better late than never to give running a 'go'.

Hah! How daft am I , last year I tried, went out the house sporting my brand new trainers and came back after 5 minutes declaring its impossible - I am not 'made' for running.

Well about 6 weeks ago I found a programme called Couch to 5K (C25K), which does as it says on the tin gets you from being a couch potato to running a 5k. Being somewhat sceptical I gave it a try, 3 times a week, Day 1 Week 1 was just a 60 second jog, 90 second walk repeated 6 times. Easy I thought, even I can do 60 SECONDS! Well as the lungs were about to give up and the pain in my legs was as much as I could take I looked at my stopwatch and to my dismay I had only made 45 seconds, obviously a faulty watch. How grateful was I for that 90 second walk. Mind you my 'jog' was not much more than walking pace anyway. Getting back home I was chuffed that I had completed Day1 but despondent at what lay ahead, I would never improve.

Undeterred I persevered and kept going 3 times a week. I tried not to look ahead at the programme too much Week 5 was the first 20min jog with no walk breaks - that scared me.

Well today at 8am I graduated!!!!!! I have just finished a 5k run - 35 mins no walk breaks.

I think the last time I ran was well over 30 years ago when I was in the Army - and the only race ever was probably the egg and spoon in Year 2 Juniors way back in the sixties.

I am now going on to a programme called Bridge to 10K which all being well will get me there in 6 weeks. In fact I am now so much more confidant that I can achieve this I have signed up for the Cancer Research Race for Life - not the 5k one but a 10k one which I intend to RUN all the way!

I will be running my 10k in Stamford on 14 May and if anyone wishes to support me and help me raise funds for Cancer Research by sponsoring me then just pm me and I will send you the link. Those of you who are already my facebook friends can see it on my profile.

Today is a very good day