Fifty Shades of Pain: Training for the Great North Run

Ever wondered what it's like to train for a half-marathon when you haven't done any running for over twenty years, or have never run before? Well, this training diary/blog is for you.'Suckered' into entering the Great North Run (just over 13 miles from Newcastle to South Shields - all uphill) in 2008, at the age of 54, I wrote this training diary as an excuse to email work colleagues with the updates, so that I could repeatedly remind them to sponsor me.I received a lot of positive feedback - mainly about how much they were enjoying my suffering. But it seemed to work and I raised over 1100 for WaterAid.Then, for some reason, I did it all over again in 2009, and reported on my training once again.Both years' training are included in an effort to inspire, inform, and entertain you.