to run or not to run....

Those of you who know me fairly well will know that, much to the amazement of my friends, I ran the London Marathon in 2004. The time was no world-beater (5hrs 5 minutes), however for a fat bloke like me the achievement of running 26.2 miles was enough.

To prove it wasn't a fluke, I ran another marathon last year, this time in Stockholm. I managed to beat the 5 hour barrier this time (4:56).

I then got in my head that I would try and run a marathon every year - just in order to keep reasonably fit and trim. This year I applied to do London again but was unsuccessful (I don't want to do another charity place just yet as the fundraising takes as long as the training).

I've identified the Cardiff marathon on October 15th as a possibility, but am struggling to get the will to go training in this heat. I've now got 12 weeks left and really that's not long enough. I've therefore got 3 options:

• Sack it for this year
• Start the training and see how it goes, if not too bad by the closing date for entries, to go for it, but take it easy and not try to break my PB
• Start the training with a view to doing the half-marathon which takes place on the same day.

Any advice would be appreciated!