Today, I Have Been Mostly... by Rob_Barber

Tracking my journey towards my ultimate challenge - The Paddy Buckley Round - a little run through Snowdonia; 61 miles, 47 mountain tops, 28,000ft of climbing, in 24 hours.

Will I do it?

I'll give it a damn good go!

I started running in 2007, training for the 2008 Flora London Marathon, knowing that it was a "now or never" moment for my arthritic left knee. Running proved to be a revelation, its like having new knees! I never liked running when I was young, yet always wanted to run in the London marathon, and when I did it on behalf of the Spinal Injuries Association, it really was one of the best moments of my life.

I caught the running bug! Ran Edinburgh the following year and returned to London in 2010, lucky to have a ballot place this time. They'd been 2 tough years though, as I battled with an injury to my right achilles, but nonetheless I was now 3/4 of an hour quicker over 26.2 miles.

Along the way I have been inspired to train and qualify as a Personal Trainer. I have learned much about how the body works, how to nourish it, and how to train it. I left my full time job to take up work as a PT at LA Fitness. Circumstances were not right there though, and I am no longer with them.

Running the way I was, I would never have been able to run the Paddy Buckley, 26.2 was my limit. However, I have studied hard and now developed a technique for running which is allowing me to enjoy my running far more than I have before, is much easier on the body, and I'm getting pretty good race results too off very little training mileage.

I know I'm onto something good, and I have this other goal, life goal if you like, to make good use of all I have learned and pass it on to others, so that they might enjoy their running too as much as I am now enjoying mine. If I can earn a living from doing that, all the better.