We often hear the call for more doctors, mathematicians, engineers, teachers etc. In that light it is possibly not surprising that us geographers should develop self esteem issues and a bit of an inferiority complex. And as a defence mechanism our self-deprecating sense of humour would typically see us attempting to work our way through a crowd of people exclaiming "let me through - I'm a geographer". No one ever did.

Having fulfilled my dream to run the London Marathon, the second half of my running bucket list is to return to the great city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where I was awarded a drinking man's degree in Geography, in 1978, and to run to South Shields (otherwise known as the 2014 Great North Run), and in doing so to raise another £350 on behalf of my chosen charity, CLIC Sargent.

As a student I would never have dreamed of making such a journey without wheels (although I did once walk from Blyth to Bedlington at about 2AM one morning having missed the last bus back after a stag night). And now I'm doing it for fun. And since the running and the blogging and the charity fund-raising is to continue, it seemed that a brand new blog was called for to report my progress :-)

Keith