I have always been able to talk a good game - as a journalist you often have to come up with hair-brained schemes and innovative ideas. Quite often someone else will follow them through, but my latest challenge is something I cannot escape from. For the past eight months, I have been yearning for the chance to run the 2004 London Marathon so when I heard on December 23 that my application had been successful it was like an extra Christmas present. Then reality set in. Between now and Sunday, April 18 I have to get fit enough to run 26.2 miles. At the same time, I have to raise at least £2,000 for my chosen the charity, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and fit in my normal work, which up until now has been more than enough to keep my mind occupied. So why am I going to put myself through all this? I will try and explain. I, like hundreds of people across mid-Somerset, watch the marathon on television every year and at the end say "wouldn't it be great to do that?" In 2003, however, I did more than that - I answered my own question by saying "yes, so get running and do it". I suppose it is a way of proving to myself than I can achieve a goal on this massive scale. But raising money for charity is just as important - helping people with Cystic Fibrosis is something very close to my heart as I have had the condition all my life. So over the next 11 weeks, I will be pounding the roads around Shepton Mallet in a very fetching reflective vest and revealing pair of running shorts. I aim to run four days a week, with two days of swimming in Wells Leisure Centre, and hope that by mid-April I will be fit enough to run 26 miles. Over the coming weeks, in this column, I will be reporting on how the training is going, talking about Cystic Fibrosis and asking other marathon entrants why they, too, are putting themselves through months of hardship.