British Heart Foundation

I've now applied for the big one, next year's London marathon.

I won't know for a while if I've even got a place, but just filling out the online form filled me with a touch of trepidation, what if I actually have to go through with what I have so foolishly claimed I am hoping to attempt? I optimistically ticked the box for a medium sized t-shirt.

I've applied to run for the British Heart Foundation, because it's obvious really.

There are so many great causes and maybe I should have opted for something Bristol-based, but I was born with a hole in my heart which was operated on when I was a baby. And in 2007 I had another major operation to replace the aortic valve in my heart, which can best be described as being pretty much crucial to helping the blood flow round your heart. If that bad boy takes a day off, it's pretty much curtains. Now I have a metallic valve in place of the knackered one I was born with. This means, weirdly, that every time my heart beats the valve clicks open and it sounds like I've swallowed a clock. So I literally have a dicky ticker, (note correct use of the word literally which nobody seems to understand these days) although thanks to the amazing team at Southampton General Hospital it is no longer dicky.

One of the main reasons for this blog is to promote the idea of getting blokes like me to think about their health, as more and more men are dying of heart disease and becoming obese.

Every road you take back to health and fitness has to start with a healthy heart. It's called the heart, because it is at the heart of everything. I think.

I have also pledged to raise £3,000 for BHF by running the London Marathon, which to be honest seems more daunting than losing eight stone.

Fingers crossed for now though that I get a place, otherwise this whole enterprise will be a little fruitless, unless I get people to sponsor me to run up and down the Bristol to Bath cycle path for five hours in a marathon of my very own. I think we're all running our own marathons in one way or another. Certainly hitting the wall lately.

I was a bit naughty last night and went to Zizi's for spaghetti meatballs, instead of a bowl of water.

I did spend an hour in the gym though, and had a really good 45 minute run on Tuesday around the whole of the Downs in Bristol, which felt pretty good.

Just off for a fresh-air sarnie on Ryvita lite. Woop woop.