Thank you

I've run no more than four miles since Saturday. Work and obligations got in the way, you see, and its been a nuts week. But Andy and I are hoping to run a long way tomorrow and it will be good to get back into it. Also - it will almost certainly knack.

But while I'm here, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's sponsored me to run both the Paris Marathon and the Edinburgh Half. At first, only the latter was going to be a fundraising run. There's only so many times you can ask your mates for cash, isn't there. But I figured 'what the hell' and stuck the two things together.

I'm running for a charity called Scat Bone Cancer Awareness Trust. And with good reason. 

My friend Rose was telling me all about her friend, Louise. Louise had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and had started blogging about it, Rose said. It sounded a grim read, I thought, and it was and it wasn't. It was also funny and fascinating, and as thought provoking as you'd hope it would be, really. Soon after I began reading it, Louise and I started following each other on twitter and, over time, I felt like I knew her a little better. We never met, of course. But with Rose's stories, and the blog, and the tweets, I built a little picture.

Louise died last May, at only 42. A month or so later (maybe longer) Rose said how a few people would be running the 2014 Edinburgh Half Marathon in her memory. As is often the case with Rose, this was less of a statement and more of a command, and it was clear I was going to be one of the runners - part of 'Team Lou'. Okay, I said.

And as when I ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon for charity last year, you guys have been terrifically kind. I've even had donations from people I don't know, and who are supporting a run in honour of someone they don't know either. That's a knockout thing, isn't it.

So (and this needs the capitals) Thank You. Everyone. And if you want to read Louise's blog, which is now updated by her husband Alan (also part of Team Lou. Well of course.) then it's here.

And here's that fundraising link again, in case you didn't get the hint already.