Lifetime ambitions

I always remember when at school, around the age of 11 or 12, we were set an assignment to come up with three lifetime ambitions. What ambitions can you have when you're of such a young age?! Let alone a lifetime one. My goals at that time were probably to get the early bus home from school, to have chips for dinner and to see Arsenal win the league.

I did come up with three lifetime ambitions…most of the class were going for easy answers, like being a millionaire, becoming a footballer or being a movie star. Even at a young age I wanted to be realistic and go for something I could achieve. I can't remember my three answers but I remember two of them. The first being to climb a mountain…not sure where I got the idea for this one, like with most things, it probably just popped into my head as a good idea. Around the age of 20, I achieved this ambition by walking up Donard Mountain, in Newcastle, County Down. If you were to see a picture of it, you would probably describe it as a big hill but it's got mountain in the title so to me it counts…my ambition, my rules! I went up with my brother Sean, who is 10 years younger than me. I remember it clearly, we went to church like the two good little boys that we were (and still are!!), then went for a fry up which was customary at the time…it was a clear sunny day in Ireland and we went for a walk and just kept walking. It was amazing experience and one which I would love to do again.

My second ambition was to run the London Marathon, not sure where the idea for this one came from either. The only sport I was interested in, was football and I was never particularly interested in running without one. I used to always watch the start of the London Marathon with my Grandad, so maybe I got the idea from him.

It has now been 20 plus years, since I first came up with these lifetime ambitions and I have yet to run the London Marathon. However, last week I entered the ballot to run it in 2019. The Ballot works like a kind of lottery, whereby 50,000 people are picked from 350,000 applicants. These are not exact figures, as the organisers do not reveal this information, nor how the ballot process works…I can't help but picture someone picking out the names from a tombola…it would explain why the results don't come out until October 2018.

There are other ways to get into the London Marathon. One way is the Good for Age entry, which would require me to run a marathon in 3hr 5mins for my age group by August 2018. Considering it takes me 25mins to run 3 miles, this is not going to happen!

The other option is to run for a charity. These often require an entry fee plus a pledge to raise a couple of thousand pounds for the charity….which I'm considering as Plan B.

If I don't get into the London Marathon, I will look to run a marathon elsewhere (my ambition, my rules!) in the UK or even Europe, there are plenty of options. Rome has a marathon...imagine running around the Colosseum....in the full Russell Crowe Gladiator outfit.....I can hear the theme tune now!