One month later

I started out following the beginner's programme on the official marathon website, which worked really well to start with. However, after a few weeks, the training had built up to an hour or an hour and a half at a time, and it was getting harder and harder to find the time. I can do half an hour - sit the children in front of a DVD and make Mum a cup of tea - or even an hour, providing nothing untoward happens. And when I was on the training roll, somehow I managed to make it happen, even though I would stagger into the kitchen after a run (for run read pathetic lollop) certain that I'd taken on too much.

And then I got poorly. Fatal. Not to me I hasten to add, but to the programme. I'm stuck. Things happened to stop me before I got ill, but I ran anyway. Now things happen to stop me and I let them stop me.

I have to just get the trainers on and start again. But E (five months) needs feeding. T (three) has to be at a party in an hour. A (turned two yesterday) is being a prime pickle and I don't think mum would have a good time with him if I were to leave.

And I've got a blog to write.

Start Here

Once, a long time ago, in a life I've practically forgotten, I thought it might be a nice thing to run a marathon one day. Specifically, the London marathon. I think the idea came from the fact that the theme tune in those days was a song my mother loved, so while she was busy singing it, I watched several thousand people running through London, often dressed as fairies. Since those days, I've grown older, grown up, had a career, got married and had four children. The only complication has been James' health. He has a rare condition called Wegener's granulomatosis which is not much fun. To try and prevent this condition from ruining too many people's fun, we set up a charity, the Wegener's Trust, to fund much-needed research and provide a starting point for anyone needing to learn about the condition (see www.wegeners.org.uk). It's a London-based charity. We met in London, our first child was born in London, James works there, that's where his consultant is based, it's where the research is happening. And so the London Marathon, which had lain safely neglected at the very back of my mind for over twenty years, ran briskly to the front and announced, I'd be a good way to launch the Wegener's Trust.

'The London Marathon would be a good way to launch the Wegener's Trust!' I piped up in a meeting with the Guy's and St Thomas' charity, under whose umbrella the Wegener's Trust has been set up. And lo! Before I had time to absorb the implication of my words, I was given one of their charity places for the London Marathon 2011.

Two phrases spring to mind (well, three, actually, but I can't publish the third on a family-accessible blog). One is, be careful what you wish for. The second is, it's happening. To quote Judith in The Life Of Brian, Something's happening, Reg, (and anyone else who might sponsor me), something's actually happening. For so long I have wanted to do something active in the face of this horrible, unpredictable illness that has so much influence over our lives. And now I am. Antonia Hancocks, mother of four, the least athletic person on the planet, has somehow got to get herself to the point where she can run a marathon.