Ian Warbuton, RNLI volunteer at the New Brighton RNLI station. He’s been a volunteer for 6 years now. He drives the tractor that pulls the RNLI launch down to the river. It’s quite a clever tractor because the cab can turn around on its own. This allows him to turn around without having to move the tractor. Great for pushing the launch into the sea and then pulling it out. Ian used to be in the army and he said being a volunteer reminds him of those days. There’s a lot of banter and great comradery with the group.

I did my last long run yesterday. 6 miles at marathon pace. I’m undecided what my marathon pace actually is. I did a half marathon at 10 min / mile earlier in the year. What I’ve found through training is that after a half marathon things get harder, and harder and then seriously tough. I reckon I could do the 26.2 miles at a pace of 12:30 which is a 5 hr 30 min marathon. Pushing on to 11 min / mile means I’d do a 4:48 marathon. Nearly 45 minutes quicker. That seems like a much nicer time. In training I’ve been out nearly that long and it’s a long time. 5 and a half hours is a very long time to be running. After about 3hrs 30 mins your body runs out of the glycogen you’ve been building up through carb loading. So I’m relying on jelly babies to get me through, which isn’t too much of a problem but after a few hours running it’s hard for me to eat them as I feel sick. I have thrown up a few times after my long runs, once even on New Brighton beach right after an 18 mile run. There are so many “What ifs”, so many variables and unknowns that I simply don’t really know what’s best.

Good news though. I’ve passed my fund raising target of £1,000! I’m currently at £1,045 which is fantastic. Thank you so much for all your donations, especially to Michael Thomas who donated £135.78! It’s taken a huge amount of pressure off me. I can run the marathon knowing I’ve raised over £1,000 for the RNLI, knowing I didn’t fail. Any money raised is a good thing but I wanted to raise £1,000 and having seen others raise similar amounts I simply would feel like I failed if I didn’t. I told the RNLI that’s what I was raising so that’s what I needed to achieve. Thanks to you all I have.

You can still donate if you want. There is my Just Giving page and also a super cool way of donating via text. Just like you see on TV. Text CARR99 followed by £xx to 70070. Obviously replace the xx with your donation. So CARR99 £5 to 70070 donates £5. Dead simple. Do it now and receive a free happy feeling that you’ve helped the RNLI.