It is quite amusing, well to me anyway, that this month’s column on my London Marathon training sits right next to a piece about sugar dependency. For those reading this online it will make no sense whatsoever...but picture this: there is an image on this page of a well lipsticked-up woman’s mouth taking a bite out of a massive slice of cake.

Anyway, back to why this is amusing. It’s amusing because when people find out I am training for the London Marathon the next question is usually why?

Why indeed?! I must admit I ask myself that many times and the simple answer is....I like cake. This journey began when I was four and a half stone heavier and it will hopefully not end just at the finish line. Don’t get me wrong, I NEVER want to do this again, but what has got me through these past couple of weeks – which have been hard – is the fact that I can do this. Only this weekend I achieved my longest distance to date – in the entire history of my life. I ran 18 miles. I actually meant to run 17 but my route couldn’t quite make 17 – it went over so I ended up with 18.

Up until that point I had been feeling rubbish about this marathon. Rubbish about myself, fed-up with all my plans of going for a run being hampered by husband’s late meetings at work, children not sleeping through the night so me not sleeping through and just general rubbishness. But on Saturday, I got my belt bag ready with electrolytes, my bottles of 50:50 juice, water and salt and I set off through Maidenhead, along the Jubilee River, through Windsor, up to the Copper Horse and back and then

back through Datchet and home to Slough. It was epic. And it was done.

At the moment I am struggling to curb my eating. I am hungry and so eating too much and not thinking about what I am eating and when. So I need to reign that in.

I am now booked in to run Reading Half Marathon on Sunday, March 22 and then the Surrey Spitfire which is a 20 mile run on Sunday, March 29. These will both help me prepare for the actual ‘race-day’ atmosphere. Stories filtering back from those who have run the marathon before say it can take a good half hour to get to the start line – putting on time for your eventual finish and that the first few miles are so littered with other runners you end up weaving more than you do running. For an ex-rugby player that’s not that difficult.

There are only seven weeks until the marathon. I have a long way to go. But you know what? I have already done 18 miles. I could never have thought of doing that let alone do that this time last year. And it feels good. That’s why I’m doing this.

Rebecca Curley