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Hello – and thanks for dropping by…

Welcome to my WebBlog and I hope you find it interesting and helpful especially, if like me, you’re into running and running marathons in particular. First of all I have to admit that at the age of 59 (the new 39) when it comes to social networking, I’m a bit of a dinosaur but thought I would drag myself into the 21st century and attempt this website/blog for a number of reasons. 1, for fellow runners who like me enjoy reading about runners and their running exploits, especially anything to do with marathons. 2, I’m setting myself a personal challenge for 2012 (Olympic Year for us Brits) and thought it would be a good idea to promote what I’m calling my 60in60at60 Challenge, yes that’s an attempt to run 60 marathons in 60 weeks at 60 years old (or young, depending on your point of view). As well as the running I have set myself the long term goal of raising over £60k for My 6 Charities. 3rd, to log my efforts for posterity (maybe for my Grandsons Henry and Thomas when they are old enough to read) or anyone else for that matter who may be interested.

Although I’m always very cautious of calling myself a Marathon Runner after all how many marathons do you have to do before you can really use that term – 1, 50, or 100? having now completed 29 and hoping to complete 100 in the next few years, I think I can. I’m also fully aware that with a PB of 3.28.49 (London 2008) their are plenty of men and women of my age and even older much faster than me, still you know what they say it’s the taking part that counts and crossing that finish line – as Ron Hill, UK running legend (one of my running heroes) said “Get up and walk if you have to, but finish the damned race”.

So here goes – If your’e interested you can read more about me on the About Me page, but just to kick of my WebBlog here’s a idea of who I am, where I’m from and what I love doing: My name is Barry Light, I live in Bournemouth, Dorset, UK and belong to the Littledown Harriers running club. After my family, (I have to add that to keep the wife happy, but it’s true!!!) my other passion in life is running and in particular (you guessed it) running marathons – I love the challenge, the commitment and the achievement of completing this iconic distance. Although I ran a few back in the 1980s and 1990s, I really think that my marathon journey started on the 28th April 2008 when I completed my first London marathon in a time of 3.28.49. That day changed my life forever and I soon decided that I wanted to set myself a goal of running at least 100 marathons in my lifetime, and become a member of the 100 Marathon club. At the moment I have run 29 including, in 2010 7 in 8 weeks 5 of which were consecutive, I had hoped to do 8 in 8 weeks having also included the New Forest marathon on the 25th September, however, a few days after I sent off my entry form my daughter Lussi and her fiancée Trevor informed everyone that they were getting married on the Saturday – the day before the marathon. When my daughter found out about the marathon and that I was still intending to run, her reaction was “Oh no your not, I don’t expect my Father to just drink orange juice all night, not to dance and go to bed at 9 o’clock on my wedding day”. My suggestion to her that they could perhaps chose another date because the organisers of the marathon certainly weren’t going to change their date, was received with a look that could sink a battleship (well I was only joking – honest I was). I considered switching to the half marathon instead, but when I woke up in my bedroom of the hotel we had booked for the reception with a enormous hangover I was glad I hadn’t. It was a great occasion and lots of fun, sometimes even marathon running just has to take a back seat, however, I digress. Hopefully, by the end of this year I would have added another 10 to 15 marathons to my list, but, this will still leave a lot of marathons to do hence the reason why I have set myself my 60in60at60 Challenge, next year before I get too old.

Flora London Marathon 2008 (just before the downpour) - still my PB 3.28.49. Read all about it here

My next  two marathons are on New Years eve & New Years Day in Liverpool – it’s gona be a Hard Day’s Night, but She Loves me yeah, yeah, yeah

I have now started my blogging, to give you an idea of how my preparations for next year are going. So bookmark www.60in60at60.com and keep popping back, or better still subscribe to my RSS Feed Reader.

Thanks for dropping in and Happy Running,

Barry Light