Marathon madness

Two years ago, I decided to sign up for my “one and only” marathon. And I ran that marathon and insisted I would never do one again.

And then I signed up for the same marathon last year. And I ran it and I enjoyed it.

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I realised I would never be able to run a half marathon if there was also a marathon available.

And that means that I will not be running the Edinburgh Half Marathon as I did last year. No, I will be running the full marathon. In May. With very little training.

And that means that I will be running two marathons this year because, of course, I have to do a third running of the Loch Ness Marathon.

But back to the Edinburgh Marathon: I am pleased to announce that I’ve just signed up for my place!

And I did so at a savings of £17.50 because there were no places when I tried to sign up last December.

How did I save money – let alone manage to register – when there were no spaces?

Well, I took it to Twitter and I found someone who had registered but was no longer able to run the race. Registrations are not refundable, but you can transfer your place to someone else so that it doesn’t go unused. And then the new person pays a £10 administration fee.

I offered to also pay this man for the cost of his registration, but he said he only wanted £20 of the £47.50 fee. So instead of paying £47.50, I’ve paid £30. Yay me! (And thank you to my new Twitter friend!)

So yes, I am running two marathons this year. And hopefully loads of other races, too, if my luck changes!

[That’s a photo of me just getting ready to cross the finish line at the 2012 Loch Ness Marathon.]