Blogging to the Flora London Marathon

Will Lucas, a university student in London, has come up with an ingenious way to fundraise and prepare for the Flora London Marathon in April.

Will has created Marathon Blog (http://www.marathonblog.co.uk); an online diary to chronicle his experiences as he trains and prepares for his first ever marathon. “I hope Marathon Blog will become a useful resource and a source of inspiration for other first time marathon runners” explains Will. Will keeps his blog updated with details of his training schedule and also with informative mini-articles for people preparing for marathons.

So what makes Marathon Blog special? Well, Will plans to do all of his fundraising entirely through his blog. He explains how:

“I have promoted many websites in the past and I now plan to put my five years of website marketing experience into getting people to Marathon Blog. I am already receiving a healthy number of visitors and this number will only grow as the Marathon date approaches. These visitors are a valuable resource and I plan to capitalise on this by selling advertising space. If you sponsor me £30+ then I will place a link to your company in the Sponsors column of my blog… this is placed in a highly visible location on every page. If you are some sort of running-related company then that is pretty cheap for an advertisement that is going to be seen by thousands of potential marathon runners. Best of all, that £30 donation goes entirely to charity… the government will even add an additional 28% to your donation if you are a UK tax payer!”

Will is raising money for the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. “DSWF is a charity that I have been involved with for many years”, explains Will, “they do excellent conservation work protecting critically endangered mammals in Africa and Asia.”

So how is the marathon training going so far? “Well I have been pushing myself really hard as I am aiming for a fast, sub-3hr time. That would be pretty good for my first marathon! I am on an advanced training plan which is an absolute killer… I take one day off a week and at the end of my second week I did a 36 km run! I am really enjoying the challenge of pushing myself to new limits.”

For more information visit http://www.marathonblog.co.uk