Charity runs

Charity Crewe never imagined she'd run the London Marathon, but it's amazing what a couple of glasses of wine can make you do...

My first experience of the London Marathon was as a spectator waiting on the finish line for my friend Tracy. For about 10 minutes I was amused by the assortment of costumes ranging from rhinos to gorillas and even a Charles II; amazed by a sprightly jogger in her 70s and a man with one leg breeze past able-bodied runners.

But after an hour of waiting in the freezing cold, watching the pained expressions on the runners' faces, and having clearly missed my friend, I couldn't be more sure this was something I would never do myself. A certainty that was further confirmed when Tracy told me that she'd been sick in a bag at the end of the 26 miles and couldn't walk for the next two days. Why, only two years later, I decided to take up the challenge of the Marathon is largely due to a drunken agreement at a party.

There is nothing like a good cause to get people doing things they wouldn't have previously considered; whether it be forking out hundreds for a submarine ride at a charity auction or agreeing to sit in stocks to be pelted with mouldy fruit at a summer fair.

I deputy chair the Q Trust, a fundraising venture set up in the name of my late father, Quentin Crewe, to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy, a muscle-wasting disease he suffered from all his life. So when, at a party, Malcolm, a family friend, said he was running the Marathon for the Q Trust and suggested I joined him, I couldn't really refuse. When I tried insisting I hadn't ever run - except to catch a bus - he pointed out that there were still several months to go before the race. So, with a belly full of wine, I slurred: 'Ssyesh, ok, schvery good idea.'

I didn't give it much thought until after the Christmas break, when I returned to a flurry of emails from Malcolm, saying the deadline for signing up was looming and I had to sign-up straightaway. By the time I'd signed my agreement form, it was well into January and the April 13 race day was breathing uncomfortably down my neck.