You won’t be surprised to hear that no sooner has my last event finished, I have a new one! To be honest, I’ve been planning this one for some time as I want to end the year on a high. This is going to be the hardest challenge of the year and hopefully the most rewarding.

This challenge will be my own creation and I’ve already nicknamed it ‘The 12 Days of Christmas.’ This will run from Christmas Day until the 5th of January 2013. The charity I have chosen will be Percy Hedley and for four reasons. 1) It’s local. 2) A friend of my Sister-in-Law works there. 3) A family friend has cerebral palsy and 4) What they do is fantastic.

The Percy Hedley Foundation is a registered charity that provides services for disabled people and their families. They will be celebrating 60 years in 2013, that is why I’ve decided to run 60 miles over the 12 Days of Christmas. That averages out at 5 miles per day. Achievable yes but taking into account I’m not really a brilliant runner and the potential weather hazards, this will be my toughest challenge yet.

The 60 miles I’ll run will be across County Durham and will relate to the 12 Days of Christmas. For example, on the 8th Day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 8 Maids-a-Milking. Here, I’ll be running just under 10 miles from my home to Lanchester Dairies.

I’ll be reaching out to family and friends not only for donations but for their support. Hopefully they can run some miles with me and keep me going. I’d like to do my running early in the mornings so it doesn’t impact of my day too much. I have two young kids and Christmas is a magical time for them. The last thing I want to do is ruin that. Therefore, I might be up running at 5/6 o’clock in the morning. Think of that nice warm bed and not wanting to get out of it. Still want to run with me? I hope so. If you are interested and would like more information, please email at: paul@fatherfitness.co.uk or catch me on Twitter @FatherFitnessUK.

I’ll be finalising my schedule shortly so look out for it. Hopefully there’ll be a day or two you can make. Some days are longer miles than others and there’s no pace you need to match to either so don’t be put off if you’re slow or fast runner. It’s all about running the 60 miles and raising awareness for a local charity. Christmas is the season of good will after all.