Marathon is a long-distance foot race with an official distance 26 miles 385 yards. Marathon is  usually run as a road race but there are many variants of Marathons including cross country. The event is named after the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens.
More than 800 marathons are contested throughout the world each year, with the vast majority of competitors being recreational athletes. Larger marathons can have tens of thousands of participants such as the London Marathon.
Half Marathon is also popular with athletes who are not able to run the full marathon.

My friend Nick Byng invited me to join him in running Birmingham half marathon on the 26th of October, I accepted his invitation and registered, that was the easy part. The challenging bit is to be fit enough to run 13 miles, I am doing quite well so far, I am sure I will manage it, I will try avoiding breaking the world record for the person who run 13 miles at the slowest possible time.

I am hoping to use the marathon to raise money for Amnesty international, you can sponsor me by donating to Amnesty International via this page.

While you are here, why not visit the page Nick put up for his own run and sponsor him as well if possible.