I don't want your money, honey, I want your love...

Happy 2012 followers. Sorry it's been a while, but let's just say that my NY resolution is to revive my blogging habit and keep my training alive. Believe me, I've been busy. Since I last posted I have notched up a marathon PB at Berlin, and have kept running through the winter (a first for me, and possibly a greater achievement than that marathon PB). I've also managed to keep my fledgling business afloat while juggling a 5 day a week training schedule, so that has taken up much of my spare blogging time. However, another NY resolution is to be much better at the old time management lark, and as a result the blog will once again become a priority in my diary.

My resolutions this year all have something of a theme as in August, I turn the big 40. Or not-so-big 40, if you believe that 40 is the new 30. I'm certainly fitter and healthier than I was at 30, although probably a bit fatter. And all that, good or bad, is down to my distance running habit.  In spite of this, my crazy Auntie informed me last year that I will be old at 40, so 'should stop running marathons, as old people shouldn't run marathons'.

I don't feel in the least bit old (well, maybe the day after a long run). So this comment sounded a lot like someone throwing down a gauntlet (she might just have dropped it, she's a bit clumsy as well as eccentric). But with my 4th decade approaching, I have set myself  a series of new challenges for this milestone year.

Obviously the trick to resolutions and challenges is to keep them positive, and manageable. Therefore, my 2012 challenges are:

• to run two marathons - spring and autumn
• to run a sub 2 hour half marathon
• to run a sub 1h 22min 10 miler

For my spring marathon, I had hoped to do London, but the ballot defeated me so instead I selected the glamorous location of...Sunderland. Reasons: it's the inaugural Marathon of the North, it was cheap, I can benefit from free accommodation (and positive messages about my age, health, fitness and suitability for running long distances from my crazy Auntie) and, of course, if the support for the Great North Run is anything to go by, the spectators will be brilliant, in any weather.

Other races in the calendar are the Watford half in February, the Great North Run in September and the Thames Towpath 10 mile in April. I'll also be doing either St Albans or Ealing half marathons in June, depending on whether the Ealing half goes ahead. And, for my grand finale, the New York Marathon in November.

Readers, you'll be able to check on my progress towards these challenges by following this blog (I promise) or following me on Twitter @nylonruns. I'm not doing it for charity, I'm doing it to prove that old people CAN run marathons!