Newbie accepted for VLM

So .. I entered the VLM ballot upon the openign day.. I have always wanted to run it and admire people who do..

Having not done much runnign other than football I cant run too well.. But i see this as a great inspiration to prove to myself that I can achieve this. Its a little under 7 months until the marathon day.

Does anyone have any tips for me as a beginner.

Michael - you need to build a base between now and starting your Shades Training plan.  A couple of miles a week isn't going to help.  3-4 times a week, plenty of rest and recovery, not too fast or hard, but get the fitness going, get used to running 3-4 times a week, start thinking about nutrition, tell any significant others what you are doing and explain that you will be going out for 3 to 4 hour runs once you get into the training properly.  

There is only 1 way to get good at something and that is to work at it.

Thanks for the replies fellas! yeah other half is very supportive and knows what this will entail.. really looking forward to getting stuck in and start getting fitter..  be good to see some excess fat fall off to lol! 

Start off by running VERY slowly- if you have a HRM, so a max HR test- don't just calculaate it based on  stupid formula- they are no good. Then for the weeks until your 16- 18 trainig programme starts, buid up the mileage by runnig at about 70% Max HR, no higher, until you can do 1x 7-10 miler, and 2-3 x shorter runs per week. At that point, look and see what weekly mileage you're managing, and pick a schedule based on that stating point. Don't try to run fast until you've got a decent base of distancee. Don't increase thedistances too fast either.

Good Luck!