Marathon for charity. Never ran before

I would suggest you have started a bit intensively, and are risking injury. I would follow the Couch to 5K programme, and then follow a 16 week beginners plan from about Christmas (ie. 16 weeks before London). The Smartcoach bit of this website is worth getting to know:

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/smartcoach

Good luck - let us know how it is going.

Sussex Runner... I know you like to be controversial but come on.

I really think you should be an adult and withdraw that inaccurate and uncalled-for comment.

 Edit...   Rory... As others have said... I think you've started far too fast. You're seriously risking injury - either a sudden injury, or (more likely) one that builds up over 2 or 3 weeks as small amounts of damage accumulate. 

You do have enough time to train for the marathon, but only just.  You don't have many spare weeks to be sat around nursing injuries. Don't be overenthusiastic! 

Well done, and good luck.

Don't the charity have people who can advise their runners and provide them with guidance on training?

They are asking people who've never done anything like a marathon before to put themselves through the training and running - surely they have some support for you. 

Agree with what others have said: start slowly and steady. The only thing that I would add is - Don't get too stressed out - you've got time to get sorted and have time to train for the marathon distance.

Good luck with your challenge and let us know how you get on.

I know what you mean Rory, but surely they have some responsibility to help you succeed?

Particularly as you could easily injure yourself in training if you don't have guidance.

I applaud you for deciding to take on a challenge to thank the charity that helped you Rory, but I'm a big fan of "working up through the distances" and NOT going straight to marathon. Some people do it successfully. Many don't.

If you ARE going to take on this challenge (and it looks like you're committed NOW!) you are going to need a LOT of help and guidance if you are going to avoid injury, which is likely to be your main obstacle. You don't have a huge amount of time before next April to go from zero to marathon but I wish you all the very best with it and I hope you listen to the advice you get on here.

Good luck.

I agree with the above except, don't do a c25k, you're clearly beyond that, no point in going backwards. c25k is really for people with absolutely zero fitness.

However, as others have said watch your initial mileage build up before you start a plan. When I started I could run a couple of miles, and increasing the distance (over a couple of weeks) wasn't too difficult. I had no problems increasing a small amount for each run, say 2 miles a day, 3 tmes a week, the first week, 2.5 miles a day 3 times a week the second etc. But I did injure my knee when I got cocky and decided to go from 4 miles max to 9 miles, felt fine, then two days later try 13...

For anyones first marathon (well maybe not Mo farah) I'd recommend Hal Higdon. Nothing fancy, easy to followeasy build up of mileage, but enough to more than "get you around".

I did the Edinburgh Marathon this year and as well as their 16 week training plan they had a pre training plan for people in your situation http://www.edinburgh-marathon.com/?pages_id=366.  You might find this helpful.  If you carry on at your current rate of distance increase you will injure yourself and that's the last thing you want to do.  I didn't do any intervals or hill repeats or anything fancy when training for Edinburgh.

Raising money for a charity is a great motivator though and will help you through the tougher moments of training.  It won't be easy but there is nothing quite like crossing the finish line of a marathon. 

If you're getting blisters, try some more expensive socks.