I was sitting in my hotel room after a nine-hour overnight flight clearing my emails before a busy week in Tokyo. An email from a friend popped up "Would you like to run a marathon in October?" he wrote. I replied "Of course". Questions then raced through my head like, "What is a marathon? and "How do I train for one?". This simple invitation led my wife and I into the wonderful world of running, of bloody shins, broken bones, blistered feet, puddles...