Jim Paul – general manager, Northern Ireland Tourist Board
Age: 49.
Target time: 4hrs and 59mins because I want to beat Carol Dray’s target of 5hrs by a minute.
Target money to collect: no specific sum. However, my chairman has offered to match whatever the rest of the NITB staff sponsor, so that should make a total of £10.
Training regime: well, I was in bed with the ‘flu for four days recently and I pulled a muscle twice in the month before that, so I’m a bit behind. I did watch an Elle McPherson keep fit video, but I only got halfway through.
Where do you run: around Amersham, where I live.
His running partner is: in the beginning I had two black labradors running with me, but they’ve given up. They worked out that I was running in a big circle, so now they just stay at the start point and wait for me.
Have you ever done a marathon before: no, but I did do a fun run to raise money for Harefield Hospital about 10 years ago. You could do a three mile circuit as many times as you liked, and I ran it six times, but I did stop to have a Guinness between each circuit.
Has your lifestyle changed since you started training: I’ve started eating bananas and drinking four pints of water a day.
Have you given anything up: I normally give up drinking alcohol every January, but this year I have decided to give it up for a month between March 18 and the day of the marathon. March 18 is the day after St Patrick’s Day, so it’s good timing.