PSYCHOLOGY.

Interesting stuff. As a solicitor a large part of the job is working out what people - whether your own clients or the other side - are really like.

It is not a formal qualification, but an essential working tool. And marathon running - it's an activity conducted partly on the road, but mainly in the head.

The mind is a crucial tool in fitness generally.

Common sense would dictate that we take care of our bodies, especially as they begin to show the wear and tear of age.

We should eat more carefully, drink less and ensure that we take a suitable amount of exercise. Obvious?

Well, yes and no. I am not preaching - I have committed plenty of sins of the (excess) flesh, and am no stranger to the fry-up and the pint. But all those pleasurable calories have to be processed.

What is an essential tool of survival for a baby - the urge to eat and keep eating until full - becomes a Trojan Horse for those of us whose metabolism has slowed down.

Likewise with exercise.

After a hard day, my instinct is to go home, break out the wine and have a lovely big dinner.

For me now though, instinct and comfort no longer reign supreme.

Body and soul are locked into a course of physical development that is tuned and timed to the huge test of running 26.2 miles in Belfast on May 5.

So much depends on me seeing the project through - St Margaret's Hospice for whom I am running and collecting, the shame that would ensue if I had to write a column here confessing that I can't go on, and there is a big element of anticipated personal achievement.

That's where the psychology comes in. I need the old-fashioned duo of stick and carrot.

And everyone else? The world, and Glasgow, are populated by 360 degrees of personalities and attitudes.

When I am out running I meet all sorts. Some are running for the sheer joy of exercise, or for friendship. But some, like me, will be suffering FOR something.

If there's a message this week, it is that we all have the capacity to do better.

For those to whom comfort and inaction are instinctive, look into your own heart and see what you actually can achieve.

As Chinese thinker Lao-Tzu said around 500 BC, the journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.

Each of us must resolve to overcome instinct, and begin to find our own path to health and fitness.

Take the first step.

Remember my charity page for the hospice movement www.justgiving.com/AustinLafferty