The count-down’s on. The potholes have been (reportedly) fixed. And come rain or shine – current forecasts are on the fence – over 18,000 runners and athletes are carbing up, gearing up and hopefully stretching out in preparation for this Sunday’s Reading Half Marathon.

Thousands of you inspiring JustGiving-ers,  like Paul Docherty, are running to raise funds for important causes. Some of you might be running in drag, some of you dragging a 3 tonne Land Rover in tow, and plenty of you using this as a warm up for next month’s London Marathon.

Whatever it is, we here at JG wish you the best of luck! And we’d REALLY love to hear from you after the race. Do drop us a line, and let us know how it went.

Any especially heart-warming, side-splitting or muscle-wrenching stories, we’ll feature right here next week….

Wow. Marianne Blake’s powerful story, and spirit, really struck us today.

Marianne has breast cancer that, despite treatment, has spread.  But, she writes on her JustGiving page, it’s “under control” – and it’s not slowing her down one bit.

Together with her friend (and experienced marathoner) Robbie,  Marianne is running the 2010 Virgin London Marathon. Her main motivation: to give back to the “amazing” medical team, and research, that are helping her live what she calls a “fairly normal” life.

“It is hard to describe that feeling of complete joy and appreciation when something so simple has been taken from you and you get it back,” Marianne writes.

Well, what this inspiring woman can’t put in words she’s setting out clearly in miles.

Marianne and Robbie aim to raise an amazing £26, 218.75 for Dimbleby Cancer Care.  The charity is a leader funder of national cancer care research, providing providing practical and psychological support for cancer patients and finding new ways to optimize treatment for individual patients.

You can read more of Marianne’s story and give a donation to these inspiring runners at http://www.justgiving.com/marianne-and-robbie.

And you thought running 26.2 miles in shorts was hardcore. It still is! But check out Carl Day. He’s running the 2010 Virgin London Marathon in a full suit of armour.

Carl’s running to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation, a charity that through pioneering research provides vital information to help people reduce their own heart health risks, campaigns for change, and supports and cares for heart patients.

Carl writes: “I will never be able to repay what the British Heart Foundation have done for me and my family.”

You sure can’t say this knight in shining, and possibly sweat-glistening, armour isn’t trying!

Showing marketing saavy as well as mettle (painful pun intended), Carl’s selling advertising space on his suit and shield. Pretty smart, eh? This kind of innovative self-promotion can really boost your fundraising target.

From all of us at JG, Carl, best of luck with the fundraising. We’ll keep an eye – and ear – out for you on Marathon Day.

To donate to this heavyduty (literally: his suit weighs in at 6.5 stone) feat, check out Carl’s page.

We’ve got not one, but two JustGiving staff members running the Virgin London Marathon this year. The first of them is our Management Accountant Tim Truman. We caught up with Tim – not normally easy, but he’s currently recovering from a knee injury – to find out how his fundraising is going…

JustGiving: Why run the marathon?

Tim Truman: I decided to run the marathon to give myself something to think about other than spreadsheets all day!

JG: Why did you choose to support SOS Children’s Villages?

TT: At the time I won my ballot place, there was a natural disaster in the Philippines. I’d travelled for a month in the Philippines and so I wanted to help the area and found SOS an ideal charity to support as it’s one of the countries they work in.

JG: Have they given you a lot of support?

TT: I’ve had a fair amount of contact with them. They’ve sent me detailed information on their work as well as a rather attractive t-shirt and some top tips.

JG: How’s your training going so far?

TT: Unfortunately my training is stalling a little at moment as I’m yet to fully recover from a knee injury, but I’ll soon get back into swing of it all!

JG: How much have you raised?

TT: About £500 mainly through work colleagues. My family members likely to sponsor me once it’s over and they know I’ve done it. But I’m going to chase a few more work colleagues over the next few weeks!

JG: What’s your top fundraising tip?

TT: Send your JustGiving page around the office!

You can view Tim’s JustGiving page and make a donation at www.justgiving.com/trumanshow.

That look says it all.

If you get out of breath tackling a couple of flights of stairs, spare a thought for the 905 people – 302 of them JustGivers – who will be running up the 42 floors of Tower 42 – the tallest building in City of London – today to raise money for homeless charity Shelter. That’s 920 steps of pain and charitable gain.

Now in its second year, Vertical Rush was the first major stair race in Britain, inspired by similar events around world, including the Empire State Building and Taipei 101 Run-Ups.

I went along to the start at 7:30 AM this morning to cheer on the first two waves of runners, take some photos and meet one of the organisers, Nicola Hanna, Senior Community and Events Manager at Shelter.

Last year, Times journalist Valentine Low called Vertical Rush ‘a race for sporting masochists‘, so I was expecting to see a lot more exhausted faces from my express-elevator-gained vantage point on the 41st floor, but Nicola set me straight:

“Anybody can take part. It doesn’t take months of training like a marathon would. Older people, younger people, individuals, teams… It’s really open to everybody.”

However, it’s clear that Vertical Rush offers a different kind of running challenge and as well as having a base level of fitness, Shelter suggest entrants practice stair running before taking part.

The pledge to enter is £150, but Shelter are confident that most fundraisers will beat that – especially those on JustGiving! – and are hoping to raise a total of £250,000 from the event. I asked Nicola what the money will go towards:

“It will go to support all of Shelter’s core services, and two of the main ones are face-to-face housing and homelessness advice and our national helpline.”

In the stairwell, the air is thick with the sound of rubber slapping concrete and beeps coming from the finish line – each runner is given an electronic strip which tells a computer when they have passed the start line and finish line and allows their time to be texted to them as soon as they’ve finished. But outside the stairwell, the workers of Tower 42 go about their business as normal. What’s great about Vertical Rush is that because it takes place in a space that isn’t normally in use, it causes the minimum amount of disruption. It made me wonder what other stealth events the JustGiving community could come up with on a smaller scale.

Vertical Rush is still going on as I type this and – including the after party and prize giving for the fastest man, fastest woman, etc. – will continue to do so until about 10:00 PM tonight. So if you know someone who is taking part, please post their JustGiving link in the comments below!

That’s a lot of steps!

Congratulations to Dione Priddy, whose incredibly moving story and JustGiving page are featured on the BBC News homepage today, which has helped her beat her original target more than twice over and the donations keep coming in. Since the feature went live at 9:10 AM this morning Dione’s page has received 214 donations and, at the time of writing, her total stands at £4,625.

Dione is running the London Marathon for the Alzheimer’s Research Trust four years after her husband Mark was diagnosed with early onset dementia at the age of just 36. At the time, Dione and Mark resolved to enjoy the time they had left. They renewed their wedding vows, took a holiday and tried to make everything as normal as possible for their two young daughters.

However, within a year Mark was admitted to a care home and today, he is unable to walk or talk.

Although relatively rare, 64,000 people in the UK have early onset dementia. Dr Simon Ridley, research manager at the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, is quoted in the BBC article as saying, “while research into the condition has made in-roads in identifying the genetic factors that influence its development, the work remains chronically underfunded.”

What’s particularly heartbreaking about this story is that the money Dione raises will go towards finding a cure, which, if found, will come too late for Mark. However, Dione says that at a diffcult time she has found comfort in giving hope to others. As she puts it on her JustGiving page, ‘Raising money for Alzheimer’s Research has been such a positive focus for me, at a time where I feel so helpless watching Mark deteriorate before my eyes’.

You can view Dione’s JustGiving page and make a donation here:

And you can read the full BBC article here.

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It’s a fun, visual representation of our tried and tested top tips, which we hope will give you a few more ideas of how to maximise your fundraising.

Thanks to our friends at Natural Balance Foods – the natural nibbles company dedicated to promoting health, humour and helpfulness – we have 10 boxes of tasty Nakd snacks to give away. The Nakd Prezzie Box contains three Nakd Bars and four packs of Nakd Nibbles, Nakd Gluten Free and Nakd Raisins, all of which are bursting with goodness.

The boxes are perfect for marathon runners or fundraisers undertaking a physical challenge as they are high in protein, low in fat and, because they’re all raw, none of the ingredients’ nutrients have been lost through cooking.

The bars also contain only natural sugars, so you won’t find any glucose syrup and refined sugar, which can cause spikes in blood sugar, followed by sluggishness and cravings.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning a box is e-mail competitions@justgiving.com with the answer to the following question:

The Nakd range is so called because?

a) The ingredients are all peeled
b) The ingredients are all raw
c) The snacks come without any packaging

The competition closes on the 15th of February. Winners will be notified by e-mail.

For more information please visit www.naturalbalancefoods.co.uk.

Congratulations to Bryan Scott, who managed to get 75 people to donate to his page over the 10 day period between the 22nd of January and the 1st of February. Brian wins a £500 donation to his page, which, we’re happy to say takes him just over his £3,000 target.

We’re going to give you a little time to marshal your forces before the next competition, but keep an eye on the London Marathon e-mails.

Brian is fundraising for the National Osteoporosis Society, a charity that’s close to his heart because, just before her 30th birthday Bryan’ s little sister found out she had the condition. As Bryan puts it on his JustGiving page, ‘I am determined complete the marathon to do just a little to help find better treatments for this condition.’

It’s estimated that nearly 3 million people in the UK have osteoporosis. The combined cost of hospital and social care for patients with a hip fracture amounts to more than £2.3 billion per year in the UK – that’s approximately £6 million a day. In the UK, one in two women and one in five men over the age of 50 will break a bone largely due to poor bone health. There are about 230,000 osteoporotic fractures every year and 1,150 people die every month as a result of a hip fracture.

You can view Bryan’s page and make a donation, here.