By Fred Brenton BBC News website reporter

The BBC's Fred Brenton hopes to shape up and help charity

Footballers do it almost every day, a lot of people do it for fun and some people are just plain addicted, but sadly I've found running just doesn't float my boat.

If I was being paid �40,000 a week, or was strange enough to find it a thrill, then I would have happily pulled on my sweaty trainers and running kit every day these past three months.

Unfortunately, I'm broke and sane, so the past 12 weeks have been something of a bind.

I would be lying if I said this training for the Cardiff Marathon on 3 October was the best time I've had since Scott Gibbs famously crossed the try-line at Wembley.

To tell you the truth it's been a nightmare.

But the fact that I don't like running doesn't mean I haven't been doing it - after all, most of us turn up for work every day and feel much the same way.

So I've been out there plodding along the pavement clocking up more miles than a dodgy mechanic.

The marathon passes many city landmarks

I've heard plenty of people claim before how much they enjoyed getting fit ready for their big run but I would suggest they are trying to put a brave face on it.

A definite case of rose-tinted glasses and I suggest all those people who have said as much should visit an optician immediately for a new, less colourful prescription.

I can think of at least 1,000 better things to be doing of an evening or early morning than huffing and puffing around your local park looking and feeling like your head, heart and lungs are about to explode.

Aches, pains and strains

I must admit that it does get easier as you go along and your internal organs feel less like they are going to pack up but that doesn't mean it isn't boring - deathly, death, boring!

I've watched episodes of Songs of Praise and listened to Dido tracks that are more interesting: you've no one to talk to and nothing else to do except tire yourself out.

Basically, you spend hour after hour, running further and further and feeling slightly less and less unwell each week with nothing to do except remember why on earth you are actually doing it.

It may just be the general exhaustion but you tend to forget you might be doing it for your own or someone else's good when you're out there stumbling along.

But when you do recall why you're putting yourself through all the aches, pains and strains associated with running for longer than you really should or need to things do seem a little bit better.

I'm not saying I get overjoyed at the thought of having lost almost three stone since I started, or that I've managed to raise a few quid for my chosen charity but maybe I'll have to buy some new coloured specs before I see things like that.