The first post of Janathon is an important one; it is this post that other Janathoners read. It is this post that other Janathoners base their judgements on. Will they read tomorrow's post? Will they come back later in the month and read again? Will they avoid it like the plague? Will they avoid commenting?

So I thought long and hard about what to post, about what this strange breed of people would want to read. I decided to approach this like I would approach a non-fiction text with my students. We would PALL it: purpose, audience, layout and language.

Purpose. What is the purpose of the blog post? Well a couple of reasons I suppose. Firstly, it is part of the rules, you have to: jog, log and blog. Secondly, and more importantly, it is to inform. People will want to know how I'm doing, won't they? But they won't want to daily read a load of pointless statistics about the latest 400 yard run round the block. So….thirdly, the post is to entertain. I should make it entertaining. A couple of jokes included? Some amazing word puns? But wait a minute….other runners will be reading it. So maybe the post should also advise? But surely I'll end up explaining stuff? Even describing what I've been upto? But then again, I'll also be persuading people to get on the Janathon train? So sorted….my post needs to: adhere to the rules, whilst informing, entertaining, advising, explaining, describing and persuading.

Audience. That's easy. Anyone and everyone. Any person in the world can stumble on 'Lengthorn's Blog'. That's no good! I need to write with a more specific audience in mind. Ok….this month the blog is mainly for other Janathoners to read. So I need to understand what a Janathoner is. Definition will help:

Janathoner. A person short of the correct amount of brain cells resulting in some ridiculous idea to run every day of the month of January.

So there you have it….my target audience are all crazy! Should make the blog post a lot easier to write.

Layout. Does it matter? Probably not. Although I think a few photos might help…Janathoners are naturally a nosey bunch. Also, avoid going on and on and on. Keep it short.

Language. We've already discovered that the majority of people reading this post are crazy. Avoid words of more than two syllables. Keep. It. Sim-ple. Employing ambitious, strenuous and gargantuan vocabulary will only result in an influx of participants requiring appointments with General Practitioners with diverse forms of cephalgia.

So I'm ready to write a blog post about Janathon day 1….but to be honest…I really can't be bothered.

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