RUN GEORDIE Run hero Mark Allison was determined to enjoy his Christmas Day dinner – because he won’t be tucking into another Christmas pud or touching another drop of alcohol until 2013.

Mark, 40, from Shotley Bridge, starts a 20-month training schedule today for a 70-day, 2,600-mile run across Australia from October to December 2013.

And if you thought Mark’s epic 3,100-mile run across America this year was tough, the man himself says: “Australia will be even harder.

“It will be very, very hot and I need to start training this early in order to strip down my body fat and get into peak condition.

“It’s going to be 41 miles a day whereas America was 31, so it’s tougher straight away. I’ve got to go into 2013 looking like an athlete. I wasn’t like that for America, and I suffered for it.”

Other people’s definition of ‘athlete’ may be at odds with Mark’s, but he is setting himself standards every bit as exacting as the runs he is putting himself through.

That’s why father-of-one Mark has made the most of Christmas 2011.

“Yes,” he said, “I had plenty of Christmas pud and drink this year because it’s the last I’ll be touching for a couple of years.

“I’m going to be working with fitness coach David Fairlamb and with Tyne Bridge Harriers.

“There is such a lot of intensive preparation to be done but it is all planned out and the hard work starts here.”

Through his fabulous run across the USA this summer, Mark raised £100,000 for the Children’s Foundation and St Benedict’s Hospice in Sunderland, where his mother Margery spent the last days of her life as she lost her battle with cancer in 1995. He hopes to raise at least a further £50,000 from sponsorship of the Australian run and is also doing it in memory of his father Terry, who died from cancer in 1988, as well as brother David, who died from a brain haemorrhage.

The Oz run will see him go through temperatures approaching 50 degrees.

Running from west to east, he will set off from Perth on October 16, 2013, and plans to arrive at Bondi Beach, Sydney, on Christmas Eve.

Six of the 70 days will be designated rest days – but the other 64 are all go.

The route takes him through the notorious Nullarbor Plain, considered one of the barest, hottest and most hostile terrains in the world.

He will traverse Adelaide and New South Wales en route to the finishing point across Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Aussies are famed for their liking of a cold beer ... and this is one Pom who will be joining them to celebrate a very special Christmas two years from now.

But 2013 will be a family Christmas, too. For wife Katy and son Jack will be Down Under to meet him.

“We’ve never spent a Christmas apart and I plan to keep it that way,” says Mark.

Mark’s progress for 2013 can be followed on the website and donations can be made through his blog on www.rungeordierun.com, while business sponsorship can be made via sponsorship@www.rungeordierun.com