The Hull Daily Mail's Chris Oxley will be pounding the streets of London later this month, when he takes part in his second marathon.

The 42-year-old assistant production editor will join thousands of other runners for the London Marathon on April 18, and is looking forward to returning to the capital after completing last year's course.

He said: "Last year I was really overwhelmed - it was an amazing day.

"There was a wonderful atmosphere, especially through East London where people were out on the streets with their sound systems and kids were handing out Opal Fruits.

"The support was incredible."

Chris won his marathon place as a media entrant, and as such will be rubbing shoulders with celebrities such as Nell McAndrew and Gordon Ramsay at a special starting line away from the public runners.

In the build up to the big day Chris has been running between 30 and 50 miles a week, but he is now scaling down his training schedule to conserve energy.

He ran his first London Marathon in a respectable time of 3hours 43mins, and will be striving for similar success this time.

He said: "Last time I was aiming for around 3hours 30mins, but suffered from bad cramps after 16 miles so I was in pain and struggled to finish.

"I haven't done as much training this year, so I will be happy to finish in under four hours."

His training schedule was also interupted when he moved to a new job at the Hull Daily Mail at the end of February, after previously working as a sub-editor at the Nottingham Evening Post.

Chris said: "I had to find somewhere to live and adjust to new shift patterns, but I only missed two or three runs - you have to keep on going.

"I mostly go out training in the morning and do a big run at the weekend. I'm living in Victoria Docks where there is some nice scenery to look at and no hills - although it can be a bit windy!"