Are you, your employer and your insurance company prepared for the challenge?

The London Marathon is just over the horizon, and the UKís once-a-year and once-in-a-lifetime runners are bringing their training programmes up to speed - but for people running a company as well as running the route there are potential commercial hurdles.

Keeping fit and running a marathon are two completely different issues, says Alison Loveday, employment partner at Berg & Co., Solicitors, whose senior partner, Reuben Berg, 52, is entered in this yearís April 18 run.

Reuben will take it is his stride because heís a keep-fit fanatic - nevertheless, a marathon is potentially dangerous for both the individual and his or her employer.

There is plenty of evidence to show that people who take regular exercise have improved health. This will help them with their attendance record at work, and I would anticipate that people who take regular exercise will also have better concentration skills, lower stress levels and so on.

But competition - whether against the clock, against yourself or against somebody else - adds an edge. The chances of immobilising injury or even death are small when taking part in any type of event of this nature, or even in extreme sports. But something so simple as not telling the HR department, not checking your contract of employment or not referring to your insurance company could have a devastating consequence.

All it needs is an injury to arise from taking part in such an event that puts you in hospital or immobilises you, however temporarily, to expose a contractual clause relating to such physical activity or to void an insurance policy.

If youíre a company owner, director or essential senior manager then the cost and hardship could be crippling for the business as well as the victim.

A trip or collision while running, which may not be your fault, is all it takes. There is an element of íitíll never happen to meí - but it does. I am currently dealing with one incident in which a client had completed his participation for the day in a relatively extreme sport when, in quite bizarre circumstances, a fellow sportsman still involved in the activity collided with him causing serious injuries.

The chances were millions-to-one, but the innocent victim will be immobilised for some time and will be off work for over twelve months. To say he was a key member of the management team is a massive understatement, and the business is, as a consequence, struggling to keep up with the market.

Alisonís tips for corporate sportsmen:

1. Check your contract to see what it says about participating in sports or activities of whatever standard or nature. You may have signed the contract when you were an armchair sports fanatic and only recently or occasionally chosen to participate or compete.
2. Check with your personal or corporate insurers. Many insurance policies require you to declare involvement in a sport, no matter how innocuous or extreme - and they are sticklers for detail, honesty and openness. Failure to check, declare or advise could result in no insurance cover.
3. Check with your doctor. You may be fit for work, but are you fit for sport? We all grow older and change Ö
4. If youíre a senior executive, think about and plan a contingency or succession if the worst happens and you are laid up as a result of injury.

iain@iainmacauley.com