It's done. Thank you everyone for your support

Couldn't have asked for a better day!

Slickly organised, tremendous support, inspiring surroundings and thoroughly exhausting, but in a good way. The London Marathon has to be one of the world's most spectacular events and I'm thrilled to have taken part in it.

I made it round the course in 3:51.28, just inside my predicted time of 3:53.

I have managed to raise in excess of £1750 for CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA (money is still coming in, so total not confirmed yet). The figure has way exceeded my expectations and will be a tremendous help to the continuation of the charity's fantastic work and means a great deal to our family, so thanks to everyone for your generosity.

You'll be glad to hear I'm injury free, but those of you who've run long distances in the past will appreciate that doesn't mean I'm exactly walking right and suffering severely from a fear of staircases (something Ralph certainly doesn't seem to have!). So it's feet up for now and back to work tomorrow.

Carb loading and last minute nerves

25 hours to go.

Too late to worry whether the work you've put in is enough, but that doesn't stop you starting to feel a little nervous. Remembering back to New York the day before the marathon, I don't recall feeling that until a few hours before. My mind must have been suitably distracted by a number of things, the imminent arrival of our first baby, who we would end up spending the rest of the day clothes shopping for, the jet lag and the general excitement of being in a new city. All of this, meant I had little time to spend worrying about the next day's events. Here in London, it's on the news, the weather, texts and emails are flying in and friends and relatives are making arrangements to come and watch. So you could say, it feels like the pressure's on! Which of course it isn't, it's just going to be a great day out and I'll make it round one way or another.

The average daily intake of food provides enough energy to fuel the body for about 90 minutes of exercise. The marathon will take me somewhere bertween 210 and 240 minutes, which is why you're advised to take on board a lot more carbohydrates than usual. The proof, as they say, will be in the pudding (mmm...puddings). So this week, I've been focusing on the taper and carb loading and, even I, am starting to get a little tired of pasta, although I'm sure that won't be long lived. Apparently, you can put on 2-3kg over the 3-4 days preceding the race and not worry about it, as it's stored away as glycogen to fuel the muscles for as long as possible and will be burnt off by the time you reach the finish!

Final week

It's been a rollercoaster ride and now it's time to relax, fitness training is either in the bag or it's not, it's too late to make any difference.

Do I feel prepared? Yes.

Could things have gone smoother? Yes.

What would I change? I'd start anti-histamines at the start of February and wait longer before restarting training following a fever.

Will I get a faster time than in New York? At this stage, I'm feeling confident that I will.

So what time is that then? I'm going to try for 3:53, although the forecast is to be warm, which could throw things a little. I reckon I've got the cardio fitness for it and believe I'm better mentally conditioned to circumvent the wall than I was at the start of the NYC marathon. I'll be encouraging my legs not to fail me along miles 19-23. Once you hit 23, you've made it, you're never going to drop out or walk it in from there.

Thanks again for everyone's support and good luck me!

Sinuses? Cleared. Phew. Feeling positive

Years back, I used to suffer from sinus problems following colds or bouts of hayfever, but this hadn't happened for some time. So when I felt a slight pain above my right eye, I didn't really think twice about going for a swim. Bad idea. I'd obviously forgotten what not to do and how to keep sinuses under control. Even a few inches below the surface, the pressure was causing acute pain to my forehead.

I got out after 15 lengths and decided to put swimming on hold and stay focused on my running. The following day, the pain had worsened and I wasn't sure I really felt like running. So close to the event you've been focused on for so many months, it doesn't take much for you to start worrying whether this could be the reason you don't get the time you're after, or worse still have to pull out. Of course, I'm never going to pull out, even if I have to walk the whole thing, I'll finish it. But you know what I mean.

While swimming is obviously not helpful to sinus problems, running when they're acutely inflamed is also a very bad idea. I have never had such a bad headache as returing from a 10 mile run where with every step I may as well have been tapping my head with a hammer. Seriously painful, all I could do when I got back was lie down, curl up and concentrate on not feeling sick.

You'll be happy to hear it's not all doom and gloom, I've pretty much cleared up the problem. The remedy? A mixture of the following: Steam inhalation with sea salt or Olbas Oil (strong menthol scent), inhaling Olbas Oil regularly throughout the day and a homeopathic remedy called Combination Q (New Era). Sudafed and Sinex didn't touch it and I'd decided I wasn't ready to go on another course of antibiotics and to try and tackle it naturally. Luckily it seems to have worked.

So, what about my training?

Well, I managed the 10 second most painful miles of my life on Sunday ("the hammerhead run", which made me think whatever I feel like at mile 17/18, I can definitely get myself to the finish!), 20 mins on a cross-trainer (low impact = no headache), 15 mins quick run on Wednesday and a pint of Guinness last night. Oops.

I'll knock out a couple of 10k runs at the weekend, a 5k and an 8k mid-week and then a couple of days rest before the marathon on Sunday.

Thank you. Now let's smash that sponsorship target!

On Thursday 9th April, total donations received passed the initial target of £1,200. I am absolutely thrilled with the generous response from everyone, especially given the gloomy financial climate we can't help but avoid hearing about these days.

I know this money will make a huge difference to CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA's work, as well as it being a real source of motivation for me at times when I've really needed it. But let's not stop there.

As of 11am on Sunday 11th April, the total had reached:

£1,296.19

A huge thank you once more and please keep it coming.

16M Kingston Breakfast Run

If you do some running and you're going to enter any race at all, it'll be the one that passes your doorstep twice a year. This is the 4th time I've run in the Kingston event and the second time I've tackled the 16 mile, the previous being prior to the New York marathon.


I set myself a new PB of 2:08:27, which I was very pleased with especially as I'd tried not to treat it as a race and purposefully held back until about 14.5 miles in. I thought there could be no harm in winding it up for the last 1.5 miles and enjoyed a spell of passing a number of people before turning into the finish.

My first attempt, back in October 2007, I managed 2:12:30 and felt absolutely spent at the finish. This time round, I made sure I had plenty left in the tank and I'm stockpiling those reserves for 3 weeks' time! Touch wood, I'm niggle free, cold free and really looking forward to the big day.

Running up mountains

A week ago today, I woke up early and decided to go for a jog. We were staying in the Austrian Alps, in a resort at 1500 metres, which always makes sleeping a little tricky for the first few nights, you tend to find yourself in vivid dream mode all night and I'd woken to feel like I'd barely slept. It was cold and, thankfully, snowy outside. I'd never run on snow before, not proper snow anyway, and thought it would be a good way to wake myself up.

It was a few degrees below zero (centigrade), but I figured not to overdo the layers as running though the snow should warm me up. I wore a hat of course, beanie variety, not trilby. Stepping outside was refreshing. It was overcast and I was standing at the bottom of a steep sided valley, and my GPS struggled, but eventually got a fix.



I set off at a very steady pace toward the head of the valley along the recently cleared road. In no time, I was feeling the altitude. My heart was working about 10-15% harder than back home and I'd barely started to climb. Approaching the village at the head of the valley, I darted across to the other side of the road when I realised that an old chap had decided it was an opportune moment to dislodge 2 metre icicles from his hotel roof and that I was heading straight into the strike zone. Reaching a point where the road went no further, I turned onto a snowy path heading up.

5 minutes into the climb, I was peaking at 85% of max heart rate, without really trying. This was hard, but I trudged on. The snow had been trodden into a path, but was still deep enough to cover my shoes, and it felt that for every two steps forward, you're losing half a step in slippage.

A few minutes further along a reach a recently groomed piste. No tracks, no-one around, a blank canvas. I pointed myself uphill and began to scale the piste. It was a red run and significantly steeper than the footpath, as anyone who's been skiing would understand. I wouldn't be able to maintain this for long, so I decided to give it everything for about a hundred yards and then enjoy the descent. The heart rose to 90%+ of max on the climb and I took a deserved 30 second break at the top.

While running up mountains has its place, running back down a freshly groomed piste was one of the best running experiences I've had. I took my first few paces steadily, but gradually allowed my legs to turn over progressively quicker, the freshly compressed snow propelling me even faster. Nearing the bottom, I was at full pelt and precariously just on balance.

It was only a 25 minute run in all, but it's a whole new ball game up in those mountains.