We had fun at lunchtime watching the bidding war for the ball. After nine days it’s price had risen to £82; then this morning it crept over the £100 mark. As the close approached we were refreshing the browser constantly in the hope that it would go up a few more quid in the last [...]

The club organised a little 5 mile road race tonight (for everyone to run at their own pace). A proper race, with marshals, and numbers etc. Perfectly timed to give everyone experience of running in a real race, rather than just as a club, so that the Marathon won’t be so different.

Our last pre-marathon run of any length at all, taken at an easy pace, still in my old shoes.

We’re now wrapping ourselves in virtual cotton wool to avoid injury, our task for the next week is to keep moving, non-strenuously, without overdoing anything.

Using my reserve shoes, and a Compeed applied an hour in advance I ventured out for a marathon-paced run with Em. A nice easy, evening run. No complications, no pain, no rubbing. If my main shoes don’t return in time, I know my reserves will be fine for the day.

Somehow, I got up at 8am (after working until 4am).

A nice evening run today, in daylight, for the first time since training began!

My third 20+ miler, and a very enjoyable run it was too (map)… more comment after the England -v- France six-nations championship decider rugby match! … [result: France won the game and the championship, so congratulations to anyone French who might feel like sponsoring me].

Tonight’s run was really enjoyable.

Nice and easy tonight (map) – more of a jog really, lots of lower leg pain after yesterdays speedy hills.

Mum summed it up: Horizontal daffodils.

An evening club run tonight, and for some reason it hurt my shins so much that I considered turning back. At one point I turned around, then thought better of it and persevered.

A simple 8 mile run tonight, up and down the Tipner Lake waterside for one mile alternating between slow recovery runs (9 minute mile) with fast timed runs (5:40, 5:55, 6:05).

A nice circuit class followed by a 4.5 mile run. Is there a better start to Monday morning?

Today we did a lap of Portsmouth , and threw in a little of the Cosham industrial sector before a brief woodland spell (map). Lovely.

A cold one tonight, a strong cold wind from the south east brought flakes of snow.

A really good run tonight.

Circuits in the morning and an easy run in the evening.

A second really long one. This time we started by running around Langstone Harbour, then headed inland, over Portsdown Hill, for some cross country.

A nice run around Cosham and the surrounding area tonight.

A busy day! I combined my hour of circuits with a 4.5 mile run in order to catch up a little after my slack day yesterday.

A short run tonight Just five miles.

My first twenty mile run!

10.5 miles tonight.

A nice valentines day run. How romantic. So, now I know that one full lap of Portsmouth is 15 miles (with a few loops to compensate for the bits where we can’t run due to RN installations).

Tonight’s club run was a very light five miler and we barely broke a sweat.

With blue skies and a not too strong south-westerly blowing, this was a much nicer run than last Saturday. 2 hours from start to finish and 14 miles covered.

What was going to be a run of just over an 60 minutes, turned into 93 minutes, at a good pace, with a few hills; so a total of about 10.5 miles.

Today’s Met Office Warning: Severe gales will affect the southern half of both England and Wales. Winds will gust to 80mph and some damage to buildings and trees is likely. Driving conditions will be dangerous.

Portsmouth Joggers, bless ‘em, took us on a nice 13 mile run over Portsdown Hill tonight. 13 miles, on a school night. Such a feat would have been previously unthinkable; we are improving.

From the Mountbatten Centre to Portsdown Castle and back, with a race at the castle.

Steady pace, with a hill in the way both out and back.