Then with only 3 minutes to go it went to £130. With less than a minute and a half to go it went to £160 and as we entered the last minute it again climbed to £170! In the last 30 seconds we had two bids come in at £200 and with less than 10 seconds to go the winning bid came in at £205! We are obviously very pleased by this!

This morning, also saw our last run, organised by Portsmouth Joggers to give us familiarity with the different stages of the Marathon. It was only 2 miles, and very very light running. Having done two Great North Runs (47000 entrants) it was a reminder for us.

So, a reminder for those with their feet up, and a nice cup of tea. We’ll be at the red start. Three of us in green vests, and we’re tall. My number is 41102 and Em’s is 41101, Steve’s is 4110<something>. We’ll be aiming to finish in under 5 hours, and starting off with the 4:30 pacers. Note that the pacing is based on satellite tracking so that we keep a constant pace throughout. This means we will be aiming to go through the finish 4 hours and 30 minutes after we go across the start line – this is not the same as 4 hours and 30 after the gun because it takes a few minutes for us to get near the start due to the size of the race.

So this, is the proverbial "it". The marathon is no longer next year, next month or next week. 24 hours from now it will all be over. Thanks for supporting us everyone. The next update will be post-marathon!

No problems, and I didn’t feel at all tired afterwards. In fact I hardly broke into a sweat, a combination of the easy pace and reduced distance.

Today it’s really hitting me that I have trained enough to run a lot further than 9 miles; I feel like I’m ready, capable, and can enjoy it on the day.

Dave, the elder mentor of Portsmouth Joggers, the grandfather, if you will, advised us to go for a long walk.

Walking at this stage of training is supposed to be very helpful because it moves the legs about without the impact of running, so it helps shift “bad stuff” from the muscles and keeps the joints moving.

Dave’s a veteran of many marathons, so we decided to heed the advice and took advantage of the fact that we were in South Wales for my cousin’s wedding. We took a very enjoyable hike over Cefn Bryn (the big hill in the middle of Gower).

Em was up at 7 and after her getting ready for work and making occasional clunk and chink downstairs my brain had started whirring enough that I was not going to relax back for any more sleep, so I got up and started work again.

Fitting marathon training into life is not as easy as it appears. You either have to drop things, or be prepared for a little sleep deprivation and physical exhaustion.

The run tonight should have great, it was a beautiful spring day, cool air, a light breeze, but the evening brought heavy, fat, rain which started after 15 minutes – ah well, it’s not so bad, and keeps me cool.

What really messed today up was a minor footwear malfunction: my shoes have started to break up on the inside of the heel. It started last week (perhaps the week before that), and I got a little rubbing, but nothing too bad. So I wore a Compeed plaster for protection last Saturday, which slid off after three miles (hint: apply Compeed several hours before running).

So I got a blister. I kept wearing the compeed from Tuesday’s run because they provide protection and aid skin repair. My shoes however are now in a state where they cut through the it, and into my skin.

Needless to say this is not good with only 17 days to go before London.

The arrival of British Summer Time (BST) is to be applauded. Being able to see what I’m stepping on is something I’ve not really noticed that I miss, but now I can see the ground, it’s surprising just how much of it I’m travelling over.

Today was a strange run. When you’re running for such a long time all kinds of thoughts and feelings come and go. After 40 minutes a surprise patch of boredom arrived, this didn’t last long, but I really understand why some people run with headphones on. After 120 minutes I’d covered about 16.5 miles, and was quite enjoying it again. This feeling was largely influenced by the fact that I could see the Spinnaker Tower waaay off in the distance, and knew that I’d run past it ninety minutes beforehand. I ran the last 5 miles alone (the rest of the club turned off and cut their run to 17 miles) so this was especially pleasing given that I’d trimmed my run to 11.5 last weekend.

It’s reassuring that each time I’ve gone over 20 miles my recovery has become easier and faster. Recovery, by the way, is measured as my ability to move as far as the kettle, and to keep the duvet wrapped around me whilst sipping tea and watching rugby. The duvet is very useful because after such a long run keeping warm helps the body replenish the energy stocks it’s just torched.

Immediately after the run it was a little difficult doing the stairs, but 24 hours later, all limbs seem to have full movement again.

This run gave me no pain afterwards, at all, so I’m concluding that marathon pace is too slow for me and makes me shorten my stride too much.

May I take this opportunity to wish a happy birthday to Lisa, the giver of pain our physio.

I’m getting the impression that speed work = pain for 5 days afterwards. I recall something about saying I’d not do any more of it until after the marathon. Perhaps I should re-read my earlier comments.

Today is horrible weather. Very blustery and not at all fun for running. On the route north out of Portsmouth the wind was so strong that it was causing me to ankle-tap myself.

I was hoping to do a little more than 11.25 miles today, but the combination of bad weather (+1 large coat) and the desire not to push my shins & calf muscles too hard forced me to trim the distance.

Good news #1: this is the second week that I’ve totalled over 42 miles.

Good news #2: I tried a different sock with my shoes and didn’t get the same blisters on the arch of my foot this week – this is a relief because I don’t want to have to change shoe so close to the marathon.

Good news #3: Due to the marathon paced run on Wednesday I have been running 50 minutes more in total this week than last (see the graph); so this week’s total running time is 6 hours 45 minutes.

As a result of the increased jogging time I’m running out of songs to hum to myself as I plod along; even Spanish Flea is starting to get repetitive.

I’m now going to avoid running until tuesday night – a break for my legs of approximately 80 hours, which should give them time to fully recover and repair. In the mean time I’ll be stretching, drinkng lots of water, and watching the rugby.

So, two more weeks of training at this level, then we start to taper off in order to ensure maximum energy and minimum injury risk for the big day which is four weeks tomorrow!

To get a little deeper on the subject I had all kinds of thoughts. On one side of the fence is the argument that I have to be careful and cautious, and not mess up race day by being injured. On the other side, I don’t want to wimp out on a little shin pain when I’m sure there are thousands of others who go through far worse – i.e. the “who am I to grumble?” argument.

So, I weighed these up against the pain in my shins and resolved to try alternating my running pattern so see if that helped, which it did, a little.

I’m really happy with my mile times. That’s as fast as I used to run when I was twelve years old, when I wasn’t bad for my age. I used to run with the Swansea Harriers and I recall coming in second in a 1500m race where my time was 5:38.

To put my times in perspective: the marathon world record time is now under 2:05:00 so if I were able to keep up my red-line flat-out speed of a six minute mile for 26 miles (instead of needing a breather after 1 mile) then I’d still arrive at the finish half an hour after the world record holder.

Or to look at it another way, when you watch the marathon on TV and see the leading pack tottering along, do take a moment to consider that even if I just ran with them for the last mile, I wouldnt’ be able to keep up!

“Respect”, as they say in certain neighbourhoods, “is due”.

Lisa the physio is around later too – so I have to do lots of stretching today to help keep the pain down tonight!

Extra! A big thanks to everyone who’s sponsored us so far – we’ve just broken the £1000 barrier! If we weren’t in training for a marathon this would be worth cracking open a bottle of fizz… we’ll have a drink to your health in late April.

Today’s run was all about breaking things up. Stopping and starting. The theory is that during a large event like “The London” it’s not possible to get into your normal rhythm, which can cause all kinds of grief if you’ve only ever been running at one pace. Stopping, and then starting again a minute later (after a little walk) is surprisingly hard work if you’re not used to it. So today we were basically stopped and restarted quite a few times, on purpose.

Regardless of all the stopping I’m still very pleased with knocking out 18 miles in 2 hours 35 minutes (155 mins!).

Also, one of our group was wearing a Garmin GPS today which agreed with the measurement system I’ve been using up to now, so I know my distance measurements have been pretty accurate.

The run was good, with some well paced loops. Loops are extra bits that you add on so that faster runners can run with slower runners – today, lots of people were taking it easy in preparation for a big race this weekend so many were running at marathon pace (approximately 60% of maximum).

Also, I think I should get bonus points for being the only member of the running club to be wearing shorts.

I forgot to time this one, so I’ve estimated that it was about 75 minutes for the graph.

My legs just felt like some kind of engine that I could use without tiredness or pain (rather than being ploddy-pain-sticks).

I ran fast, and hard, and maintained it for the 64 minutes. It’s a nice change to up the pace from “marathon plod”, and it does work your heart more!

I think the four day rest in early March definitely payed off, any little injuries I picked up in the speed work are now gone, and my running is stronger.

Circuits was taken by Eddie today (Rob’s on Holiday) so we had some interesting new stations including Asymmetric Inclined Pressups. They hurt at the time, and needed stretching a lot afterwards – so they must be good.

I find that by the end of 3.5 hours I’ve run out of water and JellyBabies. This means my running slows significantly. On race day there are regular water stops so I think it may actually be easier that training in some respects!

I have slight blistering on my instep due to my shoes rubbing. I’ve worn them in now, so that points to a lack of compatibility between my foot and the shoe.

Gutted.

They were 70quid from a reputable shop who know what they’re doing, so it’s just bad luck rather than bad planning.