Janet and I failed to get a place in the London Marathon, so we are now running the Paris Marathon on 10 April 2011.

Why? A good question...It all started last year when Janet was playing with the Southampton Albion Band close to the half way point of the 2010 London Marathon and I had gone along for the ride. Watching the events of the day unfold as a spectator, I got caught up in the passion, commitment and courage of the runners and we both came away with the same mad idea to give it a go ourselves!

After months of hard training, we are both now easing back for the last couple of weeks. Janet has completed all her long runs including a 20 miler last weekend and looks in pretty good shape to finish whereas I have had to miss some of the later long runs because of knee related problems. Not ideal, but I'm hoping that the 621km completed since I started training will get me through! However, without some recent long runs I know I will really suffer during the later stages......