Marathon 5. Dog & Hedgehog 1/2 marathon x 2, Sunday 13th May.

(The little red thing is a feather duster!)

I had been looking forward to this race as I thought it would be an ideal taper-down run. My friend Shawn “Badger” Wilebore had decided that he was going to run it twice…the second time in fancy dress! As it is soon to be his big 4 0, he wanted to do something mad to raise money for Children with Leukaemia. So he did, and muggins here did it with him (except for the fancy dress of course). Yes, we ran it twice, and it was pretty damned wet and cold on the second lap, so much so that even my wrinkly bits were wrinkled when we had finished!

We had both achieved fairly fast times the first time round so we had to dig deep to find the energy for the second, but we made it in a total time of less than 3hrs 50mins and what a reception we received from our supporters as we came round the final bend…all three of them! Thank you Linda, Christian and Shawn’s mum. It was the best part of the run seeing you there and very much appreciated, I can tell you.

Marathon 4. Neolithic-Avebury to Stonehenge Sunday 6th May

Not the easiest marathon that I would have chosen as my last one, but it was an extremely undulating off-road route with fabulous scenery for the first 8 miles or so and a couple of serious hills to warm us up. Then we hit Salisbury Plain and the Tank training area! Miles and miles of track, hills and dust which seemed to never end (at least 12 miles of it). Warning signs of “unexploded shells” ensured that we didn’t go off track. I didn’t even dare pop behind the bushes in fear of getting my bits blown off!

In all, a very well organised and marshalled run with plenty of cakes and goodies at the finish and a lovely individual medal. It was a relief though, as we turned a corner, to see the "Stones", signifying our last mile and as I approached the finish line, I couldn't overcome my emotions. My finish time was 4hrs 5mins and although officially it was the last run of my challenge, I couldn’t stop thinking about the Dog & Hedgehog half marathon the next week…watch this space!!