Yes, it is only two weeks until the bloody race. Only two more weeks of me torturing you with my tedious running blogs and pleas for sponsorship. And only two more weeks of this masochistic foolishness that is rapidly knackering my knees. It’s no fun for any of us believe me. So will you just get your visa card out and donate here please (all in a good cause etc etc)?

Today’s training plan target : 13 miles.

Today’s reality : 9 miles. Arse.

I’d like to say I was cut short only by witnessing a burglary, having to call 999 (difficult when your fingers are too sweaty to unlock your phone) and then wait for the police, but in truth said burglary was right round the corner from my house, from which you can readily deduct that I was on the home strait, having given up on my target at 7 miles. This is a bit heartbreaking. I’ve done my level best to sensibly train up over a period of time for this, and I’ve just not got quite as far as I’d have liked due to a combination of injury and too much flipping work. I’m pretty sure I’ll finish, but my aspiration to run it through without any walking seems a bit pie in the sky at the moment. There are lots of reasons why I ran out of steam at about the half way mark – I’ve barely managed more than one run a week for the last month or so due to work commitments is one. Another is the fact that whilst I ate a slice or two of the delicious victoria sponge that I made with the 6 y/o this morning, whilst waiting for the other half to come back from rugby practice so I could go out – I then slightly forgot to have any lunch before going out. This is not a good way to start a lengthy run. I am a fool. And now I have very limited opportunities to catch up and get my 13 miles in. Also disappointing was the fact that I had some really rather unpleasant joint pain in my knee (this is a new thing) which meant I had to do walk breaks every ten mins or so. This is irritating, as I’m quite proud that where I could only run for approximately 10 seconds without my heart exploding in January this year I can now run 10k without stopping, from a fitness point of view. But not today because of stupid joint pain. And by the time I got past the joint pain I hit a brick wall as my cake power failed me.

Anyway, I am trying to be positive. Whilst I have not lost a single pound since January when I finally resolved to start running again, I guess I have at least burnt enough calories by running to enable me to eat and drink many many lovely things without putting any weight on – which I undoubtedly would have done if I eaten the same amount without running. And I feel absolutely no guilt about today’s sponge scoffing (yes, it is just as enjoyable without the guilt).

And whilst I may not break any records on race day (apart from possibly slowest 42 year old on the planet) I have really rather begun to enjoy running. Just not quite as far as a half marathon!

PS Did you donate yet? Here’s the link again in case you lost it. You’re welcome.