For this relief, much thanks

Yes, I've been a bit quiet. The leg had seemingly settled into a pattern of causing me no pain or problem in ordinary walking around the house, but still pulled and troubled me occasionally on stairs; and when I tried jogging a few experimental steps on Wednesday, I thought there is no way I can jog - much less run - on this. My sponsorship has increased to a fantastic £760; whilst I knew I could walk the course, I would be so disappointed if I couldn't at least jog some part of it.

On Thursday, I went to see James, the sports masseur. He did some thorough work on the injured area and on both legs, gave me some guidelines for hot/cold treatment, advised me to try walking and jogging again - just testing to see what I could manage - and reckons I'll be fine for Sunday.

So today, I went down to the lakes at Lenwade - the site of my first solo run, just over five weeks ago. Unlike that occasion, the place was full of fishermen - who were much amused by my subsequent antics. Such is the life of the runner!

I started by walking, briskly but steadily, for two circuits - about a mile. Then I stopped, had water, stretched carefully; and set off on circuit #3 at the slowest jog imaginable - it hardly counted as a jog, really. Oh, stuff it - yes, it was a real jog. Just a very slow one.

As I was going so slowly, the CV was absolutely no problem, and as I continued round, terrified that my leg would start to hurt, I began to relax into it as the sky didn't fall in. At the end of the circuit, there was no apparent need to stop; so I carried on for two more circuits - about 1.5 miles. When I stopped at that point, it wasn't because I was out of breath or because I hurt - simply because I thought I ought to stretch my legs. So I paused for a couple of minutes, and finally did two more circuits - making a total of around 3.5 miles - and this time I timed it: about 11 minutes to do what is approximately a mile. Not as fast as I have been achieving in the past (about 9 minutes/mile), but who cares? I can run again! And I can't begin to tell you how much I've missed it. Is it really only five days that I've been out of action? It feels like a lifetime.