Monday, 29th March – 27 days to go

Go for a slow jog in the morning. Just three miles to get the legs turning over. Looks like we’ve seen the best of the day as it’s cold and miserable by the time I’ve finished.

I’ve received a second magazine from VLM and this one seems to have some fairly detailed stuff about the event. How to get to the start, where to meet afterwards, good spectating spots etc. Read it cover to cover and this is what I’ve learned so far.

• They’ve abandoned the guaranteed place to those who have entered the ballot on five consecutive occasions and been rejected each time. This is bad news for us as there was at least a guarantee that Liz would get a place eventually.

• The “normal” ballot opens on 4th May 2010 for next year’s marathon.

• I can watch a video of Liz Yelling opening her Lucozade gel on the Lucozade website. This is not as daft as it sounds as I still can’t get the hang of ripping the top off. The Lucozade lady was at parkrun on Saturday and I’m even more stocked up on their products than before.

• There are free Lucozade gels after fourteen and twenty one and a half at VLM.

• Free Lucozade sports drinks (in bottles) at five, ten, fifteen, nineteen and twenty three miles.

• Bottles of water at every mile marker from three through to twenty five. It’s a fine line though, as they warn against dehydration from not enough water on the one hand and hyponatraemia from too much water on the other.

• Run through showers at nine, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, twenty two and twenty three & a half miles.

• Toilets every two miles

• 5k markers which recognise your chip and have large display clocks

• Free travel for runners on the tube and DLR on race day

• My number is 11459, meaning I start from the blue start

• Liz can track me round the course with the Adidas waptracker. She’ll get a text each time I pass a 5k marker
• It’ll take me a minimum of twenty minutes to get from the finish line to the post run meeting point

• You have to use the official kit bag to stow your warm clothing and anything else you take to the start

• Average finish time in 2009 was 4:41

I’ll read through the stuff again, but I’m beginning to get a feel for it and it’s becoming a bit more real. Not sure how I’ll be able to run with either Michael or Helen if we’re starting from different places or are in different pens.

I miss my gym session with Tony as I have to wait in for the IT guy. He manages to be four and a half hours late this time. Aim to post my blog daily from now on. I usually write it in Word with a view to editing later, but never seem to get round to doing editing so just post what I’ve written. Given the unreliable state of my IT I’ll just have to write straight to blog in future.

Caught up with Michael’s blog – sounds like they also had wind on Merseyside. Great times then for Michael, Kay, Paul W & Harp. Fantastic time for David from parkrun in the M55 category. Also caught up with Julie’s blog; the Preston run sounds like not the best of preparation, but quite an experience.