Sunday 27th May

This is it......

We wake early enough and go and get some breakfast, I'm in normal clothes for once and I haven't had many breakfasts.

I got stuck into the fruit, muesli and porridge and the fruit juices, lots of fruit juices, while Dawn got stuck into the cooked breakfast to start, then the fruit, the yoghurt, some cereal, I went up to get changed into my running gear to find that she'd made it onto the toast and croissants, so I left her there and went out into the rain to the start of the race on Princes St.

No support, gee thanks.

It was bitter, I was wearing my riding jacket because it was light and waterproof and we all stood in the bus stops trying to stay warm and dry, hoping someone else would try and get in and that they would plug that one gap the wind was finding. We waited and as we stepped out to line up the rain held off thankfully. The first bit of the race was fine, through to the park and away towards the long road along the water front. The running in the beginning was all into a head wind and was hard going but after about 14/15 miles we turned and it was wind with but it was still cold.

One minute the coat was open the next is was wrapped up tight. I was doing OK, just over 3 hours time for the first half but when I was coming out of the some park area after about 18 miles all the work that Benji had done had been spent, it was at this point that you realise how good he was. It was my calves, the bit of your leg you use for both running and cycling, solid rocks attached to the back of my legs. Any spring I had in my stride was going and it was my hips and thighs that were doing the running. I'd give it a go for half a mile and relax for half a mile.

If I'd have gone for it or let it completely relax it would have taken me ages to get home, I would have burnt myself out or lost all rhythm. When I hit the 20-21 mile area a woman started to run down the street, on the opposite side to me, shouting and asking if I was the bloke that had cycled up there........groupies..........how good is that.

Seeing the 26 mile markers was so good, I felt like pinching it and taking it home with me and as we rounded into the stadium I felt so good that I started to pump the ground, waving my arms so they'd cheer louder, it was cold and only those that had to be there had turned up, the racecourse being a little out of the way.

And so I finished cold and, amazingly enough, without a silver blanket, we could all have done with one. But the banana went down well and so did the drinks and the banter in the queue for the massage is always good. There's something about mass participation events that just brings out the best in people. And there's something about massage tables that chills be to the bone.

We got a hot drink, Dawn had gone back to bed and managed to arrive at the racecourse 10 minutes before I did, gets better doesn't it... The room was full of runners shivering trying hard not to spill their drinks, too numb to feel the burn but too cold to afford to lose a drop.

WE then collected a nice Angus burger and checked out the charity stall before getting the bus back to the city centre, then it was shower and.............beer.

Into the centre, pint of real ale and a whisky chaser, in fact lots of pints of real ale and lots of whisky chasers on the Royal Mile.

And the time......3 Hours 22 Minutes.........not bad after 350 miles I think, I'm chuffed with anyway.

Next day we rose and this time I nailed the breakfast bar before we packed up and headed our separate ways, Dawn flying home (selfish sod) and my on the train. Now Virgin have spaces for the bike but they aren't great. The bike's hang vertically but you don't know who else has hung there bike and the bikes are stacked from the wall to the corridor so if you put yours on first you have to find the other person if, like me, they lock their bike and he's the issue, Virgin don't give you a lot of time at stations.

The train was held up on route by a broken freight train so I arrived at Preston too late for my train and had to wait an hour and a half for the next one. Luckily when I got there the other bike wasn't locked but it was still a rush to get the straps off, bike and restrap the other one, luckily a bloke who'd just cycled the Scottish Highlands with his wife was sat next to me and helped with the bikes, I pity anyone who has to do it alone.

I got home just before 8pm, Dawn was already home and......and........and.......had already gone to the pub.....so that's where I went, Tuesday I had a day off work and did nowt.