This is more of the continuing saga of my preparations for the London Marathon.

To enable you to become gripped by this ever continuing soap-opera you may have to read the previous entries, or not as the case may be !!!
I have progressed reasonably well during January trying not to do too much too soon, as they say, but I had the urge to try and increase my speed - this is to enable me to finish before the bloke in the diving suit!!
I started with sessions in the gym, pounding mindlessly on the treadmill. I have to say this is a boring way of training, but at least it's warm, and you can watch other people suffering. It looked like a major influx of people determined to uphold their New Year's resolutions: by the start of February most appear to have decided flab wasn't that bad after all!!
Now we come to my first real set back: so grab a coffee and tissues......
I had entered my first road race, a half marathon in Sherbourne. On the weekend prior to the race I had a run from Weymouth to home, about 10 miles, no real problem. It was even mild with sunshine. About a mile from home I felt a pain in my groin area. That became proggresively worse. So it was a case of easing off and jogging home.
Now, as all sportsmen and woman know, rest is a good healer. So out with a packet of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel clamped firmly but carefully in my groin... This, of course, raised many a chuckle and comment from the family. I also applied some gel that made parts become numb, much care was taken applying this!!
No running for the next week and by the Friday all seemed well and the pain had gone.
Sunday saw me with lots, about 400, other souls eagerly awaiting the off. It was cold and windy, but what the heck, it is winter in the UK!!!
It should be noted that there appears to be two types of runner: the ones who warms up first, jogging round the field in skimpy shorts and vests, then stretching and doing all manner of strange contortions and then theres the others (like me!), who sit in their cars near the start with the engines running, to ensure the heater is nice and warm, who, on seeing everyone line up for the off, make a mad dash for the start, timing it to arrive as the mob set off.
I was in the latter group - surprise-surprise!!.
5 Miles in and ouch!!! the pain was back, bu.....r or even stronger words. I limped to a pick- up point and a lift back to the car park and home. No finishing time, no free t-shirt just a pain in the crutch!!
Was this the end? The family were very supportive, friends saying helpful things like, "it's your age catching up" and other reassuring comments.
Monday and a visit to the vet (country doctor), "you need a sports physio", the mans is a genious, 10 years of training to tell me that. The NHS will take a month for an appointment. The afternoon saw me in Weymouth having my groin inspected by a young woman and paying for it privately. Ten minutes later and me with gritted teeth, she declares "it's ok, you'll be running next Monday", Blast another excuse to quit has gone.
So today I'm resting under physio's orders.
My local free paper came out today with a nice article about my running the Marathon and my attempts to raise money for the Wessex Autistic Society.

To be continued.........