Day 1

I didn't have the best nights sleep last night, probably a bit of nerves etc. But woke up at about 5:30am and lay in bed for a while before getting up and going down to make the mandatory morning brew. I'd arranged to meet Michael my physio early doors , so had some toast and made the walk down to the treatment room, I've not done any running yet, so it was just for some maintenance and a check over really.

After physio I headed back to the lodge for porridge and changed into my race kit, my phone was hot with messages of good luck which was nice and I was bursting to get going. Keith my friend who we met whilst walking coast to coast a few years back was there to watch me of which was really nice, it's amazing how much of a boost stuff like that give you.

There was a lot of press activity and people to see us off, more than I'd expected actually and people were clapping the group of runners as we walked down to the start, it felt pretty special if I'm honest...

The gun went off (literally ) and we were off, I'd planned to run at a pace of about 3 hours 45 mins - 50mins ish today, which is slower than normal, of course due to the size of the challenge I wanted to pace it carefully. The support out on the road from the support team was excellent, always felt like someone was close by if needed. It soon warmed up as we got into the race proper and I was glad I'd put a drink in each of the boxes which are placed out on the route. I somehow managed to miss a couple of boxes , probably not concentrating which meant I missed some of my drinks.

Overall I was happy to come in with no problems at 3 hours 52 mins, still felt really hard even running slower! When I finished I was quickly whisked away to the treatment rooms and did 10 mins on the spinning bike (ala team Sky, now I feel pro). I also had a quick fish finger buttie which was laid on, before Michael (AKA the Terminator) went to work on my recover physio, I can honestly say one of the most painful 2 hours of my life.......everything seems to hurt, but needs must and after the session I felt much better.

We've had a nice meal together this evening , just getting my self organised for tomorrow, I think now I've got a day under me belt I'll be better tomorrow. I was back and forth a bit today and didn't really appreciate how much time I would need to spend with the recovery team after the event.

Bring on tomorrow!