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Sussex Slogger: thank you! I'l be the small (5ft 2) woman wearing a teal-coloured Salomon 10+3 vest backpack. I seem to be number 69.

I have a Horizon Paragon 408. Top speed 12 mph, top incline 12 degrees. Lifetime warranty frame and motor, 10-year everything else. Feels pretty solid Was about £800 about three years ago. Does have programmes but I always use manual. I have the opposite problem to you, with no hills nearby, so I use it for hill sessions when I'm short on time (since I have to run for three miles to reach anything resembling a hill more than about 50 metres long), and for uphill walking, and for interval sessions sometimes.

I strongly recommend going and trying before you buy - I wanted a Nordic Track untilI tried it in the shop and hated it, while this one felt good.

Note: note pretty much ALL the online prices are PERMANENTLY "X reduced to half-X", so the real price is half-X.

Rest during this last week - don't worry if you don't run at all. I had three weeks off before Greater Manchester Marathon last year due to a piriformis problem. Did no running at all except one 4-mile jog about three days before when the physio finally allowed it. I was fine on the day (well, except for the near-hypothermia due to the weather conditions).

Also, massage your calves and hamstrings and quads - by hand, or with a massage "stick" (a rolling pin works well as a substitute) or with a foam roller if you have one/like them. Massage morning and evening every day from now to Edinburgh.  If you can afford it, go get a sports massage, sooner rather than later (you don't want one the last couple of days before the race).

Good luck!

Kendal mint cake! Much cheaper than gels, nothing that could upset your system, tried and tested for serious endurance events (Everest expeditions, polar expeditions), and probably not far off the 2:1 recomended glucose:fructose ratio.I'll also eat M&S green-ear Percy Pigs.

Also real food - malt loaf, fig rolls, cheese wraps, pretzels, raisin/pumpkin seed/cranberry mixture. And cake etc. from the tables at aid stations on ultras.

Can't remember the last time I used a gel. Do like Elete (just minerals, no flavourings) in my water.

Muttley: I used to use those, unti I had one "explode" when I bit into it and scatter powder all over the back of my throat, leading to a coughing fit.

Email with final details this morning - starting to get excited.

Ran a brisk 2.8 miles as part of a local relay race yesyerday evening and it felt good to stretch out a bit - my ankle is quite a bit better, thankfully (although still not 100%), and my legs are not complainingthis morning. Will rest my legs today and tomorrow except for continuing the ankle exercises, and hope it's not too slippery on Saturday.