I am pleased to say I have once again managed to complete the London Marathon and at the same time raised awareness of both Sands and Alzheimers (running jointly for both these charities) and of course much-needed funds. Although my time was not my

.I decided to run the London Marathon this year after speaking to the CLDF Chief Executive at a memorial service last summer.  It seemed a fitting time to run again to raise money for them, as it would be the fifth anniversary of Ellen's death. Luckily for me

washing machine and a War Horse puppet as the gun went to start the London Marathon.  The first impression was of slight anti-climax.  I’d been building towards this moment for the last nine weeks (I was a late and surprised substitute for an injured

of 4:30. I was using my Garmin to pace myself and that had me bang on 2:15 at the halfway mark although the official half marathon split was 2:16.58. I did start to tire a little around the halfway point and I think may have taken a sneaky little walk

! From an almost standing start, I knew I would have to train hard to cope and it was a rocky road. I had done a half-marathon before but hadn't run for months. Luckily I had a decent physio and was driven by fear of failure.I thought I had some idea what

I’m going to get it out of my system. I don’t want to be negative - but I have to say this. I hated the Virgin London Marathon (VLM) just as much as I loved it. Not because of the pain or the hard work during the run and the training, but because

running for cover but by the time we were being told to enter our start pens it had cleared up and our expectation levels continued to rise.After six months of fundraising and training, it was finally time. 35,000-plus runners set off for the 30th London