? This is the afternoon. You don’t go running in the afternoon. In fact, you shouldn’t be here. You’re an optical illusion. Bugger off!”He’s probably right. With the London Marathon 10 days away, I’m fighting off a cold. I woke in the night and felt as if I was trying

down Santa Monica Boulevard towards the ocean. Strangely, I seemed to have become the star of a continuous Beach Boys video.A light, warm breeze played in my hair as I pulled over and slipped on my running shoes. I set off along the Tarmac track

and sacrifice. Blackford, they said, you must run up-country, into the very heart of darkness, and persuade Seaton to give himself up.For days, I jogged along forest tracks with no sustenance except two pieces of string and a sackful of unpronounceable medicines

Don’t get me wrong – I like running as much as the next man. Actually, that isn’t entirely true. At this precise moment the man next to me is an obese Samoan who is gigantic even by Samoan standards. Like me, he is eating tagliatelli carbonara

I’m injured. I never get injured, but here I am, injured. What’s worse, I suspect that I got injured by congratulating myself on how I never get injured. I’m plagued by this sort of thing. For instance, I used to lay awake at night, worrying

Did I ever tell you about the time I nearly froze to death on the remote Atlantic island of South Georgia? While running solo across the ice cap, I’d fallen into a swamp of frozen guano. My blood had attained the colour and consistency

, according to a recent survey of RUNNER’S WORLD readers, I’m slightly less popular than Glenn Hoddle.Last month my running had descended to an all-time low. While training in the Peak District I was overtaken by a large boulder. I was deeply shocked

I rose early this morning, as I have done every Sunday for 20 years. The old hip was a bit stiff, and a familiar twinge in the left calf reminded me that these days I ought to sit down before putting on my running shoes.I sifted through a heap

ascetic I secretly aspire to be.Second, I’d love to run a sub-3:00 marathon before I drop. And I feel I’d stand a better chance if I didn’t have to drag my liver behind me in a dog cart.Lastly, I’m interested in what makes us happy. What is happiness

from the double bone graft, “See you in February for the implants. Bring six thousand pounds.”I haven’t been able to run since that day. The grafts came from a bone bank in San Francisco and were granular. They’re held in by little plates of Teflon