So what have I been doing in the meantime? Well… looking after the twins and trying to work a couple of days a week from Chester mainly, which is why I’ve also missed the Tuesday runs… though I’m hoping to persuade everyone to change that to Wednesdays, in which case I can come back out to play.

Other than that, I’ve been trying, rather unsuccessfully to train for my other challenge, Brighton Marathon, Brighton to London run on one day (52 miles) and London Marathon the following Sunday.

I’d started off okay, got some new trainers, the new version of Brooks Adrenalins which I’ll get round to reviewing this week and had started upping the mileage again.

I’d got up to two runs in a weekend, one of 15 and one of ten when after one Sunday about three weeks ago on the former, I came home to find Laura needing some help, so without cooling down or stretching, I jumped straight into baby duties.

The next day, I was a little sore but thought I could run it off in a few days, so the following Friday, I went out and did 19 miles… oh yes James, well done, bloody great idea. By that afternoon, I couldn’t walk and couldn’t for the next five days… I mean seriously limping around here dragging my foot behind me when I wanted to go anywhere couldn’t walk.

The services of Lillian, my sports masseuse from last year, were called back into action and after some serious drawing of air over teeth, she concluded the tendon fascia that joins the muscle to the bone was being pulled away and advised… yes, the dreaded rest.

The week after, I gingerly tried to go out and got a mile from home before giving up in pain… I was hobbling so much I would only have managed to do more damage to the other leg and took another week off with ice and lots of ibuprofen.

Sunday last, I went out and managed to do six miles with not too many problems, although I was going sloooooooooooow. Welcome back to the world of 11minute miles! And I went to see Lillian again this week who has given me the go-ahead to start building up again.

I was going to run into the Express where Im working today and back, it’s about 14 miles in total, but I’ve now got a stinking cold so have decided to bus it instead.

Hopefully, I’ll be back on the road tomorrow.

The Athens Marathon is approaching at the end of October, as is the Royal Parks half marathon in the middle of the month and it’s been a while since I’ve done a really long run.

One of the things about not doing the challenge any more is that I am able to take rest days and I hope this is going to improve my performance and so I set off yesterday morning at 7am with a spring in my step, despite the cold and drizzle.

My plan was to run the seven miles from home to Green Park, meet up with my pal Dave and a couple of other lads who are also training for the Royal Parks, do eight miles with them and then run as far home as I could.

According to my training program, yesterday should have been a 20 miler but with no real long for a few weeks, I’d decided to settle for 18.

Getting into town was relatively easy, I wasn’t bombing it, but neither was I taking it easy, the few days rest were obviously doing their job.

I hooked up with David and the boys at around eight, luckily, one of them was doing his first half marathon, had not done much training for a few weeks and wanted to take it easy, so we let him set the pace for the eight miles we had to cover.

We ended up doing a huge figure of eight around Hyde Park before rounding Buckingham Palace through Green Park, down the Mall to Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall, past Downing Street to Westminster Tube. It was all at a rather leisurely pace of around 10.5mins a mile.

We split up here and I headed back over Westminster Bridge to South London, we were at around the 15mile mark and I knew that every mile I could add on from now on was in the bank as training for Athens.

I decided to pick up the pace again for a mile or two but coming into where Oval starts to meet Brixton, I was getting less and less hopeful of being able to do any more than 18: my glutes and calves were on fire, though I was glad to feel mentally really strong.

In Brixton, just by the bus stop where busses come back to Streatham, I’d had enough. I’d slowed right down by now and decided to call it a day, jumping straight onto a bus – bugger it, I’ll stretch at home I thought. Bad idea.

By the time I was back in Streatham, I’d totally seized up and it was much too late to stretch out, so it was a hot bath for an hour and lots of neurofen through the day.

I’m aching like heck this morning and just glad to think I don’t have to do three miles – though poor Andy is probably about half way through his run at the moment!

I spoke to a lovely guy called Martin today (from www.timetorun.co.uk) about some 1095miles.com running shirts I’ve ordered. He told me he’d seen lots of crazy challenges over the time he’s been kitting people out in their finest challenge advertising clothing. Martin mentioned the 7 marathons in 7 days and other truly insane challenges that are, in his view, nigh on impossible. It was nice to hear him say that the 1095miles.com challenge was, in his words ”achievable”. “It’s a massive personal commitment, but at least it’s an achievable target” he said. Thanks Martin…

Nice to hear. Achieveable, yes. Daunting? Without doubt! So here it is, I’m going to run *at least* 3 miles every day, for a year. There, I said it. To the world. I’m in and there’s no getting out now.

In an attempt to make myself feel better about the situation, I checked my trusty (not so trusty at present but more on that at some later date!) Garmin 305 to see what I have achieved in my first year of running. 450 miles. Ah. Nowhere near then! It’s been an incredibly long year of running for me with many a set back and a few injuries to contend with. I’ve seen more physio’s than you would believe and have, in great detail, had medical explanations of why I’m not really a runner physically. As I hope you’ll understand, the next year is going to be a challenge in many ways.

So why? Well, those of you who know me already will be aware I’ve been working with a charity called Sense for some years now, leading holidays for deafblind people. The prospect of coping with the loss of my sight or hearing is enough for me to decide that to put myself out for an hour a day to raise a few quid and make sure a few more people hear about what Sense do is a small gesture in support of their work, and one (that Martin says) I can achieve.

Enough of the reasons why I’m personally taking it on and back to the man of the moment, James. I met james a few months back now and he’s a really great bloke. I had been following his blog for many months prior to this as it was a great motivator. There’s a sense that you’re not the only non-runner trying to run and finding it hard work. I think James has made the transition to being a true runner and athlete through the months of dedication and I am in awe of his achievement. He still claims to not be a runner but I think we should all congratulate him on a superb achievement and one which has driven me to keep running and to accept the baton in just a few days time.

I hope you will enjoy following my challenge over the coming months. James will continue to blog regularly too, though I believe he wants a break from running daily for some reason There is a third blogger joining us too, Damian but I shall leave the honour to him to introduce himself. I also hope you will be able to (geographical location permitting) join one of us for a few miles. I have 365 possible dates available in my diary, it’d be great to have some new people to run with. We’ve also had this crazy plan to try and get the “1095miles.com plodders” off the ground too. If you’re London based and available on a Wednesday evening, come and join us for a few gentle and not at all competitive miles.

Anyway, here’s to (hopefully) another great year for 1095miles.com and give one of us a shout if you’re interested in getting some miles in with us… see you on the 21st… or beyond!

Andy.

Please support my fundraising efforts for Sense here – VirginMoneyGiving
Thanks, it’s appreciated!

I say ‘we’ because Andy will be taking on the 1095 challenge in 20 days and will begin blogging too and, while I will still be popping in to let you know about my running, he will be, ahem running the main show.

As such, in ‘categories’ on the left, you can now see the 13 months I have ran in under James Ellis’ runs, when Andy takes over, his will follow suit, so you can follow one, both or none of us.

We’ve also decided to launch an informal social running club that will be setting off every Wednesday evening in Hyde Park and, when we can work it out, there will also be a dedicated 1095miles Twitter account for those minded to follow it.

As for today’s run, I was still hurting real bad in the shins but it was a lovely sunny afternoon when I went out and so I decided to take a nice slow run around Streatham Common. Loads of people were out sunning themselves and it was quite lovely to drop back to 10minutes a mile and just enjoy it.

Miles today: 3
Target: 1041
Miles to date: 1,457.68
Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

The run

Best laid plans and all that… I ended up leaving at 11pm, a mixture of red wine and strong lager coursing through my veins. 5am, this morning and it was me cursing… my stupidity.

My head ached, I felt sick, had to go for a run and be in some kind of shape to not look stupid on the course. I ended up stumbling around Streatham like an idiot and turning up at the course feeling even worse.

One of the things we have been learning are nutrition guidelines: one of the main ones is no CRAP (caffeine, refined, alcohol and additives, processed). Of course, for me it all went out of the window.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a map and details of the run

Miles today: 3
Target: 1020
Miles to date: 1,421.68

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

Today was meant to be a nice easy run – just a three miler after yesterday’s 14 miler and associated fuel tank problem.

The idea, as I was on the PT course in Southwark was to knock off there at 5pm and head to Hyde Park for a 6pm meet and run with Andy who is taking over the challenge and Damo, his pal, who will be joining him on some of the runs and trying to do 1095miles in the year but as a cummulative total rather than an every day challenge.

All well and good until about 4.45 – we’d even been doing some stretching techniques on the course and I was more than happy to let most of the group get in some pracitice on my hamstrings.

Then, just before we left, I noticed the Garmin was at about 5 per cent charge…. I was about to go on a run with nothing in place to record the fact I’d done it.

iphone in hand, I Google mapped the nearest running shop, London City Runner on Ludgate Circus, over the Bridge from where I was. I decided to run over, switch the watch on to get some mileage under the belt and pray they had a Garmin charger in stock.

A mile – or eight minutes later and I was in the shop. Great, a charger was found and I stumped up an extra £16 – only to discover it was a USB charger with no plug.

“Please tell me you have the adaptor,” I begged. The Aussie girl behind the counter started to root around… “I’m not sure we do she replied,” before finally locating one. Another tenner thank you very much.

Then I was off to the local Starbucks for a cuppa and some charge. At 30 per cent, I thought I was good to go and went for a pre-run number 2… only to find half way through there were only two sheets of loo roll in the john that necessitated me using them before heading out for some more tissues and back in.

Great – 30 minutes to get across London to meet the boys – jump on a bus I thought, failing to take into account rush hour traffic.

Ten minutes later and we had crawled a few hundred yards and so it was out of the bus and on another run… I was doing all this by the way with my backpack with normal clothes and school books in. It weighed a ton and running with it through rush hour commuters was no fun.

By the time I got to Hyde Park, I already had 2.5miles on the clock.

Thankfully, meeting the boys was a great idea – despite the fact I still had to run three miles with them. They’ve both got some great ideas for where we can take the site when Andy takes over in September…

More to be revealed in the coming days and weeks.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a map and details of the run

Miles today: 6.18
Target: 1014
Miles to date: 1,415.68

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

With more DIY and some paid-for writing work to complete, I decided to set off early and was out of the house for 7.30am, fuelling up with a banana and some Maxifuel Viper to give me an energy boost.

When I first set off, it was sprinkling with rain which got a little heavier about four miles in when I hit Wandsworth Common.

At this point, I was doing okay, congratulating myself on passing the 1,400 mile mark for the year and feeling pretty chipper and full of beans thanks to the carbs and the cooler weather.

Six and a half miles and I crossed Battersea bridge to get on the north side of the Thames and after running down the Embankment in Chelsea for a while, crossing back at Chelsea Bridge.

I slowed a little here, it must have been 7.5 miles to grab an energy sachet from my shorts and pulled my iphone out at the same time.

Alex Kyprianou, who I mentioned yesterday was saying how much he missed the chance to run in London since he has been living in Oz, so I decided to take a snap to show him what he’s really missing

Cold and wet on the Thames

Yes Alex, it’s still the height of summer!

On the other side of the bridge, some idiot passed in a car and flicked a fag butt out of the window that hit me on the hand, sticking momentarily to the expanding gap filler I got on my hands in yesterday’s DIY fest.

After cursing him to high heaven, through Battersea and Clapham I trekked, feeling pretty good and going at around 8 minutes a mile and thinking I was doing well on a long training run for the second week running.

By the time I got back to Tooting though, two miles from home, every bit of energy in me decided to bugger off and I hit a bigger wall than I ever have, even in the marathon.

For about a mile, I had to grit teeth, slow down and just push on as best as I could… I knew if I stopped i would not start again and the psychological blow would have been massive.

In the end, I stumbled back to Streatham, a little short on mileage, so I had to do a round of Sainsbury’s car park to make up.

For next week’s long one, I need to take more gels with me.

Tomorrow, I’m back on the PT course for a week… wish me luck.

Click here for a link to Garmin Connect for a map and details of the run

Miles today: 14
Target: 1011
Miles to date: 1,409.50

Please donate to my chosen charities by clicking here

I swear there was a time, maybe ten or 15 years ago, where doing any kind of exercise, never mind a big challenge was kind of frowned upon. It seems like it used to be that instead of counting the miles you ran, the number of pints you drank was your badge of honour.

I’m not sure where the change came from – these days it seems everyone is at the gym or racing a 5k or half marathon – but I suspect it came over from the States. While the Midwest may still have its fair share of dumplings, New York and LA have always been terribly body conscious. And over the past few years, people have taken it one further by raising cash for charity at the same time.

Whatever the reason, Greece, where I was brought up and where my mum still lives, is still pretty much behind the UK when it comes to this kind of thing. Sure people go to the gym and they don’t drink loads but you hardly ever see anyone out just pounding the streets simply because they enjoy running. And no one does extreme events for charity.

I was telling George, my Greek brother-in-law about the Portsmouth Half Marathon the other day and how some runners had mates located around the race who would pass them a bottle of water or a banana. He said: ‘In Greece, your mates would be passing you a cup of espresso and a fag’ – and he was only half joking.

So trying to explain to my mum what I’ve been doing for the last six months has all been a bit of challenge. She’s 75 bless her and not lived in England for more than 35 years so the idea of running for fun, running loads and raising money for charity by running are alien ideas.

She gets that I’m running a lot… but that’s about it. I was telling her about Sunday’s half-marathon yesterday and the conversation went something like this:

‘So mum, I ran this half marathon.’
‘What’s that?’
‘It’s a race, like a marathon but half the distance.’
‘So it’s not a marathon?’
‘No mum, that’s why it’s called a half marathon.’
‘So did you win?’
‘No, I came 174th’
‘It sounds like you had no chance of winning.’
‘I didn’t’
‘So why do it?’
‘For fun, to take part, to see how good I am.’
‘Trelos.’ (it means crazy)

A bit of silence followed where I think neither of us knew where to take the running conversation. And then she came back with:

‘So, with all this running, will you be training for the London Olympics?’

Bless her, she really did think I had a chance of running in the Olympics, despite the fact I’m 42, have been running seriously for less than a year and have knackered legs.’

You’ve got to love mums, they always think their kids are the best.

Miles today: 3
Target: 564
Miles to date: 741.07

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Laura had me a freezing bath on for when I got back. I lasted two minutes in two different goes of one each and followed it with a hot bath to try and warm myself up. Now Im in front of the fire, with a hot water bottle, cup of tea, ice pack on legs and, despite just having a double helping of porridge, am still starving – not unreasonable given Garmin Connect estimates I’ve spent nearly 3,000 calories running this morning.

My feet, by the way, are becoming like proper runner’s feet, the blisters from the Portsmouth Half Marathon have now turned into hard skin and the hard skin has blisters on it… one of them a nice juicy one full of blood I’m contemplating popping. Around the rest of my feet, particularly on the heels, the skin is getting all gnarly and worn – I wonder if a toe nail might go at some point.

Tomorrow is the acid test though, how I react to today’s run will determine a lot about my future endeavours.

Oh, I forgot to say… today was the furthest I have ever ran in my life!

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 18.5
Target: 507
Miles to date: 655.9

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here

I’d not made it the gym at all this week so decided to run there and back, happily, in another case of running serendipity, it’s about 1.47 miles to the gym…

Click here for a Google Map and full details of the day’s run

Miles today: 3.00
Target: 477
Miles to date: 615.19

Want to dedicate a run to someone or have one dedicated to you? Click here