Having performed this gut wrenching lunacy 14 years ago when a fit, athletic 24 year old I went into this year's London Marathon with my eyes wide open, and the intervening years had certainly not dulled the memory. It was, as expected, 5 hours of mental and physical hell!

Well 5 hours and 14 minutes to be exact, but I have to say that I was delighted to finish at all given that my longest run in training was 7 miles, and I think I just about racked up the 26 miles of the marathon in all my training runs added together!!!

The sight of a priest standing by the side of the road splashing the runners with holy water at the 2 mile mark near Charlton, looked unnervingly like he was administering the last rites, but I put that to the back of my mind as I surged to the half way mark at Tower Bridge. Sorry, I missed out a t,g and l, that should read struggled! At the14 mile mark I made a tactical decision, forced on me by my ageing, weeping leg muscles. I decided to drop down to a fast walk knowing that this would ensure completion, whereas continuing to run might run the risk of me breaking down all together and being shot at the side of the road somewhere in Poplar!

Even at walking pace the pain was indescribable and the mile markers took longer and longer to come into sight and pass. Throw in a sudden, torrential downpour and a swift drop in temperature, and the period between the 20 and 24 mile markers was as miserable a 45 minutes as I have ever suffered and that is saying something given the number of England football matches I have watched in my life!

Spurred on bythe fact that my wife and children were watching and waiting somewhere in the final two miles, I picked up speed and even managed a sprint finish over the last 400 metres as I turned for home up the Mall. Needless to say Melanie was chatting to her friends about Friday night's Eastenders or something else important and failed to spot me as I dashed for the line, so my moment of glory was celebrated alone. All in all I did what I set out to do. I may not have run the London Marathon but i finished it and can safely say that my 2nd marathon will be my last. Or maybe in 14 years time I will have forgotten the pain and will make the same mistake again!

Many thanks for all your very generous support. The fact that so many people had donated to much money meant failure was simply not an option - even though Racing Welfare already had your money !!!!

Simon