12th July 2009 - God bless America. And Americans. They put my British family and friends to shame. Stingy old brits. Not really. But they are a bit though, aren't they? Anyway, I did it. The run I mean. And despite such a miserably poor training effort over the last weeks, managed it in 49 minutes. Based on the sliding scale my brother worked out, this means I owe him £4 (I would have won £100 off him if I'd done it in 30 minutes, but that would have put me in contention with Haile Gebrselasse and in the way of a lot better sponsorship than what Matt could offer me). I am led to believe that I could have got a better time, had I drunk more Gatorade, but that will have to wait 'til next year. This year I had to rely on a squeezy pack of 'Go Gel!', a 'carbohydrate gel with added sweeteners' derived from maize. It tastes exactly like you would imagine (a nothing-flavoured slime with a little bit of the worst element of Diet Coke added). That is all. Thanks again.

7th July 2009 - Today I make two doom laden realisations: 1) I have raised a pitiful amount and 2) my training during the last two months has been essentially useless. The reason behind both of these is that I have spent too much time thrashing about in America, visiting things and trying to write about them on my blog (www.followben09.blogspot.com). Before going to America I had entertained the fantasy that I would include my running regime in the blog. Ha ha ha ha ha ! Ho ho hoho ho ho ho! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Running regime. Oh, that's funny.

Any how. Where does this leave us? I have to recognise that I am now unlikely to reach my fundraising target of a Hundred Billion Pounds. As the big green star announces so noticably, the amount I have so far raised is so negligable as to not even register a single PER CENT, being dwarfed into decimal obscurity by the vast amount I have proposed to gather... So now what? I figure if I can get together £150 then the run won't be a total waste of time. Do me a favour and shove a couple of quid my way?

 

April 20th 2009 - On the 12th of July this year I'm going to run 10 kilometers really quickly. For the yanks and fogeys in the audience that's about 6.2 miles. When I say "really quickly" I mean quicker than walking. I plan to maintain a speed not less than five miles per hour throughout the race, like in that film with the bus, except slower by a factor of ten. That way I'll finish the race in just over an hour. Actually that sounds pretty weak. I recon I can do it in 40 minutes or less. What about that?

I'm not expecting huge sums from any of you, except perhaps my fabulously rich uncles (you know who you are). Those who sponsored me for the Dance Marathon are, of course, exempt. I'm not a total idiot.

Let's see if we can meet that hundred billion fundraing target! COME ON!