24/04/26 Wow, we're almost there. Less than 48 hours to go! It's been a strange couple of weeks really as we enter the tapering phase of preparations, shorter runs, less frequent. What have we had recently? An hour's run on Sunday and a couple of 35 min runs in the week, plus a couple of light mobility sessions. Someone asked me if I was feeling nervous? And I wasn't really until yesterday when I went to collect my running number (56955) and transponder (for checking me over the start and finish lines) from the Excel Centre. There was that self-questioning moment - have I done enough training, what about my nutrition, do I need new trainers (it's too late to swap and while I've only had them for a coupe of months, they've already had quite a pounding)? And what about on-board nutrition? gels, jelly babies, or the disturbing sight of bananas in my shorts pockets? I've been training with the gels and the bananas. The gels do the job, but they're not the nicest thing in the world. and I'm nervous about having too many of them on one run. Bananas I love, but they do take up a bit of space and add weight. Decisions, decisions! I think I know in the back of my mind which way I'll go. Or will I????

Best advice of the week came from my neighbour-but-one, Phil. Phil has been a runner all his life and many's the time I would hear him coming down our road very early in the morning completing his daily run. I knew it would be Phil 'cos you get to know the particular sound of someone running past your open window. And I knew roughly how many steps before he would reach his house and then you'd hear the tiny 'ping' of his Garmin watch/timer confirming that it was indeed him and that he'd clocked up another I don't know how many miles! Anyway, sage-like as ever Phil's advice was not to set off too quick. You're only asking for trouble. Take it easy to begin with, ease in to the race (not that I actually intend 'racing' anyone), you can always make up the time later when you've properly warmed up. And don't get into a race with anyone. Ah, there you go - don't get into a race with any of the near 60,000 others around you. Especially that rhinoceros or that bloke with the fridge on his back! Thank you Phil!

Seriously though, I am really looking forward to it spurred on as I am by the incredible generosity of my sponsors who are not just supporting me, but the incredible work of a tiny charity - The Nightingale Cancer Support Centre in Enfield where I live.

I will try and take some photos on the day and I will give you a final message and write up when I catch my breath. Thank you all once again. Peace and love Cx

28/03/26 First real setback since we started this journey... I have a really bad cold! I know, poor love! I'm usually so very good at avoiding colds and the like, but when I do get them well, they tend to lay me low. No long run this morning as a result. Mercifully, we are 4 weeks away. It would be a whole lot worse if it was the day before the marathon. I don't think I could cope with that disappointment. This, however, I am going to be philosophical about. Rest, recover, recalibrate. I won't lie, I was seriously looking forward to this morning's long run - 3.5hr worth. I'm hoping I can reschedule it for the middle of the week. We'll see.

I've added a picture to my gallery and it is a poignant one. The last time I ran the London Marathon was in 2013. And the other man in the picture is the incredible Eric Rivers. It was Eric who inspired me first to run the London Marathon in 2012 in aid of MNDA, after which I gave him my runner's medal. The following year, 2013, I was fortunate to run it again and Eric was there at Mile 21 and again at the finish line 26.2 miles in. I was able to say to him 'this one's mine!' Eric passed away in 2015 having courageously battled motor neurone disease. I know Eric will be with me every step of the way. He gave me the strength and courage to get my act together and learn to embrace and enjoy endurance running and I never go out on a run without thinking about him.

Peace and love to all my amazing sponsors. I am genuinely overwhelmed by your generosity and best wishes. You make every step lighter and every mile... well, they're just hard as they were bound to be. But I know you will be there with me in spirit and that is SO amazing and important and I am truly grateful. Thank you! Bless you all!

25/03/26 Oh my word! We are just 5 weekends away from running the 2026 London Marathon. How did that come around so fast? I have to say, there is mild trepidation and an even amount of excitement at this stage of the game. The training programme has gone pretty well I think. Last week, my training guide suggested that would be the week self-doubt would creep in. Doubt about level of fitness, performance, the sensation you are running backwards, ability to shake off that anchor that mysteriously has attached itself to you. But overall, I have to say it has been going pretty well.

When I first started out on this regime I was running a loop that included a long stretch of the A10, dark mornings, pouring with rain and lashings of spray off the road as the lorries hurtled by. And we got over that character building phase. At least now I’m also running up the New River walk and mostly into the countryside. And I love that. You can still hear the traffic in the distance, but the over-riding sounds are those of birds in the trees, ducks on the river, the wind through the trees, running water, just lovely really. There’s a weird point about 4km from home where I cross the M25 motorway. It’s a bridge right? I’m not jay-running across 6 lanes of traffic! But there’s a wonderful juxtaposition of me, a solitary figure, crossing the bridge and these lanes of cars and lorries below me snaking their way to wherever they are going. If I was in a car at that time of the morning, watching someone running across the bridge, I think I would be saying to myself ‘who is enjoying their morning the most right now?’ Having said that, I’ve had to come away a little and get back into some truly urban running for fear that I will freak out at the noise of the great metropolis on the 26th of April. That will be a very different sound of course. But one I have encountered before and it is amazing in its own right. The high winds over the past few days have caused 2 trees to fall and block part of the trail I run along. They’re big trees and you have to decide whether to go over the top of them or duck under. Neither option is particularly flattering or efficient or likely to be encountered again in 5 weeks’ time, but it adds an interesting challenge to the morning.

It is 13 years since I last ran the London Marathon. Then, I was raising money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), inspired to do so by an amazing man, Eric Rivers. I’ve been keeping Eric’s memory close to me on my runs as he taught me a great deal about endurance, perseverance, stamina, doggedness and a whole lot more. Bless you Eric.

Looking back, I recall commenting on ‘running etiquette’ and the general behaviour of people you meet on a run, particularly longer runs when you are more likely to come into contact with more people frankly. First, other runners. Some acknowledge you, say ‘good morning’ or, more commonly, just ‘morning!’ Others, completely blank you! Those running as a group – I imagine they are a running club – are always pretty friendly. Lone runners, it varies and pairs tend to be engrossed in themselves. Dog walkers are a mixed breed also. I’m a dog walker and often encounter runners. I keep my dog out of their path and if they want to exchange a pleasantry, then I’m your man and I will. But I am amazed at the number of dog walkers who are, frankly, hostile to runners. Like the morning is their sole preserve. Theirs and their dog’s. Lighten up! And then, there are some just genuinely lovely souls who say good morning, give you a smile or who give you a nod. A small connection. Maybe it’s me. Maybe, I’m more needy than I realise. But frankly, I’m cool about running and connecting with people at that time of the morning. Yes, I’m an early morning runner and so I think we share a very special time of the day. So, we should be kind to each other, consider acknowledging one another without falling over ourselves or each other. Anyway, I ramble. I’m sure there was something I promised I was going to share with you in this blog. Now, what was it?

Oh yes! I was going to reference a review of a book I read. I read the review, not the book. The book had a title like ‘Things I think about when I am out running’ by Haruki Murakami. And the reviewer said something akin to ‘guess what, Murakami thinks about when he is out running… running!’ Well, I haven’t read that book, though I have read a few of Murakami’s other books and enjoyed them. And it is true. You do think about running when you are out there doing it. Well, I do at least. But I think that is part of it. Thinking about pulling together all the different aspects of your running that, frankly, you have time to think about on, particularly, your long(er) runs. Things like your posture, breathing, gait, pace, speed, efficiency, fatigue, refuelling and so on. But it is also interspersed with other thoughts and concerns all of which can influence whether a run is a ‘good one’ or not. I think the things I mentioned there are important. Get them right and you are on your way to an enjoyable run. But my mind also wanders to other things. And it doesn’t really matter what those things are, so long as they are positive thoughts. Positive thoughts drive greater efficiency, lightness and joy of the run. Negative thoughts, by contrast, bring you down, slow you down, wreck your efficiency and spoil a run.

Ha! Well, we’ll see how we put all that positivity into play this weekend when I do my longest training run to date, 3 hours and around 30kms. I’m actually looking forward to it.

Before I sign off, I want to say an enormous thank you to all of my sponsors. I can only tell you how grateful I am and how much your words of encouragement mean to me. I promise I will carry you with me on the day and, just like I do on the training runs, think about the faith you have shown in me when the going gets a bit tough. I promise you, it always gives me a lift. Peace n love to you all!

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I guess I should tell you why this year I have decided to run the 26.2 miles that will make up the 2026 London Marathon and, hopefully, raise a bit of money for the incredible Nightingale Cancer Support Centre.

Well, I’ve run the London Marathon before, twice in fact; 2012 the year of the London Olympics and again in 2013. I have applied to get a place through the ballot every year since but not been successful. Then, exactly a year ago in 2025, I was in the midst of what my consultant described as being the ‘aggressive and brutal’ treatment I would need to go through in order to deal with the stage 4 cancer of the neck and lymph nodes I had been diagnosed with the previous Christmas Eve. He wasn’t kidding. Six weeks of daily radiotherapy topped up with weekly chemotherapy. Out of the blue it was unlike anything I had ever been through personally and yet daily I came into contact with a whole host of other men and women who were going through similar treatment. Actually, some of them were probably going through far worse treatment than me. Whether or which, it was pretty horrible.

After the treatment finished there was a further 3 month wait before I could have the two scans that would determine if the treatment had been effective. The cumulative effect of the radiotherapy and chemotherapy took that length of time to ‘settle down’ such that the scans could be relied upon to give an accurate reading as to the efficacy of the treatment. I had the scans. The news was good. I am officially in remission. Then the email arrived. Sick as a dog that I was, at my lowest ebb, barely able to walk to the end of the street, over two stone lost in weight, a feeding peg in place and regularly throwing up… ‘Your entry is confirmed for the London Marathon 2026!’ Hallelujah!

I kept this news secret. I immediately knew I wanted to do it, but from where I was at couldn’t imagine ever being able to do so. I didn’t want to worry my family, in particular my wife who had nursed me through everything, seen me at my weakest and sickest, who had poured her love into me. How could I possibly tell her I was planning on running the London Marathon, again?

It was another 3 or 4 months, until Sept/Oct before I could even contemplate doing even a mild jog round the block. I have always enjoyed running. Yes, enjoyed. I make no bones about it; running has always been beneficial to my mental wellbeing. It started slowly. 15 minutes a couple of times a week. Then 20 minutes. Then it dropped off. Then it started up again. The only plus was that I could feel the benefit of having lost a couple of stone. I didn’t feel I was carrying a lead weight across my rear end. But I was easily tired.

I hit a point where I knew I had to make a decision. You can’t seriously contemplate running a marathon after everything I had been through without a proper commitment to training for the event. It’s hard work. Are you prepared to make that commitment?

So, here we are. I picked up on my own training regime; did what I felt I could do. I got back into running a little, but often. And then, I committed to a proper, structured, tailored 16 week training plan for the first time ever. I’m half way through it now and it feels amazing. Don’t get me wrong, it is hard work, but honestly I am really enjoying the benefits of it and I feel I am working towards preparing for the London Marathon 2026 better than I have ever done before.

Now, I feel I can share what I am doing to a ‘wider audience’. I am going to do this! And, hopefully, I am going to use this experience to raise some money for an extremely worthy cause, the Nightingale Cancer Support Centre. I have known about the Nightingale for quite some time, but never thought that I would ever personally need to call on its support. But I did. And I am eternally grateful for the support, the kindness and the warm and open welcome I have experienced there. I have availed myself of some of the therapies and support offered and they have helped me enormously in working through this crazy, disorientating experience of living with and, I hope, surviving cancer.

Without the Nightingale Cancer Support Centre in my life, I don’t think I would be so far on in my recovery. I almost certainly would not be running a marathon in a couple of months’ time. So, in more ways than one, the Nightingale Cancer Support Centre has a great deal to answer for. And I am so grateful for that.

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