After this year's marathon, I suffered from lower back pain, which I beleive I picked up at the height of the marathon training a couple of weeks before the big day. I went to see an osteopath for a number of sessions, did some stretches, and the pain subsided, although for a time it hurt just when I ran fast around the track.

Having done some computer related jobs and sold my victorian stamp collection, I've now collected over £500 towards next year's target so far. This is a third of the way towards my target.

As for the running, I feel rather slow at the moment, but I do occasionally surprise myself when I run well. What doesn't help is the inner ear problem I've suffered from for the past six or so years, which seems rather bad at the moment. It effects my balance, so I totter around sometimes when walking, but fortunately once I get going it doesn't usually effect my running.

I'm running the Great North Run at the end of this month, and in my current state I think that I'd be very pleased to break 100 minutes, but we'll see.

I'll be running the Great South Run in October with Sarah, my wife. She's also running for the ARC, as is my daughter in the junior race. Sarah is up to 6 miles in training, and we'll get up to 7 miles this weekend all being well - we'll run from Reigate to Dorking.