Me in this year's livery

You can see my London Marathon livery for this year above. I wanted to turn my hair blue, but I think that I'd need to go to a hair dressers for that, and I just didn't have the time. I bought hair dyes off the self, and applied a blonde one (not recommended for dark hair!), and Sarah then applied red stripes. It'll have to do for this year.

This week has been very tiring and busy, but the good news is that the sponsorship has really been coming in at last. I hoped that it would. Thank you very much for your support. I have not had time to find out what the final total will be, but I hope that it'll be over £2,100 - it should be.

I've been trying to use stretching, massage, ice and heat all week on my injuries. This takes a lot of time in itself, and I may have not been doing enough of it even now, because I have missed a few sessions.

My brother has been wondering whether to run, because he has a hamstring injury. Last year he obtained a fantastic position and time in the marathon - 2 hour 45 minutes. He has been feeling under pressure to run because he is collecting for charities. He has decided to start slowly and see how things go - a bit like me. Having said that, he'll try for a time of 3 hours 15 minutes, which is out of my league at peak fitness with no injuries! I hope he'll be okay.

I woke up this morning tired, with a small pain in my knee. Oh dear! I'm going to rest up as much as possible in the remaining two days, but I've got to go to work, do the normal family things, go into London to register, and get everything prepared for the occasion.

I'll be attending the NSF pasta party tomorrow evening in London after going to the London Arena for registration. I have not gone to this in previous years (well, it was cancelled last year). This will be a good opportunity to meet the other runners and NSF staff.

This will be my last newsletter before the event, so just to let you know that I'll give it my best shot. I'm going to start slow and steady, and I think that it'll be a big achievement to get over half way in my condition - if I can just do that, then that'll be good, but from there, who knows? I don't fancy another 6 mile slow walk in pain like last year. I've got various plans for the day, but in the end I can't plan very well for the unknown, so I'll just have to wait to see what happens on the day. I'll do my very best.