My training has been going well, but I don't feel that my running is improving. I think that it has got as good as it can with the amount of running I am currently doing, which is up to 25 miles a week.

I will have to increase the mileage from now on, because my current long run of the week is just 10 miles, and I want to be up to at least 14 miles by late February / early March.

It is of great importance however that I keep away from injury. I'm still trying to make sure that I'm stretching properly before and after runs, and I've kept the milage low up until now. When I went for a ten mile run two weeks ago, I had a rather unpleasant feeling from my left knee cap in the last mile which stayed with me for the week, so I will have to approach the coming months with caution.

I finished the Brighton 10K in November and achieved a personal best time of 41 minutes 53 seconds, which beats my previous time by 1 minute, which I am very pleased about. My next target is my 10 mile personal best, which I hope to beat in early January at the Tadworth 10 - a hilly course, but it's where my previous best was set.

I did not get a London Marathon 2002 place in the ballot, which means that I have to rely on a Gold Bond place for entry to the marathon (a place paid for by the charity). The NSF organiser has promised me a place, so I know that I will be taking part.

I have now sent a cheque to the NSF for my first £1,000 of the 2002 campaign fund. I am hoping to collect at least in access of £2,000, and the fund currently stands at £1,300. This is brilliant, and done all thanks to the selling of obselete computer hardware on the internet and generous people paying for my help with their computers.

From now I know the time to the marathon passes by quickly, and I'll have to up the training. I've had a set back in the last week - a short but heavy cold. I hope that the cold will now clear out of the way and allow me to get back to my training.