After hearing that I've been rejected in the ballot last week, and after worrying about whether to pick up a gold place from a charity, I heard today that my running club, Reigate Priory AC have provided me with a club place, which is really excellent news. It takes the pressure off collecting for this year, although I will still obtain sponsorship for a charity. I will pull out of my application for a Gold Bond place with the Arthritis Research Campaign.

It's quite exciting at the moment. A number of my running companions in the running club are running the London Marathon, and up to 5 colleagues may be running, as well as a friend and possibly my brother.

I'm already trying to up the weekly milage I'm running, to hopefully hit 30 miles a week by January. A week ago I suffered from a minor pull in my left calf muscle, but it seems to be repairing rapidly. 8 days ago I could only run a mile, but the next day I ran 2 miles, the next 3, and so on up to 6 miles last Sunday. In the last week I have probably run over 25 miles.

I ran the Great South Run in October, and finished in a time of 1:07:36, which is a PB. My daughter also took part in the Great South Junior Run, and ran an excellent race - she ran-walked the 2Km, but had a number of runners behind her at the end. After competing in a cross country competition in November on the Saturday, I followed this up with a run in the Brighton 10K on the Sunday, and finished in a time of 38:52, just 4 seconds off my PB, which is something I didn't think I'd be able to do.

I've entered myself for the Tadworth 10 and the South of England XC Championships in January, the Chichester 10K and the Wokingham half marathon in February, and the Cranleigh 15 and 21 in March - I hope to be there!