I've increased my maximum distance run quicker than I anticipated, and I have now run 16 miles, two days ago, having run 14 miles the week before, and 12 miles the week before that. You can see the runs I've been doing as well as the plan for the next three and a half weeks below.

Date	Training runs (miles)
6th March	12
9th March	14
13th March	6
16th March	16
20th March	Short run
23rd March	13.1 - Gatwick half
27th March	Short run
30th March	16
3rd April	Short run
6th April	10
10th April	Short run
13th April	Marathon day

I've modified this schedule to be a little less punishing on my legs in the next week or so.

My legs are suffering from the problems of running long distances, as follows:

• My right foot has developed a pain which I do feel while running. I don't think that there is much I can do about this, so I'm hoping it will either go away or be manageable. Unfortunately I felt a small discomfort in this foot when I got up this morning.

• My achilles tendon in my right leg continues to grumble. Fortunately it did not trouble me during the 16 mile run on Sunday, but it does feel very sensitive and sore, and I'll continue to ice it and my physio will continue to give both of my ankles untrasound twice a week. I have stopped doing the "stair" stretch, and have started just doing the "wall" stretch to help this problem - I've read that too much stretching will be counterproductive, and it does feel sensitive after the stair stretch.

• My right hip / buttock has developed a muscular pain, which feels quite central and deep. I hope that this problem will either go away or be manageable with stretching, massage and ultrasound. I felt it on my 16 mile run after about 11 miles, but yesterday my right hip felt a bit stiff.

• The good news is that I ran 16 miles without problems from the piriformis muscle in my left leg. This is a bit of a shock, and I'm very pleased about this.

• After 14 miles, my left knee really grumbled to the point where I couldn't go on after 16 miles (not that I wanted to anyway), but this was probably because I fell over onto this knee during running.

As I've just mentioned, I was going on my 16 mile run down to Horley and back from Reigate, finishing off with a circuit of the Reigate ring road and then a run towards Redhill, but just after St. John's Church, I my left foot went into the loop of my right shoe lace, and I tripped over, and I ended up with bad cuts on my left leg and knee, a graize on my left elbow, and stinging hands. I carried on, and this didn't really give me any problems apart from at the end of my run. I was running eight and a half minute miles for the first six miles, but I then slowed down to a nine minute mile pace for the rest of my run.

I completed 14 miles in 2 hours exactly, and I then finished just over 16 miles in 2 hours 20 minutes.

I'm now wondering if this could be my best marathon I've ever run, quite a contrast from the doom and gloom of only being able to run 3 or 4 miles in January. If I can run 16 miles in 2 hours 20 minutes, and if my piriformis muscles will permit, maybe a 4 hour marathon will be possible.

A big thank you for reading this far and considering to sponsor me.