So just a handful of days to go now for marathon hopefuls and as is traditional at this time of year, the temperature suddenly soars. Apparently it’s going to hit 22 degrees in London on Sunday, which is not what you want on marathon day. It all takes me back to my big day 5 years ago when I actually got sunburnt while I completed the race. Mind you that was probably inevitable when you consider how long it took me to actually run 26 miles…..

But in all seriousness it was something I hadn’t really considered. You train for months during the winter when you are freezing your little bits off most of the time. And then, all of a sudden, when the taper is in full swing, it starts to warm up. But your runs are so short by then, you don’t really notice……until race day that is. But even then it is still freezing in the mornings and so when I started the race on Blackheath that fateful day in 2005, I was wearing a vest on top of a long-sleeved running top and was still cold.

My training guru, Realbuzz Founder Tim Rogers, ambled over to say hello and took a hard long look at me before uttering the immortal words….”you’re going to boil in that….” Now in mitigation it was quite hard to take Tim seriously at this point, because he was dressed as a giant sunflower (he was running for the race charity that year Help The Hospices). However he was inevitably absolutely right, because at 9-miles, when I first caught up with my support posse, I had to stop, do a change of outfit and slap on loads of sun lotion. By the time I’d also taken a few happy snaps and posed with everyone, I‘d been stationary for almost 15 minutes……looking back with the wonderful benefit of hindsight that was a slight mistake to put it mildly…..

Now regular readers of this blog will know that I was passed by just about every fancy dress creation going that year. Tim and his sunflower passed me in Woolwich, the Wombles went past in Greenwich, 3 giant pasties overtook me by Tower Bridge and then the dreaded Rhino and Rupert the Bear shot past on the Isle of Dogs……oh and a human centipede galloped past in Bermondsey. Did it matter? No. What mattered was I finished, I did it and I don't ever have to do it again. Have I considered it since then? You bet. Would I do it again? No. I adored the day, but the training was torturous. And after the depressing experience of watching my older, saggier another child later body fall apart during 8 miles in Kingston, well I fear the old legs simply wouldn’t withstand it. But if you haven’t done it yet, by goodness do give it a go. It requires commitment, dedication, obsession, stubbornness, stupidity, guts and great friends. And if you have any or all of that list, you will be fine. So good luck if you are running and look out for the rhino...