Well, what a weekend. Went up on Friday to sort out the hotel, get acclimatised, take son back to uni and other son up for the weekend as a birthday experience!
Expo was good fun on Saturday and met up with the Macmillan team, raising a few small pound with m'torch in the process. Attended and spoke at the pasta party and met Steve T to finalise Sunday. Speech seemed to go quite well and Steve was relaxed about crawling round with me.
Sunday saw the sun come out and we met up at the Red Start, the busiest of the three and also bumped into Mike Lucas, who agreed to join us and keep me under control.
Having taken almost 30 mins to cross we got under way at around 11mm pace, comfortable for all, or so we tthought and made good progress to Cutty Sark and beyond. Got to mile 11 and sensibly had a BP/HR check. Ooops, had hit 195/80. 200 would have been stop and pull out. We agreed a 4-5 mile run walk strategy and another check, which happily saw a drop back to 145/80 and well within safe limits. HR never got over 140 so no idea what happened. No matter, we pressed on and looked like we could sub 5, but with the Pit Stops that added considerably to our time and we finished in 5.15.40. I learned a new humility and respect for all those guys at the back. It's really tough being out there for that length of time, especially in the heat we had until 2.00pm. Not sure if I'd have preferred that to the chill which followed us in the 90 mins to the finish!!! But finish we did, and with a smile and I am really grateful to Steve for all his support and to Mike for sharing the experience. Great to see him on the day and raising money for Macmillan too! Great reception at the recovery centre, hot tea and a wonderful massage before the trog back to Wales for 10.10pm catching a welcome Satay and Fried Rice at the takeaway!!! In summary, curate's egg of a run, had a few blips, one scare but a load of fun carrying my torch and sporting a wonderful green Macmillan haircut, (Both well received by the crowds). Thanks for reading and hope we'll catch up soon.

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Well this is the final push and possibly the end of a less than illustrious but fun filled long distance running and charity fundraising career. Following the good news about my health in February, Andy B and I have managed to plug in a couple of 10 milers and 5 halves as build up to London. Not anywhere my usual  speed nor with much training in between because I've got to cut back :-)  We are, however, maintaining Macmillan's profile round the country and having a good time. My Olympic Torch managed to raise over £2000 on its supermarket outings and my local Indian Restaurant held a charity night raising another £800. I'm multi-siting this year to give people options about where to go and several have advised me where to go too!
I'll be plodding round the Capital on April 21st with Steve Thomas, ex SF and fellow Macrunner, with Olympic Torch and collecting can. Look out for the torch on tv!!! Should be a good swansong.
Andy B and I were in I was in the USA last week where I ran a post diagnosis pb of 2.04.15 at Dallas and a sedentary 2.08.something or other at Lexington. Not bad and good prep for London.
Now the real work starts as I have to pick up some more miles at very slow pace so that will eat into free time as every mile will be 2-3 minutes longer than I'm used too and of course there's the fundraising. I'm so glad you've joined in. Many thanks.
I look forward to speaking to you at some stage and send my best wishes. In the meantime I'll just keep training gently for this last London.
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Many thanks

Mark