After suffering from an ongoing achilles injury my marathon preparation got off to a slow start this year but after deferring my entry last year because of a broken foot I knew I would loose my place if I didn’t start clocking up the miles.

Training was going well until 10 days before the race when an early morning training session resulted in a torn calf muscle. Not great preparation but I wasn’t going to let a little thing like that stop me! A good friend and chiropractor, Glenn Duffy from Care for Health gave me advice to give me the best chance of getting round. And after following his advice I felt as ready as I could be on race day.

I took things slowly at first and all was going well until the half way mark when the cold rain and 13 miles of road running triggered my calf injury once more. I changed my running style to reduce impact and took the last half at a much slower pace managing to cross the finish line in 4.02.40. It was one of my slowest marathons but at least it was quicker than my attempt in 2001 dressed as a green dragon!

I’d like to thank the amazing crowd on the course who weren’t deterred by the occasional downpour especially to Nicky, Harrison, Jo, Jamie, Wendy, Mum, Hannah and Charlie, to the Macmillan Cancer Support team, Michelle for my pre-race massage and everyone who helped me raise over £1100 for Macmillan.

If anyone would like to donate to Macmillan Cancer Support you can visit my fundraising page at www.justgiving.com/paulsmith2008