We will get round...

... and Abbs has been practicing the finish!

Ow ow ow...

Training is still suffering as my left leg refuses to play ball. Last night I ran 6 miles and really pushed the pace and did it in 50mins. My leg was hurting a lot but I thought I could run through it. As it turns out, I can't...

Today I lasted just 0.13miles before I had to stop running and turn around. Another trip to the osteo tomorrow and hopefully he will have some more answers. We are supposed to be running 20 miles on Saturday and I really don't want to miss that so fingers crossed again...

But fear not, your money will be safe. I will finish the course whatever happens. And don't forget, we are an excellent team - Grumpy has assured me that no matter what, she will get me round the course!

Less than a month to go...

The final countdown begins... I have been popping onto the London Marathon website on occasion (http://www.london-marathon.co.uk/) to look at the countdown on there; recently I have stopped doing this because I am getting a little scared. When it said 3 months it was fine, but now there is a big fat nought in the months column... Uh oh.

The longest run and then the 'taper'.

This weekend will see Grumple and I running a whopping 20 miles. But the REALLY good news is that after that, we begin the great 'tapering'. This run is the longest distance we reach in our training and so from next Saturday we actually start reducing the number of miles we run at the weekend - marvellous news!

However there are downsides to tapering:

This means that the marathon is only 3 weeks on Sunday!

I also keep conveniently forgetting something of an important point which is that this may be the longest run we have to do during our training but we still have to run the actual marathon... Best not to dwell on that too closely...

only 4 weeks to go!!!

... why is it still so boring and painful and why has it made no impact on my body at all? (apart from now having the joints of a 70 yr old)?? I mean I genuinely thought that I would be walking around in a bikini at every opportunity by now to show off my toned svelte body... If a marathon ain't gonna shift the wobbly bits then I reckon nothing will- bring on the pizza, chips and couch potato in us I say- rock on the 27th!!!

Phew...

...it is not shin splints!!! I saw the osteo on Friday night and it was a big relief when he told me that the ache I felt was the same symptoms as shin splints but was in fact tension build up in the muscles - what a relief!

He gave me a deep tissue massage and sent me on my way. It means that I still need to take it easy for a little bit. On Sunday I was supposed to be running 12 miles so I went over and met Tom Wallace and we headed off round the river. I only managed just over 7 but think that with a bit more rest and an easier week I should be ok again by Saturday - our biggest yet - 20 miles...

The Quiz was a HUGE success...

Thank you so much to all of you who came to our pub quiz last night and to those of you who bought raffle tickets even though you could not make it. You were all hugely generous for a very very deserving cause.

We made a whopping £851.65 last night, so thank you so much. With other donations we have been given by cheque and with the totals on justgiving, including giftaid, we have now raised over £5,000 for the SIA.

We really, really appreciate all your support and the SIA will as well – the amount of money we have raised can do so much good and it is all thanks to our friends and family… Now we just have to run the blooming thing!!

Thank you so much again, you are all total legends. Hopefully see lots of you on 26th April for the ‘big day’.

Quiz results:

Three teams were tied at the end of the quiz: Tishy's Troops, Dream Team and Norfolk in Chance... This meant that there had to be a tie breaker to determine the winner - a member of each team was selected and Jamie Wallace (Tishy's Troops), Tom Wallace (Dream Team) and Harry Mercer (Norfolk in Chance) headed to the front of the room to fight for the ultimate glory...

Quizmaster extraordinaire Ed then listed a number of things which all happened in a certain year and the boys could shout the year as soon as they were confident of getting it right - if they got it wrong, they could not try again...

Harry shouted out 1996 after Ed mentioned Independence Day being released - the whole of 'Norfolk in Chance' wailed 'Nooooo!'. Oh ye of little faith... They were wrong and Harry was correct so the winners of the 2009 SIA pub quiz were Norfolk in Chance!

Extremely generously, the team then re-donated the cash prize of £60 back into our charity pot - very very kind of you guys, thank you!

The Auction

Bids were flying when the auction items were revealed and competition for the Baywatch Babes was hot. In the end the proud purchasers were:

Baywatch babe 1: Tom Wallace
Baywatch babe 2 (including Yasmine): Andy Willcock and Alex Aitchison

Raffle Winners

The raffle was drawn at the end of the quiz and the results are as follows:

A Gucci handbag Harry Mercer
Canapes for 20 by Abigail’s Catering Joe Motley
A timeless selection of hardback coffee table books Dans Jukes
A piece of bespoke jewellery by LEBANNA designs Tom Wallace
A pack of haribo Ali Scott
Half a Duke's Hill ham Bella Timmis
A jumper from Pringle of Scotland Claire Woolf
A one hour personal training session and training programme Emma Dawes
£50 of Prime Angus beef Helena Emerson