Race report

So... How did it go?

As the keen eyed among you will have noticed, the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon was last Sunday morning and I've yet to post a race report. Well this is it, and quite simply: I'm still knackered.

Having had knee problems, not enough preparation time, and a last minute trip to Riyadh (via a bar in Doha), I entered Race HQ apprehensive but confident. Having managed 20km two weeks beforehand I was fairly sure I'd make it round, but I didn't realise how much I would be made to suffer...

There were some good things going on: the weather was great, Cross Country Ed was in fine fooling and looking forward to shepherding many of us across the line in 2:10, and I had loads of support from family and friends.

There were bad things: my knees were both in a bit of a mess, I was tired from my night flight back from Riyadh, and I was totally unprepared compared with the last time I ran the race. I was really disappointed not to have been able to follow my original plan to run a section of the course including the dreaded Fordcombe hill, but you have to go with what life throws at you.

As usual Dame Kelly Holmes started us off. I'd had the good fortune to see her briefly at race HQ where she was raising awareness of her charity. She's quite a tiny person but very beautiful.

The first few miles went extremely well. I had the chance to speak with a few of my fellow runners, and to look out for friends and family who'd come to support me. In fact: I'd go so far as to say it was enjoyable. Then two things happened...

1. Forcombe Hill. I really struggled up the hill this year and it wiped me out completely.
2. Gu.

For those of you who are unaware of Gu, it's an energy paste consumed by athletes to provide much needed sustenance. Cross Country Ed had warned me of the perils of Gu, but I took some anyway just after Fordcombe Hill and will never be doing so again. It was sticky, chocolaty and horrible. It got stuck all over my hands and face, and took a good few miles before I got rid of the taste. Nasty.

As for Fordcombe Hill: it just sucked out all the energy I had in my legs. I struggled from mile eight to mile ten where I stopped at a water station, had a short rest and walked for about 400 metres. Spurred on by some words of encouragement from a spectator (thank you whoever you are) I managed to kick-start my legs again and plodded towards the finish. My heartfelt thanks to Website Alex who came out to see me at about the 11.5 mile mark. Your presence really lifted my spirits and gave me the additional push I needed to find the finish line.

So, after 2 hours of nice jogging followed by horrible plodding I passed the finish line in a shabby 2 hours and 1 minute.

The fundraising support has been mind-blowing, with the total close to £1000. My company is set to donate another £200 so we're well into four figures. I can't thank you enough on behalf of the PSP Asssociation.

To view my Half Marathon run just follow the link below. Thanks for following.

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/72442794

Nanoo Nanoo

Last post before the race...

My apologies for not posting to this blog for over a week. As I mentioned in my last blog post: I’ve been in the Middle East since Thursday 16th and have subsequently not had a great deal of time for recreation.

That having been said, I did manage to get out for a 9.3km run on Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th morning, and also ran an agonising 5km in the hotel gym in Riyadh on Saturday 18th morning.

Links below to the runs on Wednesday and Thursday, and a photo of the gym in the Intercontinental Hotel Riyadh showing the exact running machine on which I suffered.

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/70724782

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/70849320

Since then, other than over-eating (and not drinking alcohol), as I’m in Saudi Arabia, I’ve not really had a chance to get in any training. This is causing me some worry as I’m now convinced I’m already completely unfit again and do not have the time to ramp up prior to the Half Marathon.

Also, even though there’s only a three hour time difference between the UK and Saudi Arabia, I had a whole day of travelling to Qatar last Thursday, a long day of work on Friday followed by a midnight flight to Riyadh, and some long working days after that, and I’m knackered. After flying back to the UK I had a golf tournament on Thursday so it’s possible I may collapse after the first 10kms of the race.

The only remaining training I have managed to do is a quick 5km run this morning. L

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/72266934

Moving back to the subject of golf: thanks to Glasgow Scott for accompanying me around the nine hole golf course in the grounds of the hotel in Riyadh, and in doing so attempting to break almost every course rule:-

• Do not use range balls on the course (rule broken)
• Do not wear jeans (rule broken)
•  Repair all pitch marks (rule broken – although I’m not sure the pitch mark was Scott’s)
•  Proper golf shoes must be worn (rule broken)

There were some rules to which Scott adhered by default as they only applied to ladies.

I paste below a photo of the golf course. Trust me: it looks nothing like this...

Anyway, tomorrow is the big day and like it or not I'm going out there to complete the race and bank the considerable amount of money that's been raised during the course of my training.

A MASSIVE THANK YOU to all who have supported me throughout the last eight weeks. It's been an interesting time to say the least.

Remember: you can follow live on-line tomorrow as I plod round the course. Any time less than 2 hours and I'll be pleased. I'm going to start behind the two hour pack to ensure I start nice and slowly before making my way through the crowds in order to come in somewhere under 2 hours.

A colleague of mine, Cross Country Ed is actually the 2:10 pace maker for the event, so I shall at least have someone to jog with at the start before breaking away and being with my own thoughts.

Finally: thank you to those of you taking the time to come and watch me during the race. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the support. You are all very special to me.

I will sign off now leaving only a big link to my Runkeeper page on which you can follow me LIVE tomorrow. Nanoo Nanoo.....

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/

Just click on the link, and navigate to the Activities page. You should see me hobbling round...

Longest training run done: cashback!

Yesterday saw me undertake the longest run of my Half Marathon training. If you can cast your mind back to the schedule I posted a couple of weeks ago, it had me building up from 10km to 20km in 2km intervals over the course of six weeks. I had to modify this slightly due to my knee injury in week three but I am pleased to say that I casually jogged round 20kms of Kent countryside yesterday morning.

You can view all the technical details of the run by following the link below:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/70303150

I admit that the time is not the greatest, but it puts me on course for a sub 2 hour half marathon, and who knows: I may even come in under 1:55 - a mere 15 minutes slower than my previous best :-(

I'm pleased to report that my knees held up pretty well. I'm still running with a heavily strapped right knee, and the patella tendon injury to my left knee is a minor cause for concern, but all-in-all I'm really pleased with the way they're behaving. No dodgy tummy this time either (thankfully).

It's customary to "carb-up" on the day prior to a long run. I did this by having the kids' left-over pasta, a bottle of beer, and a very nice chicken and mushroom noodle thing from ASDA. That, together with an early night, put me in good stead for the 20km run. What it did not do was prepare me for just how cold it was at 07:30 yesterday morning...

According to my neighbour (Andre 3000) the temperature gauge on his car was showing -7.5 C at 08:00, and Barber Graham tells me it was -10 C when he left to open his shop at 07:00. So it's safe to say that when I stepped outside it was somewhere in the region of -8 C, and boy did I feel it!

3kms into the run my thumbs were so painful it was distracting me from running. Despite putting my hands under my armpits and enclosing my thumbs in my fists it took until the 6km mark before they returned to somewhere near normal. My right thumb still feels slightly numb today!

When I got home and took off all the technology I carry with me, I ran my hand through my hair and realised that the sweat in my hair had turned to ice. I was literally running around with icicles in my hair! Don't get me wrong: I run hot, so prefer it to be a little on the cold side when running, but this was a little too chilly.

Anyway: it's done and I'm filled with confidence that I will complete the Half Marathon. My only worry it not being able to train whilst in Qatar and Saudi Arabia next week. I will also need to be disciplined regarding how much food I eat whilst out there. Due to the fact there's nothing to do in the evenings (and of course no bars) my experience is that the tendency is to over-eat to relieve the boredom.

I paste below a copy of the route I took yesterday and wish you all well. Nanoo Nanoo.

Just over two weeks to go!

Time is marching on and it seems that there's only 16 days left until the Half Marathon.

I have received my race pack (I think I'm runner number 276) and I have one more long run left to do as part of my training regime.

As with last week, I will not be running this evening but will be heading out for a 20.2km run tomorrow morning. This is in part due to the fact that my right knee is in a pretty poorly state after running on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and also because it's England vs Italy in the Six Nations rugby tomorrow, and I'd like to sink a couple whilst watching it. Doing a 20K run on Sunday after a few pints would not be particularly enjoyable.

Wednesday evening's run was largely uneventful with the exception of two points of interest...

Whilst running past the sewage works on the mini-bypass (I'm making Tonbridge sound wonderful) a car pulled over next to me and a woman wound down the passenger window. On looking into the car I noticed that she was heavily pregnant and her partner, who was driving, appeared quite panicked. I also noticed a suit case on the back seat.

All of this made sense to me when she asked if I knew the way to Pembury hospital. I gave her the simple directions and jogged off as the car sped away.

On reflection, this couple are either the world's worst planners or in an unfortunate predicament. If it is the former then I must commend the chap on his bravery - good job!

The other slightly less humorous event occurred as the result of a reduced price king prawn salad I ate for lunch.

At around the 7.5km mark I started to get really very bad stomach cramps followed by the almost uncontrollable need to find a loo fast. Showing nerves of steel (and buttocks) I was able to just make it home before I became the unfortunate recipient of sea food related food poisoning; a condition which lasted with me for around 24 hours. A link to Wednesday's run is provided below for your pleasure:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/69979167

I'm happy to report that I'm in good shape and looking forward(ish) to tomorrow morning's run which I'll broadcast in the normal way. Kick-off will be at around 07:30 for those interested in following me on line.

Next week training will re-commence on Monday and Wednesday as normal. On Saturday / Sunday I'm due to do a gentle 10K run. My original plan was to run a 10K section of the Half Marathon course. Instead I will be running 10K on a treadmill in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. For once I won't need to brave the cold!

Due to the relative dullness of broadcasting a run from a stationary treadmill in a hotel in Riyadh, I will not broadcast this run, but you can rest assured that I will do it, and I will try to take some sort of photographic evidence to prove it. Note that photography and Riyadh are not good bedfellows so the photo may be somewhat of a dull one.

Finally, a quick note about fund raising. I'd like to offer you my heart-felt thanks for ensuring we have now reached the £750 mark. I feel that with two weeks left to go we could breach the £1000 mark which would be absolutely amazing! Please tell your friends and keep the sponsorship coming.

Snow and ice but the show's still going

It's been a couple of days since my last blog post: sorry about that.

If you're in the UK and follow the weather you will have noticed that the ground is covered in white stuff. Great for kids, sh*t for adults.

The plan I came up with last week worked brilliantly. I skipped my run on Friday and went for a 16.75km run on Saturday morning. I'm pleased to report that it went really well. I actually took a slightly longer route than I'd originally planned just to get a few hundred metres more distance in. You can see my diversion towards the end of the route (around 14km: red line deviating from blue) in the picture below:-

Full details of the run can be found by using the following link:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/69347924

Also due to snow I had to skip my Monday run as it was just too risky to be running on the roads or pavements. However, I pottered out in the cold last night for a quick 8.5km. For those wishing to follow me live, I do apologise but there was a technical error last night which prevented my run from posting to Facebook. I will endeavour to resolve this prior to my run tonight.

Details of last night's run can be found here:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/69830089

Tonight I'll be heading out a little later than normal: some time around 19:30. If you want to follow me you can navigate to my RunKeeper page or keep a look out on Facebook (if you're a Facebook friend).

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/

Things may begin to get interesting this week as new poor weather may be coming in, and I may have to travel rather further than a 21km half marathon!

Keep tuned. For now: Nanoo Nanoo

Run tonight cancelled. Sunday run brought forward to Saturday.

Just a quick blog post to let you know that due to the threat of snow on Saturday evening / Sunday morning I have decided to bring my Sunday 16.5km run forward to Saturday morning (if there's no ice on the road I'll be off out first thing).

If you are following my runs live on the Internet, there will be no run this evening as I'll be saving energy for the morning run on Saturday.

Fingers crossed there is no snow, but in case there is I'll be running on tread mills: so no fun to watch on line.

Nanoo Nanoo

Brass monkeys

It seems Siberia is now having an influence on the weather conditions in the South East (along with most of mainland Europe and the rest of the UK). This became apparent when I stepped out of my front door at about a quarter past seven yesterday evening and was immediately met with a strong blast of ice cold air causing me to have momentary second thoughts about going for a run. However, run I did and it went pretty well.

Covering 10.5km in a little shy of an hour (57 minutes) is slightly promising, and means I may complete the Half Marathon in under two hours.

My knees continue to be a problem: the right one is still heavily strapped when I run, and the left is getting steadily worse. I can only assume this is due to the additional stress I'm placing on my left knee as I attempt to protect my right. Despite this there are moments when it's a joy to be out and about running through Tonbridge and it's outlying industrial estate. Some things I don't like are listed below:-

• As a cyclist you should either ride on the road or on a cycle path if one is provided. Do NOT cycle at breakneck speeds on a pavement that's a pedestrian-only pavement and expect to have right of way.

• As a cyclist: make sure you have lights on your bike! When it's dark outside and you're riding a bike without lights you are breaking the law and being bloody dangerous. Referring back to the previous point: if you don't have lights, riding on the pavement does not make it better.

• Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council: Painting a white line down the middle of an existing stretch of pavement and drawing a picture of a bike on one side and a person on the other is not always the best way to establish a cycle path. When a pavement is barely wide enough for two people to pass in opposite directions without rubbing shoulders it certainly is not wide enough to make into a cycle path. I know it helps with your end of year statistics: "We've created more than 3 miles of cycle paths in TMBC this year.", but it's a fudge. Perhaps you should publish statistics concerning complaints about, or accidents caused by these most inappropriate of cycle paths?

• Drivers: please do not put your headlamps on full beam just for the fun of blinding a jogger. It's hard enough to see the pavement given the the dodgy street lighting in Tonbridge (see earlier blog post) without some twat blinding you with their halogen headlamps.

• Thanks to the grit lorry for gritting my leg as I ran alongside the mini-bypass: much appreciated.

• Boy racers: the speed limit on the industrial estate varies between 30 and 40 mph, and is 60 mph on a short stretch of the mini-bypass. That does not mean you have to try to reach the top speed your car is capable of between roundabouts along the route. It's dangerous and a waste of fuel.

While I'm having a slight whinge, it seems that the GPS on my phone went slightly haywire last night. One moment I was running along the mini-bypass, the next I was pretty much back on the High Street. It never quite recovered after that. I include an image of the route my GPS thinks I ran below:-

The split times were very curious (see image on the left). It seems I was ambling along at about 5 1/2 minute a km then took a turn of speed to around 1 1/2 minutes a km. With the 2012 Olympics coming up, someone should be calling me very soon to offer me a place on Team GB.

Anyway, I managed to remove the erroneous GPS positions from the map data and you can find the correct details of the run at the following link below:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/69041311

Finally, a word of thanks to Amish Steve for the tip regarding strengthening the muscles around my knees by isolating them with a towel. I know you won't be able to read this blog as you have no electricity, or a computer for that matter, but thanks anyway.

Until next time: Nanoo Nanoo

Just a little faster...

Yet again I braved the elements yesterday evening and took myself out for a shortish run (8.5km). This is the third time I have travelled this route and have improved my time by over 2 1/2 minutes. I'm hoping this proves that my level of fitness is increasing, as is my confidence in my knees. I am, however, still being incredibly cautious and will remain so throughout this running experience.

Details of yesterday's run can be found by using the following link:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/68718767

As you may recall: my iPod Shuffle died a couple of weeks ago (on the same run as my right knee) so I replaced it with a new one.

I've jumped a couple of generations in going from an iPod Shuffle 2nd Generation to an iPod Shuffle 4th Generation. Even though I've jumped 2 generations I find this new one to be a bit of a step back.

Firstly you need to have the fingers of a pixie not to press the stop / start button whenever you're trying to change the volume or track. This results in much frustration when you think you've moved onto the next track, can't hear it, turn the volume up a few notches, then finally realise the music has actually stopped. Of course when you start the music again it's more often than not at a deafening volume setting.

The tiny size of the device is also a problem when attempting to clip it to your clothes. You have to pinch the clip to open it, but as there's so little clip to play with you often end up launching the iPod across the room. I can't see someone elderly, with the DTs, or both, getting on with one of these.

Lastly (so far) is the feature that tells you what track you're listening to. All you have to do is locate and press a tiny button, and a robot sounding woman tells you the name of the artist and the track title to which you're listening. The problem here is again one of proportion: even though the music volume is lowered when you press the button, the voice of the robot woman is just not loud enough to hear the artist and track title. This is an even worse problem when there's background traffic noise which effectively renders the feature useless.

Enough warbling on about iPods... It's been four weeks since I started my training for this Half Marathon and the 'running total' of funds raised has now exceeded £500 which was my original target. Thank you so much for your support.

I have been a bit cheeky and increased the target to £750 in the hope of attracting a few more £££s before the big day.

Next run is tomorrow evening, slightly later than normal (sometime around 19:30). I'm thinking 10.5km is a nice distance for a freezing cold Wednesday night.

Until then... Nanoo Nanoo

More running (but very slowly)

Yesterday morning I took to the lanes of rural Kent in an attempt to push myself a little harder and break the 14km mark. I'm glad to report that I was successful in achieving this goal, but I found it very tough going. The first 9 km were fine, but fatigue and knee soreness started to creep in and I found myself moving barely faster than walking pace. To be honest, if a bus had come past (and I had some money with me) I would have been a sorely tempted to catch a ride.

Of course if you were watching me live on the Internet you may have noticed that I'd suddenly developed an inspired capability to run at 30mph through Hildenborough and down Tonbridge High Street. As I won't have the benefit of buses on the day of the half marathon I decided to tough it out and managed to get back home in a miserable 1 hour 23 mins. Shocking!

If you want to share in my agony, details of the run can be found at the link below:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/68498456

A while back I promised that I would publish the training guide to which I am loosely adhering.

I am now on week five and am slightly behind schedule due to completely missing week 3 through injury.

I'm not really going for speed, so I've not bothered too much with the whole fast / slow thing, especially because I am taking things very carefully in order to protect my knees. I am, however, trying to build up the distance, so I'll be over-running on a couple of occasions this week (tonight and Wednesday) but will stick with the 45 minute run on Friday so as to rest my legs for a 16km run on Sunday. This leaves me 5km away from a half marathon.

I plan to use the penultimate Sunday to run 10km of the half marathon course including the horrible hill that's at around the 8 mile point. If all goes well that's about as much preparation as I can do. All in all I will have run 27 times in order to prepare - doesn't sound that much really!

Anyway: I'll sign off now. Should you wish to follow my run this evening, I'll be out and about sometime around 18:00.

Until then... Nanoo Nanoo

Half a half marathon

This evening I took to the streets of Tonbridge again to continue my quest to complete the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon with two dodgy knees and a significant amount of Christmas pudding still left around my waist!

Tonbridge was as Tonbridge is on a Friday evening: busy. The first couple of kilometers were spent avoiding people, waiting for traffic lights to change, and trying to see the pavement where Tonbridge and Malling Borough council have deemed effective maintenance of street lamps a low priority. They also seem to have some bizarre policy of turning the street lamps on and off at random intervals. One moment you're running on a reasonably well lit pavement and the next you're plunged into darkness.

I'd also like to mention the state of the pavements! It seems that the majority of them have been dug up multiple times by many different utility companies only for the tarmac to be filled in by an elite squad of three year old children with buckets and spades. I know things are tight at the moment, but please TMBC sort it out!

So, how did the run go? In summary: it was quite enjoyable. I kept the pace slow and careful as my right knee is still an issue, but I made it round in a few seconds over an hour which puts me on two hour pace for the half marathon.

To put things into perspective: I used to run 10km in 44 minutes and run half marathons in an hour and 40 minutes. I'm losing loads of time on the downhill sections of my runs for fear of damaging my knees further, and I'm a lot less fit than I was two years ago. However: the aim this year is to finish and raise much needed money for The PSP Association; on the subject of which my fund raising went from £0 to £415 today. Thank you so much to everyone who has donated, and those who have it in their plans to do so.

I had a mixed response to the live broadcast this evening: some thought it was great and were able to follow me without a problem, for others the technology did not work so well. I have two theories about how to improve this: firstly I'm going to turn off WIFI on my phone so it stops trying to hook up to wireless networks, and just relies on phone signals; secondly I would urge you to use the link on Facebook to view my running activities. If you're not a friend on Facebook, just send me a request.

If you did happen to follow me on line, please let me know how it worked for you. You can leave a comment on this blog or send me an email.

Finally: if you did miss my run you can always take a look at the route and the statistics by using the following link:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/68261583

My thanks again for your support. Let me know if you would like me to talk about any specific topics in this blog as I'm more than happy to do so.

Until next time: Nanoo Nanoo

Another successful run with poorly knee

After the triumph of Monday I set out this evening for another run around the streets of Tonbridge. Tonight I stepped up the distance a little to just under 8.5 km. To put that into perspective: the half marathon is 21 km so I at least need to have run 18 or 19 km in a training session to be confident of finishing. However, given the apparent seriousness of the injury to my knee I am still being incredibly cautious.

Uphill running is still way more comfortable than downhill running and I'm being very careful to land each step with a bent knee and (where possible) on the heel of my foot.

Tonight saw the first of my live broadcasts. For those of you who noticed my post on Facebook just before 6 PM you would have been able to follow me on a map with details such as my current pace and elevation. I believe you can even comment!

If you do not subscribe to Facebook, no problems. I will start to post the approximate times of my training sessions, so if you are interested you can visit the web page below and watch as events unfold:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/

This should automatically take you to my latest running activity. If you can't see my live training session it's probably because I'm a couple of minutes late, so just hit "refresh" in your browser after you've grabbed a cuppa and you should be able to see me run! I'd appreciate some feedback as to whether this actually works as I can't watch myself on the Internet whilst running for obvious reasons.

For information: my next training session will take place just before 6 PM on Friday.

I must say hello to Not Famous Tony whom I bumped into on my run this evening and stopped for a very brief chat. I suspect this is not the last time I will meet Not Famous Tony on his way back from The New Drum of an evening.

Also: hello to the slight mad and quite large bloke sat outside Whetherspoons who congratulated me on getting off my arse and running. I had to chuckle at the irony.

Finally: please please please would someone open the sponsorship on my Justgiving page! Remember: I'm running this half marathon to raise money for the PSP Association. I suspect many other people would have bowed out at this stage given the injury to my right knee, not to mention the problems with my left (MRI scans will be in a future post!).

I attach below a picture of my knees so you can see that even after 10 days the right one (on the left of the photo) is still somewhat of a mess, although miraculously doing me proud.

Yep: still swollen from top to bottom: and that was before I went running this evening!

In case you have forgotten, my fund raising page is at the following web address:-

www.justgiving.com/grahamtutt

Until next time... Nanoo Nanoo

I couldn't have wished for more.

With trepidation I stepped out of my house this evening with my right knee heavily strapped-up and my hopes somewhat less than high.

The first part of my run is always down hill which ever way I go, and I immediately felt pain from the injury I aggravated last Sunday. However, with a semi-limp and a very slow start I actually managed to find a bit of a rhythm. I found that with small steps and care on impact I was slowly warming up and really starting to enjoy the run, although I kept thinking over and over again: "protect the knee".

I got careless on a couple of curbs and slightly over enthusiastic occasionally, but on the whole the run went well.

I found that downhill running is not good for my knee, but uphill running was positively pleasant. In fact, if you look at the pace vs elevation profile on the GPS data from my run you'll see that as I got warmed up I was faster on the uphill stretches than I was on the downhill. In part this was deliberate, so I could get a good work out with less chance of knee damage, but comfort really played a big part of it.

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/67698126

I'll sign off now. My next run is not until Wednesday evening. Fingers crossed my knees are OK tomorrow morning!

Things are looking up

After 5 days of intensive care on my knee I'm almost ready to re-commence training.

Monday will be my first foray back into running but will be a slightly more pedestrian affair that I'm calling: jalking.

Jalking is a combination of jogging and walking, with walking taking place mainly on the downhill stretches of the 6 km route around which I will navigate. Apparently walking down stairs applies 7 times more stress to the knees than normal walking, whereas walking up stairs applies only twice a much stress as normal walking. It's an amazing fact that I tried to verify on Wikipedia the other day but it was not working as they want to make all piracy legal (or something along those lines).

Anyway: you cast rest assured that I'll be back in the thick of it on Monday with five weeks of training left. I'm cutting this a bit fine!

My thanks go to the chap in the running shop in Southborough for the excellent knee support, without which I would definitely not be in a position to be running anywhere. I feel that this invaluable piece of kit will be my half marathon saviour.

http://www.runninghub.co.uk/

That's enough from me for today. I had some negative feedback about posting a picture of my swollen knee on line. However, this will not put me off: I will post another picture next week so you can see the healing powers of absolutely everything I've been trying to reduce the swelling and the pain.

It's ever so slightly better!

No news on the running front today as my knee is still very unhappy, although ever so slightly better.

I spoke to the chap at the local running store yesterday and will be popping in there tomorrow to see what advice he has and to see if I can secure some sort of knee support.

I have taken to using a crutch today to keep as much weight off the knee as possible. I'm also applying a strong ibuprofen gel to the knee to try to bring down the swelling. However, I suspect it's going to take a couple more days before I can run slowly on it, and with a lot of care.

I have included a photo below (crudely taken on my phone) to help illustrate the extent of the swelling.

As you can see: my left knee (the one on the right of the photo) looks pretty normal, whereas my right knee has ballooned to about twice its normal size.

Any hints and tips to sort it out please let me know. I have tried ice packs, ibuprofen, sandalwood.

I will NOT let this defeat me!

NOT a good start :-(

Yesterday's run did not go well.

I set out around 07:45 for a 12km run.

• At 3km my iPod finally gave up the ghost and died (don't worry I now have a new one already).
• At 4.5km I took a wrong turn and got completely lost.
• At 10km I put my right foot down on some ice causing a searing pain in my right knee as it locked and aggravated an existing injury to my Medial Cartilage Meniscus. I am now unable to walk properly.

So: the plan goes something like this. I will be skipping tonight's 30 minute slow pace run. My next scheduled run is not until Wednesday, and I am hoping with 72 hours of tender loving care my right knee will be strong enough to limp round a 6.5km run.

I plan to pop into the running shop on Wednesday and pick up a knee support (and some advice from the friendly shop owner) which will enable me to continue my training.

In hind-sight: playing golf yesterday after the injury had occurred may have been slightly short-sighted of me, but I played well and had a good time, so in my book it was worth it.

With respect to getting lost: I decided upon a route I've not run before so I wrote down road names on the back of my hand before I set off. However, this being the Kent countryside, there are no road signs on country lanes, and one incorrect turn led to a hole nightmare of being lost and going up and down hills for what seemed to be an eternity (when is was only in fact a couple of km).

I have added a map to demonstrate my error (blue line planned run, red line actual run). If you follow the link to the run you will also see that there was a somewhat extreme hill profile. This is good as the Tunbridge Wells half marathon contains some serious hills, but bad as I was not quite ready to contend with that many.

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/66466528

Still: onwards and upwards. Positive thoughts for my knee please....

And we're off... (again)

It's been quite a while since I've found myself on Tonbridge High Street on a Friday night, but yesterday I got to experience the sights and sounds of the town on a cold January evening. I hasten to add that I was not out drinking with the majority of townsfolk but pounding the pavement as I get well and truly into training for the forthcoming Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon.

I have once more decided to run around 13.1 miles (21 km) of lovely Weald of Kent countryside in order to raise much needed funds for the PSP Association. Chances are if you're reading this page then you'll almost definitely know that already so I'll stop banging on about it.

My training began 11 days ago and I have only 6 weeks until the main event: this is not an easy task. However, I have adopted an 8 week training guide designed for moderately unfit people and have been following it to the letter (well almost). In the last 11 days I have lost 2.5Kg in weight and am now (fairly) comfortably covering runs between 8 and 10 km. Tomorrow I set out for my first 12 km run of the year.

For those of you who are interested I will attach a copy of the training plan to this blog.

Unlike my last effort two years ago where I set a reasonable time of 1 hour 41 minutes, I will be covering the 21 km half marathon at a more pedestrian pace this year. I'll be coming home somewhere around the 1 hour 50 minute mark. The reason for this is twofold: firstly I haven't been able to run for the best part of a year which has left me somewhat less fit than I was two years ago. Secondly, I have managed to knacker both of my knees. The lack of running last year was mainly due to my knee problems, but more about that in a later post.

I have decided to make this year's training effort a more interactive experience, and as such have been recording my runs via the RunKeeper iPhone application. Basically it keeps a GPS track of me as I run and displays the results to all who are interested. You can view my run from last night by following the web link below:-

http://runkeeper.com/user/grahamtutt/activity/66252901

I will also be broadcasting my training runs live on the Internet so you can follow me as I pass slowly through the streets of Tonbridge in the evenings, and through our beautiful countryside on a Sunday morning. This will culminate in a live broadcast of me running the Tunbridge Wells marathon.

As soon as I have the technology sorted I will post instructions on this blog.

Well, that's enough from me for today. Please keep reading and don't forget to make a donation via my JustGiving page:-

http://www.justgiving.com/grahamtutt

You can also text a donation by sending a text message to 70070. Just type TUTT73 and the amount you want to donate. For example: TUTT73 £10.

While we're on the subject of mobile phones: this blog is also available on smart phones in a special smart phone format, so no excuses for not following me.

As usual comments and emails welcome.