Chris Townsend - TCS London Marathon 2023 in support of The Lord's Taverners

Thank you to everyone for your generous support for The Lord's Taverners. Training is going well, and I completed the Cambridge Half (in a PB of 1hr 26m) last weekend. Just 6 weeks to go now until the real thing, and I am hoping that I will get round in sub 3hr 30min.

A bit tired here, after completing the week's long run. I decided to do a full 26 mile run, completed in around 3hr 45min. I did the full course, the dogs just went half way before putting their feet up.

Apparently there are two schools of thought - most runners and trainers who advise against doing more than about 20 miles in training - this is the school of thought that my hip, hamstring, knee and foot are all in. And the second, which is my stubborn one, where I felt that I needed to complete the full distance in advance of the actual race!

Just nine weeks to go now and still looking forward to it!

After some consideration, I have decided to retain my training team and coaches, and we are all friends again, and looking forward to making more progress in the coming weeks!

Then on Sunday, Suzy decided that I was not going quickly enough, so delivered a perfect tap tackle that left knee and elbow bruised and swollen, but lesson learnt that I need to improve my pace!

Training had been going well until a couple of dramas at the weekend! First, the youngster Stella decided to run off, and got on the road - fortunately two kind passers by got hold of her and kept her safe until I could find them. This turned a 21k run into a 24k run and raised heart rate considerably, but thankfully all well.