For the next sixteen weeks I shall be training for the third Brighton marathon, my twelfth, the race taking place on 15 April in my fifty-eight year.

I am following one of the Runners World training programmes, designed to get me round in 4 hours and thirty minutes. This seems a reasonable ambition. My marathon personal best was set at the Isle of Wight in 2006, a time of 4:10:40. Last year I finished Brighton in 4:46:52. There is some discrepancy between the training programme as it appears on the website, and the one downloaded to my Garmin. Thus, today’s first run was either three miles (according to the website) or two (according to the downloaded version). In the event, I ran 2.42 miles. over the short Seaford Head route. My legs felt simultaneously tight and wobbly at first; I attribute this to Saturday’s fast 5K.

I have begun, therefore; sixteen weeks from now I shall be recovering after the race. I have one race planned during training, the Eastbourne half marathon on 4 March.

Nine weeks and six days to the Eastbourne half marathon
Fifteen weeks and six days to the Brighton marathon