Merry New Year.

Ello, ello,

How's it going people? Lots to cover so lets get stuck in. Reflecting back on Christmas and New Year I must admit that it was a great period for us. Pearl spent some time with her Nana and it left myself and Alicia with a week to spoil Dylan and reward him for being such a kind little boy. He has had to face the fact that his sister is not like other children and has been remarkably kind and loving towards her. So we took him to Disneyland in Paris, I still cant decide who was more excited, him or I. It was a world away from reality and we packed in as many rides and events as we could. He has a new found love for playing the drums after we watched four African drummers work their magic on various instruments of percussion. All in all a great day, even if I was still hobbling from the ice-skating session the day before. Ouch! I fell more times than I care to admit. Meanwhile, Mrs McLoughlin was gliding around the rink.... backwards, putting us all to shame. I'll stick to the running thanks.

Speaking of the running, I have upped the training and braved -7 degrees on New Years morning at 5.30 am. Yep 5.30 am. I was running near Versailles and all the revellers from the previous evening were falling around the streets clutching bottles of god-knows-what, not Evian let me tell you. Of course seeing yours truly jogging around like a mad man brought on either shouts of abuse or words of encouragement from these bewildered drunks. It was a novel way to bring in my New Year and I ended my gallop after clocking up about 30 kilometres, by the time I had showered back home at around 8.30 am, the rest of the crew were only rising from their slumber. From now until May the effort will be intensified greatly. The longest I have done so far is about 45 kilometres, I'm not sure what to expect from 100? The main factor towards the end of it will probably mental strength. I am confident however that I will break 10 hours. The excitement is rising and I relish the though of hitting the road at 5 in the morning with a bunch of kindred spirits.

Here is a brief summary of my statistics from last year, give or take a few kilometres.

2009.
Kms ran - 2,335
Calories burned - 182,000
Average speed - 12 km's p/h

See you round the bend my pedigree chums,.

Mally x

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCJDMA8LG8M&feature=player_embedded#

Above is my favourite Marathon grimace of the past year.