Jane here:
Theresa and I did our "very long run" on Saturday. I had a really good run and felt strong all the way apart from getting cramp in my left leg at about 18 miles. Ran from our house inPencaitland, down to Longniddry, along the railway line to Haddington along the path by the river and along to Hailes Castle, down to East Linton then along the old A1 to Belhaven where Theresa had parked the car. It was a great route a few small hills but nothing too challenging but the long straight from East Linton to Dunbar seemed to go on forever. Feel alot more confident about the race now. Theresa had had two bad nights sleep during the week and a bit of a dodgy tummy on Saturday morning and did not enjoy the run but I'll let her write about her take on the run. She will be fine!! my family say that I say that about everything and I do seem to say "It'll be fine" about every possible scenario. But am sure Theresa will be!!! Since Saturday however I have fallen to pieces a bit as left leg very sore and quite sore to run. Have done a four miler on Monday and 3 and a bit tonight and am just off for a sports massage to try and loosen things up a bit. Am also very very tired. ALL THE TIME!!!! and hungry....

Brian here - at last my hamstring/back of knee pain has been relegated to a 'niggle'. Managed a good hilly 20 miler yesterday, up Woodhall, over Crystal Rig windfarm then back home via Elmscleugh. No route was initially planned, with my previously sore leg I thought i'd just run a non-committal distance, and see how it went. I'd never ran up this way before, and I am always intrigued by some of the strange place names deep in the Lammermuirs - 'Dogbush Knowe', 'Boonslie Shank', and some quite sinister - 'Bladdering Cleugh' and 'Bother Cleugh'. I was rather taken by Boonslie Shank so thought I might head loosely that way.

As I passed Woodhall Cottages, Stuart clocked me and he stepped out and we had a timely blether. He put me onto a good route, which gave some much needed focus - a hilly ascent up to Weatherly, up to Crystal Rig then over the moor and through a forest heading for Harehead. Back onto the (barely) B-road and back over to Elmscleugh and home. All went by without too much drama, apart from a couple of herds of boisterous coos getting a bit excited in my presence and some ominous heavy clunks from a turbine as I ran underneath it. All in all a very enjoyable, but slow, upland/moorland route - one of my favourite types of run. 20.04 miles in 3:10 - hardly going to set the heather alight but no real pain to speak of.

Jane here:
Had a fun night out with the club for Pizza last night and Ian made some very grand statements about Ian and I running a combined time of under 7 hours. Theresa and Brian are thinking of similar great rewards if they do a combined time of under 7 1/2 hours. Watch this space.....

Jane here
well four weeks to go - will any of us make it??? Ian has a sore back, I have a lingering cold, Brian has sore legs and Theresa has sore feet. We are all falling to bits. Watch this space!

Jane here
Had to take a few days off due to cold and sore throat so only managed 18 miles last week. Ran 14 on Sunday and felt good on rested legs. Hip still sore - need to watch this I think. And feel full of cold again today. Theresa and I are planning to do 22 miles at the weekend. Hopefully this will go ok. Ian has a sore back and not running at all at the moment. Will any of us make it?????????

Hard work of late...

Getting into the swing of longer stuff as of late, completed a few 14 milers, a couple of 16s including one from our house to North Berwick, and then a 19 miler today which has kinda left me think if i'm really fit enough for a marathon....i've been having a lower hamstring niggle just behind my right knee for last few long ones but today, by about mile 14, the niggle sort of moved into full blown pain, especially on the slightest incline. I'll need to watch this one, it is fine this evening but I havn't ran since Tuesday so it has been well rested. In my favour, the route was a very pleasant rural one, over the back of the house to the Brunt/Woodhall, through Aikengall and into Oldhamstocks, down to Torness, along to Skateraw (ouch), then to Barn's Ness Lighthouse, Whitesands then up the hill homewards.

Theresa and I did the Paisley 10K today which does not really feature in our marathon training. I've had a very low key week so I have treated it as a 'rest' or 'easy' week......Theresa had a really good run at Paisley and I recorded a PB, so a 'result' nevertheless.

We had a really nice afternoon at Ray's barbeque in Haddington, though having 3 too many strong quality ciders post race has left me a bit tipsy-.......ach well.

Here is a link to Sandy's Orkney report on the Portobello website - I did the 2 mile and 10K race featured and Theresa completed the 10K.

http://www.portobellorunners.co.uk/ork.htm