"Well done", "Wow", "Congrats"........these are some of the replies which I received to my texts after achieving a PB in Barcelona. James Lundon's reply read:

I EXPECT A REPORT FOR THE WEB SITE. GOOD WORK!!!

Well, here goes, James.

I didn't tell many that I was running the Barcelona marathon as I wasn't too confident of even finishing it. I had a little trouble with my hip (thanks to too much set dancing over Christmas) and had only managed one 18 mile training run. I had run an average of 35 miles a week since Christmas with lots of 10 to 13 mile runs.

I felt that if I ran wisely, I'd be fine.

Well everything worked according to plan, this time.

I held back fot the first 10k and had lots of energy as I picked up to 32k. I knew that I could take it easy in the last 10k and still achieve a sub-4. I was delighted to feel really good at 32k and was able to run on comfortably 'til the last few kilometres, which had a slight drag.

My 5k times:

28.02; 27.57; 27.30; 27.18; 26.34; 26.42; 27.57; 31.29;

First half 1:56:36 - second half 1:57:03.

My previous PB was 3:55:59 (London April 2006) but I happily "sprinted" across the line in 3:53;39!

(Not bad for a fun runner!)

I would highly recommend Barcelona to anyone interested in a spring marathon. The course is not as flat as Berlin but there are no serious climbs, only a few long pulls. It is a very scenic route with many beautiful buildings to "distract" and wide streets which give lots of room to manoeuvre. On Sunday we were blessed with a lovely sunny day (17 degrees Celcius). There were many water stations and "heavenly" sponge stations along the route. Also, the supporters seemed really genuine in their applause without being too annoying!

If I had to find a fault it would be the poor quality medal.....but.....let anybody DARE try to take this (my 17th marathon medal) from me!!!!