Father I have sinned ...

Day:         108

Distance: 6.29km/3.91 miles

Time:       33:20 secs

Calories:  517

It's been four days since my last run. I am now officially in the 'tapering' period of my marathon training, so I am supposed to be easing off but that's ridiculous. 

Turning 30 hasn't helped matters, not because I've spent the last few days weeping for my lost youth (although I have been doing plenty of that), but because celebrations have rather got in the way of marathon training. On Saturday me and my mate Landy waved goodbye to our 20s with our last ever birthday pub crawl - the suitably messy Zombie pub crawl through London. The crawl started at midday and took us through South London and into the West End via 14 taverns and ale houses. As ever, our mates made a phenomenal effort on the dressing up front so I wanted to share this photo with you.

Night of the Living Dead London style.

After a 12 hour session (and all the extra time taken to scrub off facepaint and peel off latex skin) there was no chance that I'd be running on the Sunday. The fact that I was flying to Austria in the afternoon also meant that there'd be no run on either Monday or Tuesday, so actually this run on Wednesday morning (4 days after the last run) was really the best I could do. Honest guv.

When I did finally set out for a run the mind was willing but my withered 30 year old body was less than able. I intended to go out for 45 minutes, but felt so shattered after 25 minutes that I decided to cut the run short and head for home. I arrived home covered in sweat and out of breath. A 32 minute run really shouldn't be causing me this many problems this far into my marathon training. Worrying.