Good luck to all FLMers

[MickCollins]

Thank you very much. I've never run a marathon before, and Sunday will be my first. The excitement and nerves are fighting a cheery battle with each other in my stomach, and legs that have felt perfectly able for the past nine months suddenly feel like they should be supporting an oil rig.

I took a brief stroll through Greenwich Park last night, and found myself getting excited by the sight of half a dozen marquees and a line of sixty or more portaloos - not a normal reaction, I'm glad to say.

I've done all the training I can, and now I know getting the rest is all important, and suddenly that feels like more of an ordeal than the running was. I've even opted to go and cover a game on Saturday, as it will distract my mind from the task ahead. Sitting on the couch, telling a spinning stomach and mind to relax offers so little rest, it seems a bit daft to slavishly go through with it.

I shall hopefully be plodding through the 22 mile point en-route to running somewhere in the region of four and a half hours, but just plodding past it looking like I've got four miles left in my legs will do for me, right at this moment in time.

I'm running it for the Ron Pickering Memorial Fund, so you'll see the Tricolore-like red, white and blue banded vest, with 'Mick' written across the middle in black letters. I used to listen to Ron's commentaries, grew up in London, and burst into floods of tears when we got the Olympic nod. It's all a bit close to home for me, so in the year we got the Games, I'm running my first marathon, around my city, for a fund set up to honour a man who talked to the world about a sport that matters to all of us.

Dunno about crying as I cross Tower Bridge, or as I go up the Mall, I think I might start in a minute, and finish about next Wednesday, if that's alright with everyone...!