Hi all,

As I said in my race report, I didn't blog the week before the race. I was going to, to blurt out my thoughts as I know you all find my babble interesting for some reason. Well, Now I'll reveal the week I had before London, the week that should have been stress-free and relaxed. A week of calm.

Saturday: 12 stage. Sat on the train with Fraser and feel a bit 'sore' in a place that no males want to feel sore. I figured it was just me having sat down for ages on the train and just something that comes and goes to men occasionally. I get to the course and walking is actually pretty sore/painful but I move around and it gradually eases off. I can feel it in my strides but the race goes fine and no repercussions later on.

Sunday: I'm in pain. Walking hurts; bending down to put my shoes on hurts. I try not to think about it and eventually it gets to about 5pm and I get ready to run and think to have a look to see where is sore. Then I go into a panic. Swelling. A lot of swelling. I ring NHS Direct and they book me into an out of hours GP in 30 mins. I ask if I can go for a run and see them later and she says 'Are you insane?!'. So that's a no then.... I go and see the Dr and he tells me I have an infection of some sort and also he's very worried I may have 'torsion' (twisted blood vessel stopping blood flow to the testicle). He rings the urologist who says not to panic - it's probably just a reaction to the infection. The Dr was very good and sympathetic and puts me on antibiotics for 4 weeks and says painkillers will be ok for the pain. I didn't run today.

Monday: Woke up feeling ok, managed an hour run to make up for my missed run yesterday. Today was going to be a rest day so I just switched them. Actually my legs felt pretty good and I had some soreness on the downhills but otherwise fine. I ring Noel Pollock to check he's happy with the antibiotics, and ask what I should do about painkillers, as obviously I'm very worried about my stomach, or feeling crap generally. He says it won't affect my stomach, but can raise the risk of tendinitis, but that won't affect London. He also tells me to go to Dr to ask for Celebrex as a painkiller and I can take these 2 x a day and on the morning of the marathon. This makes me feel much better to hear this. I start to get sore as day goes on and by the evening I'm in quite a lot of pain.

Tuesday: Woke up, thought all was ok but once I'd walked around I knew I couldn't run this morning. Painful. See the Dr. He was crap (my local GP this time). He had no idea what Celebrex was but prescribed it anyway and told me to go to the hospital NOW without examining me, with a form for a scan. I get the painkillers and take one, then go to the hospital. I read the leaflet for painkillers and it says: common side effects (1-10%) - Heart attack. What?! Heart attack!? I see there's an asterisk by it and it turns out that this is only for high dose over a long duration. I'm ok. I get to the hopsital and give them the form and they say 'we'll ring you in 2 weeks Ben'. Erm, but it says URGENT on it? 'Yes, that's ok. 2 weeks'. Right, not that urgent then. Painkillers kick in and WOW. Pain goes completely. I managed 4 x 1 mile tempo and felt fine. did a bit of extra jogging to make up for this morning.

Wednesday: Woke up feeling ok, so did 45 mins. No real problem. Had to go to the Sexual Health clinic as nothing can be ruled out yet. They test me for everything and move me onto stronger antibiotics to try and kill the infection quicker. Have to wait for full results but ones they can do there tell me I'm clear. Seems like it's a standard urinary tract infection. Tell me not to run London marathon, I say ok, but I'm going to. They say, oh well. Pain comes back later on - take a painkiller and it goes away. Swelling still pretty bad.

Thursday: 30mins jog in the morning, swelling starting to go down now. Take a painkiller as soreness comes back to keep pain under control.

Friday: swelling almost gone. 30 mins run. Pain really not too bad now.

Saturday: No painkiller needed! Swelling gone I think. No problems on my 20min jog.

Sunday: Race, took a painkiller just in case. No issues. Felt relaxed and ready to race.

So, not ideal! I was actually very lucky I guess. Had it been torsion I'd have been operated on and missed London. But still, the stress of taking antibiotics and painkillers and not knowing what it's going to do to your body really isn't good. Thankfully I had a week to sort it out - had it occurred 2 days before or something I'd have barely had time to sort it. Luckily I'm fairly relaxed about things and didn't go into a crazy panic, but when I could barely walk, I was very worried I have to say!

I obviously didn't want everyone to know before the race I had an issue. Any weakness could allow others to feed off of me and think I was in pain. Also I didn't want to dwell on it and think about it too much.