So here's my last blog as a single man before I get married next weekend...

In mid-July I took up an offer from Pete Riley to run in the Great North 10km in Sunderland. I enjoy doing the Nova events because the organisers always look after me so well and I often get to meet some of the World's best athletes and chat to them about their training. I've met Stefano Baldini a few times now and when I bumped into him in the hotel in Newcastle it was really nice of him to remember me and happily chat away about his training with me.

The race itself went well and apart from my last 2km I was pleased with how I ran. After racing in the leading group for most of the race I became detached between 8-9km and wasn't involved in the scrap for the podium places at the end. Still, finishing fourth behind three quality distance runners was no embarrassment and it was a good confidence booster to know that I had committed myself to go with the leaders and only faded late on in the race. My short interview as first Brit afterwards was good experience and although I cringed when I saw myself on TV a week later it was good exposure for Asics.

Following my result in Sunderland I received an email from Ian Ladbrooke a couple of days later asking if I would be interested in running for England in a 10km road race in Germany two weeks later. I had actually already committed to running for Belgrave in the 5,000m at the British league match on the same day, but its not often that you get a chance to run for your country and luckily our team manager was good enough to let me drop-out from the team to go to Germany.

I flew out to Berlin on the Friday evening and met the rest of the team at the airport and after a short taxi ride into the city we eventually found our hotel on Berlin's equivalent to Oxford Street and diagonally opposite the 'Museum Erotika'.

I had previously been told that the race was a European-only field but on the afternoon of the race my roommate Mark Warmby spotted an African and then later at the pre-race briefing I found out that multiple Marathon winner and 15km World Record Holder, Felix Limo was racing, albeit not in top-shape.

The conditions for the race where hot and humid - I think it was probably around mid-20 degrees at race start and the long straights, which made up the majority of the course were quite tough to cope with mentally. However, the atmosphere from the crowds was really good along the whole course and I finished in third place in 29m 25s just a few seconds down on Felix Limo (29m 21s) and race winner Musa Roba-Kinkal (29m 9s). It was a decent result in my last race before the 'big day' and due to an early flight the next morning I was up at 6am the following morning to get a run in before leaving for home.

So, next weekend I marry my beautiful fiancé before jetting off to the Maldives for a week of relaxation. Really looking forward to a little break from running because I've been training really hard recently. Hopefully the rest will do my legs some good before I start on the final phase of training before my Marathon debut. So, no races in August but I've got a couple of longer road races lined up in Europe for September and then it will be winter before we know it. Where has the year gone?!

Until next time...

Wicksy