The best inspiration is not to outdo others, but to outdo ourselves

Wow! I did it! I actually ran a marathon. The amazing thing is... well, I don't know, everything! The whole thing has been quite an experience, right from way back in November when I first started training. 6 months of commitment and effort to culminate in one day up in my home city with my family watching from the sidelines to cheer me along. Anyway, here it, comes... the Edinburgh Marathon according to Claire!

It was nice to be back for my 6th running of this race. I missed it last year and was very sorry to have broken my run of completing this event. I got myself into Leeds bright and early this morning, something that turned out to be just as well. It was quite a bit busier around the race area than it has been in the past. This appeared to be due to there being road closures in the area for roadworks as well as for the race itself.

I'm writing about what April's been up to again. She has just taken part in her first ever swimming gala. She has been swimming with the E group of the swim training scheme since January and only hasn't done a gala before because we were away when the last one took place. She was chosen to swim backstroke and front crawl, her breaststroke still has a few issues, although it is getting better.

Today was a day for standing by and watching, cheering very loudly and willing them on. The kids were out there competing again. They both really enjoyed these events last year and were very keen to take part in them again - even when faced with another dip in the lake! Once again we took a good sized cheering committee down to the Rother Valley to support them in their efforts, not quite as big a one as last year, but still. Daniel and I were there (of course), but also my Mum and Dad, so they were suitably yelled for as they raced.

This was another new race for me, but one that I was expecting to enjoy as it is run by a group whose races I have enjoyed in the past. This race is another one organised by Freebird Events. I went just hoping to enjoy the race, clearly after what I was saying about last weekend, I hadn't done enough training (seems like the story of my life at the moment), so I just wanted to get out there and enjoy racing.

I ran this race once before, but in very different circumstances. The last time I tackled it was in 2004, it was my very first half marathon and I'd taken the training very seriously indeed. I've never been that well prepared for any subsequent half and have nearly always ended making excuses to explain my slowness! I'm afraid their will be similar comments being made here. I was doing really well with the initial training for this race, so much so that I was up to 13 miles about a month and a half a go and thought I was on course for a good race.