Day 3 - A beautiful day

Today dawned bright and blue and was unknown territory for me as I've never done than two marathons back to back. And on the stroll down to physio The Levellers' "It's A Beautiful Day" popped into my head and stayed with me all day. 

I was also very grateful to have the support of club mate Adam Holda, who popped up all over the course and the finish on his bike, taking plenty of pictures.

But rather than a breakdown of the run, I thought I'd give you an insight into our daily routine.

There really isn't enough time in a day here. Even though we're up at 6.30am and generally not in bed until at least 10.30pm, time just runs away from us all.

Straight after the marathon you're whisked away from the finish line, protein shake in hand. Even if you have supporters there to see you there's no time to linger. Our dedicated physio leads us to the Athletes' Room where a buffet awaits complete with sandwiches, pork pies, sausage rolls, soup, salad, chips and Sean's now famous recommendation of fish fingers.

We need to download our race timing chip then grab a some food to take through to the spin bikes. After 10 minutes' warm down it's through to the "Pleasuredome" (treatment room) for anything up to two hours of punishing physio. All manner of moans, groans, screams and swearing ensue as more and more runners are worked on.

Today I had a really good going over. My quads were stiff before I started and were obviously worse afterwards, so Joe's multi-pronged assault was fairly torturous at times. I somehow managed to keep a lid on it though and Joe commented "I think I've managed to get Paul up to a solid 2/10" (as in pain level)!

After physio it can be anything from 3pm to 5.30pm depending on how long you've been out on the course. Then you're free to graze some more on whatever's left of the buffet before the quarter-mile walk up to our lodgings at Shackleton.

You need to shower and change then grab your dirty washing for the laundry. Next comes filling your bottles and sorting gels or food for the 12 drop boxes, this needs to be done before 8.30pm as the support crew packs them up in the car for distribution early the following morning.

Tea time is set at 6.30pm and we can be in there for up to an hour. So that leaves two or three hours to contact family, properly catch up with social media stuff, write a blog, and hopefully relax with a drink or two before it's time for the long walk back to bed.

So that's our routine. But thankfully, as there are 20 of us in the same boat – plus our fabulous support – we do have an absolutely amazing bond and the "Brathay Bubble" really is something very special.

So as for today? Marathon number three done, officially in 3:32:11 – just three seconds slower than yesterday. I took it steady for the first 10 miles or so and had a better run on the way back up the lake, actually running a negative split by almost three minutes. Quads are pretty stiff tonight though so let's see what tomorrow brings.

I'm dedicating Day 4 to Matt Campbell and his family. They are all very much in everyone's thoughts here and will especially be so tomorrow; Matt's funeral is taking place at his home town of Kendal. A wonderful young man admired by many taken from this life far too early. Rest in peace.