The night before

Well what a day! Nerves and trepidation were well and truly in control this morning as I took the kids to school for the last time. Then I popped into town with my wife Joanne for a rare cafe brew and breakfast.

Back home I packed my last bits and bobs then waited for Jonathan to arrive. Time seemed to slow until finally my chauffeur pulled up outside and I loaded up my minimalist pair of bags, pillow and pies for all.

In contrast the drive up to Brathay flew by with constant chatter and discussion of all things running related. We landed at Brathay Hall a little before 3pm and immediately bumped into head physios Adam and Katie, soon followed by Chris cruising by in his awesome new Merc.

We made our way up to Shackleton Lodge where we are staying for the duration of the event. Around half of the other 10in10ers were on site already and, after unpacking the car, we were thrust into what will become a daily ritual of filling water bottles and packing boxes for the next day's running.

I filled most of the top shelf of the "athletes' fridge" with my boxes of pies and plenty of beer – clearly the right thing to do!

All of our gels, race numbers, bottles, Power Bars, labels and other things were already neatly laid out for us – first class service.

Soon it was time for our initial briefing, given the low down on everything from meal time routines, physio, roadside support, sleeping and eating arrangements. I think it's pretty safe to say if anyone wasn't already feeling at least a little overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge, they were after the briefing.

We had a couple of hours to chill before tea down at the Hall. We convened in the bar and over a pint of special "Brathay 10in10 Ale" I met the legendary patron of Brathay Trust, Joss Naylor, had him sign my race number and Joss book, photo taken, the works. What an experience!

More banter over our meal then we were ushered into the bar once more to be paired up with our student physios for the ten days ahead. Dr Katie called us out one at a time and we stood up, followed by our physio. I got a young chap called Joe and as he stood I went over, he offered his hand but I gave him a hug instead which raised some good humoured laughter and applause.

Joe and I had a really good chat and ended up staying up with Richard and some other students till around 10pm (I'll hold off on the stories from this gathering till later in the week!).

I'm now back up at Shackleton in the common room with some of the guys. Supper time shortly then an early night.

I am dedicating each marathon to someone or something important to me to hopefully help me stay focussed. I think it's only right that Day 1 goes out to my Mam who passed away 12 years ago. I hadn't run a marathon before she died and back then I was almost painfully introverted. I hope she's proudly looking down on me tonight and watching over me tomorrow and the ten days to come...