WHILE blogs written by some of my more-experienced colleagues have generated comments and controversy aplenty, I must admit I have had neither. And with less than three weeks to go to the big day, I am running out of time to grab the headlines. One thing I have been able to do this week is make it into today's Oxford Mail athletics round-up. It may only be as a result in the White Horse Half Marathon report, but it is a start. I was quite pleased with my time of 1hr 24mins 9secs and 24th place in a wind-affected race. It was also my official debut as an Oxford City AC member. The time was another good boost ahead of the marathon. As I am now tapering down, my runs are getting shorter and often less intensive. Maybe I haven't noticed such things previously, but on Friday I had a brief run-in with a yobbish youth on a bike. I was happily jogging along the pavement in Abingdon Road and as far as I could tell not blocking the cycle lane, but this didn't stop the teenager having a few choice words as he passed. Does a greater enmity exist between cyclists and runners that I was hither to unaware of or was this lad just an idiot? As I am also a keen cyclist, I will assume the latter was the case. Although the weather is proving less consistent than the England cricket team, the ground is at least drier and I didn't spot any 'undried' mud on yesterday's cross country run. And after all the boozing England's players have supposedly been doing in the West Indies, maybe they could benefit from a brisk cross country run themselves?

Don't forget, you can log on to https://www.bmycharity.com/edmezz to support my London Marathon run for Oxfam