After an embarassing fall during a paintball game last year I wasn't sure what the future would hold for me in terms of sport.

After I was taken to hospital via ambulance doctors told me I had practically no cartilage left in my left knee and unless I had an operation I would have to quit sport all together.

So in June last year I took the only option available. The results weren't good. Doctors drilled around a dozen tiny holes in the remaining cartilage in my knee in hope it would encourage it to grow back.

To make matters worse they told me the lump of cartilage that had come lose in the fall, that was around the size of a penny, was trapped outside the knee joint making it almost impossible to remove.

It was then that I decided to try and complete the Birmingham half marathon. Thankfully I did it without any major injuries.

But now, two weeks after the race, I'm not sure if my knees have it in them for me to continue running as a long term hobby.

My left one hurts after about 20 minutes of jogging and my right one is now giving me a lot of acute pain too. I was hoping it would go away but it hasn't.

So now I'm not sure what to do. I should probably see a sports physio or knee specialist but I don't like the idea of what they could tell me.

At just 26 I don't want to be told I should give up running. Maybe it's my own fault. Over the years I have played a lot of school football and rugby and then compounded this by four years of rowing for the University of East Anglia. Have my knees finally had enough?

I had to give up my normal five-mile run today because the pain was so bad. But I'm hoping that this is just a blip in my recovery/training from a year ago and things will get back on track soon.

We'll see. Watch this space.

I've had more than two weeks off from running and this morning I decided enough was enough. I went out for my first five mile run since finishing the half marathon (in agony).

I was slow, it hurt, and I really found it tough to get back into the swing of things. Overall I was more than six minutes slower than my PB for this route (which I did about six weeks ago). I did the fairly flat five miles from Bournville to Cannon Hill Park and back in 46 minutes. Pathetic.

So I'm going to have to buck my ideas up if I'm going to take on the Grim challenge in a few weeks. I'm not sure if I'm up to it yet so I'll hold back on my entry for a while.

A map of my route was supposed to be embedded below. A technical glitch means the route line hasn't appeared, but I started from Bournville Train Station, did a loop of Cannon Hill park, and then ended at the station. However, this route, which is my favourite for training, is no use in the evenings because it is so poorly lit. Anyone know of any well lit runs in the Stirchley/Bournville/Edgbaston area?

View Larger Map

After all the niggling injuries I have written about on this blog, the halfmarathon gave me the ultimate, painful, and incredibly annoying one of all.

Mainly annoying because I don't know what it is and even when I was in unimaginable pain with it in the days after the race I could not find it in myself to be bothered to go to A&E and sit there for three hours to wait to be seen.

My right foot, just in front of my ankle on the top of my foot, ached like hell from about five hours after the race.

I couldn't walk properly for a week and a half and spent that long with everyone at work telling me to goto the doctor because they were sick of me limping around like a sick puppy.

But I knew if I did I would just be told to rest and "see how it goes" so Ileft it, and now it's just plain irritating because I can walk properly for about five minutes, and I start thinking I might be able to start running again, and then I get a twinge and it's all downhill from there.

So I'll be laid up for the next few weeks where running is concerned, but I am determined to get back on the road as soon as I am able and keep doing races.

I'm sure I am not the only one to say a few 10ks wouldn't go amiss after all the junk I have eaten since the half-marathon.

A strange question that I've never thought about...until now.

A group of bloggers are attempting to stay on the Number 11 bus for 11 hours on November 11.

We've featured it as a story before in the Mail but I've just had a running related thought (although it may not be original).

After the success of the Birmingham Half marathon, couldn't the council and bus companies team up to make the number 11 route the new route for the first ever Birmingham Marathon? It is pretty much exactly the right length after all.

Any fancy running it? I hear it passes through some picturesque areas.

I've been a bit slow on the uptake on this one but Dave Harte spotted an article in the Guardian suggesting Paula may be gracing us with her presence in 2009.

Apparently she cold be considering running in the World Half Marathon Championships in our own fair city next year.

Like Jon Bounds points out on Birmingham It's Not Sh*t, the organisers better draft in a few more portaloos if the rumour is true!

The question I'm pondering is if the world half marathon race in Brum will also be the equivalent of this years EDF half marathon where more than 9,000 runners took part?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

If so - will the council be paying her an appearance fee?
She did earn £300,000 in appearance fees and prize money for winning the New York Marathon after all.

Looking for a new challenge after completing the Brum half marathon? A friend of mine, James Billingsley, aged 27, who has run the odd marathon before, tried a Polar Circle marathon. See his pictures and read his account below. It was still dark, and I was still half asleep, when we boarded the 4x4 truck outside our hotel (which is also the serving airport).
If I wasn't fully awake at this point then the bone shaking two-hour ride to the starting point certainly bounced me into life!

Everyone was in good spirits on route but there was a definite sense of anxiety for what hand the weather would deal us during the day.
The previous day, spent reccying the route across a section of the polar ice cap, was a harsh reminder of just how unwelcoming the landscape can be if the weather isn't on your side.
"Watch your step" the guides had advised, but I was generally too busy falling over to pay attention to their tips for a safe passage.

I had got to know a few of the international competitors during the lead up to the race and there was a good feeling of camaraderie as we jumped down from the vehicle and made our best efforts to 'warm up' in the subzero temperatures. Minus 10°C may sound a bit nippy but as the sun spilled over the glistening horizon revealing clear blue skies it dawned on us that we'd been granted almost perfect conditions for our polar run.

The 60 something runners huddled together under a makeshift start line awaiting the starting orders. Many a sane person may consider this to be a most unfortunate position to find yourself in.... hopping around in a pair of tights at the Arctic Circle with miles of snowy terrain laid out in front of your feet. Well you wouldn't know it to look at the faces of the small group of competitors. As we counted down in unison from 10 you've never seen such a cheery, grinning bunch of fools in all your life!
"GO!" and we were off...
Since my first marathon in April earlier this year, Stratford-Upon-Avon has been my training ground preparing for this run. You may consider the actual marathon in the glacial hills of Greenland would the toughest part of the whole experience. The opportunity to run in such a breathtaking landscape with only the sound of the snow crunching under your feet to keep you company for hours on end is really the reward for the training done.

Nights after work when you didn't want to run but still did the miles anyway, days when you knew you had hours in the pouring rain to get through but pulled on your trainers nevertheless, those are the real battles.
A marathon isn't really something you can do without any preparation or training but that's exactly what makes it so special. You have to earn it!
The Polar Circle Marathon has to be one of the most refreshing marathon challenges available today and if the only thing stopping you is the thought "can I really do that?" then my experience is 'Yes!' and 'you should!'.

James Billingsley completed the Polar Circle Marathon on 18th October 2009 in 4hrs24mins and came in 12th overall. He is currently looking for new exciting runs and welcomes any recommendations!

FIVE solid days of rest, eating badly and drinking too much and I'm ready to get back into running again.

I've got a few things I want to do, some pretty standard and some things a little more obscure, so watch this space.

In the mean time, has anyone got any good (shorter) races/fun runs coming up soon?

That was probably the hardest thing I have done. Like everyone else I hope, I am pretty pleased with myself that I can now say I have run a half marathon.

And just to make sure I would be able to say that, I kept running throughout the 13.1 mile course - regardless of how much my body felt like it was dying with every step towards the end, and I was pretty pleased with my time of two hours 12 minutes and 42 seconds.

But when I finished, I had no idea what to do. Through my intense exhaustion all I could see was a sea of foil blankets around centenery square and I didn't know where I was supposed to go or how to get out of the crowd to meet Paul in the ICC centre.

I must have looked like a lost puppy as I wrapped a foil sheet someone had handed me around my shoulders and stumbled around the square on legs that suddenly felt like they were made out of blancmange.

Things seemed to apear from no where - various coloured bottles of powerade, bottles of water, more foil sheets, medals. I couldn't see straight, but I grabbed two bottles of water and downed one of them in five seconds flat. Then wished I hadn't because it made me feel really ill.

I picked up a goody bag and walked very very slowly over to the ICC centre where I found Paul, looking as bad as I felt. Seeing someone I knew made me want to talk about the race and which bits I found tough, which bits were like hell on earth and how pleased I was that I completed the challenge. I don't think he even heard me though, as he was desperately trying to recover from his cough as well as the run.

But suddenly, it was like a switch was flicked and I came over incredibly ill as Paul started to perk up. I could feel the blood draining from my face and I lay flat out on the floor in the centre. When Paul said he was ready to make his way home, I knew there was no way I was even going to make it to the door, and just about reached one of the bins before seeing half a bottle of watery lucozade in reverse. Lovely.

Felt so much better for it though, despite Paul's compulsion to tell the first person we saw about it, then text everyone we know telling them I vomitted within five minutes of the race, and then posting it on this blog. Such a caring boyfriend.

I can still say I ran a good race though, and that's the most important thing. Immediately after the race, I was saying I would never do anything like that ever again, but now I have recovered (albeit with a pulled tendon in my ankle) I am pretty up for doing a few more 10k races, and even - dare I say it - another half marathon next year.

But for now, I am going to sit back and relax for a good week or so, drink lots of wine and eat lots of ice cream. I reckon I have earned it.

Well done to everybody who completed the half marathon in Birmingham today!
Now, if you're anything like Hannah and I, you are feeling exhausted, slightly sick and you're muscles feel about three times heavier then they did at about 9.29am.

Hannah ran a time of 2 hours 12 mins, roughly what she hoped for, and I ran a time of 2 hours 8 minutes, which was slightly slower than what I was hoping for.

But the aim of the day was to get round the course, raise some cash for charity, and have some fun - so well done to everyone who finished the course.

Our races weren't without incident though.

Hannah was extremely chatty when she finished, bending my ear about what happened during the race while I struggled to breathe.
Then, all of a sudden, she turned as white as a ghost and vomitted in one of the ICC's bins. Classy, my girlfriend.

As for me, I had a great 11 miles and was set to finish in under two hours. But then everything shut down. Totally.

I had pins and needles in my arms and legs, I felt sick and giddy, and I was starting to get tunnel vision. If I had seen a paramedic I would have stopped... but I didn't. Instead I saw someone just as pained as myself and together we limped across the line.

Either someone spiked my water with LSD, or my virus, which I was still recovering from, decided to play a few tricks on me.

Anyone else got any horror stories or funny anecdotes?

One suprising result was my boss finishing in 1 hour 49 minutes. He's 50, quite small, and doesn't look the athletic type. I reckon he took a short cut.

I've got a few more things to say about the organisation of the race. Toilets, the goody bag, the late start and the 11th mile water station are among my gripes. But that's for another blog.

I'm sure Hannah will have something interesting to say too... when she's finished hugging the loo bowl!

Just over 12 hours to go and we are puting the final preparations into place before tomorrow.

Our running kit is washed and clean, we've worked out our route to the start line and we've filled out our next of kin details on our running numbers.

In terms of food we have opted for a meal of spaghetti bolognaise followed by chocolate tart - hopefully there will be enough slow burning carbs in that to see us through the race.

One final tip - the weather forecast for tomorrow is drizzle so make sure you coat yourself in vaseline to stop any chaffing.

Good luck everyone. See you at the start line!