We all had a great day. Thanks to everyone who sponsored him or came along to shout. A fantastic time of 4.28

Tom and Matt are now in London and have done all the registration etc I understand they're watching the football at the moment (tom almost certainly has a bowl of pasta in his hand whatever he is doing!) I wouldn't be surprised if you told me there was now a world shortage of pasta. We're setting off at 5am to head for London picking up Beth on the way. Everyone is really excited. We'll be shouting for Aravind and Suresh as well as Tom and Matt. Aravind is running for a back care charity and Suresh for Promised Dreams. We wish you all the very best of luck guys.

Today has been low carbs again so tom took a pile of cooked chicken to school for lunch with salad and then we had chicken stirfry for tea (he had no rice and double portions of chicken and veg!). A quick visit to the gym (to sit in the jacuzzi) earlier this evening and he's planning a short run tomorrow. We've been planning our spectator route too.

This time next week Tom expects to have completed the first 7 miles of the marathon and be well on his way to completing this amazing challenge. This week has been a big one on the sponsorship front too. You lovely people have been so generous and many of you chose to boost the total on his birthday meaning that, with the cash donations currently pinned to my notice board, it was as he turned 18 that he reached his goal of raising £1500. Thank you. Today's plan is no carbs and an 8 mile run. The leg of lamb has just gone in the oven. I dont expect to have leftovers!

just 3 weeks to go now and tom is working up to his dress rehearsal ( is that what its called in running?) tomorrow. 22 miles planned and he's been carb loading all week- you should see how much pasta he has eaten! We got new shorts with a jelly bean pocket today and here is his race vest....labelled with his name. thanks to everyone who has sponsored him so far. seeing the total mount up a little each day is providing great motivation.

A big step up in the training today.... Its just 4 weeks to go and the training runs are getting longer. Today was 20 miles and he ran it in 3hrs 15 indicating that on the day he should expect a decent time. He's past the distance of being able to cope without some kind of sustenance en route and we've ordered some lucazade jelly beans but as they've not yet arrived, ordinary jelly beans did the trick today. We have a HUGE thank you to everyone who's sponsored him so far and with just 4 weeks to go he really needs a boost to take him towards the £1500 he needs to raise. Please help if you can. x

Well there are just 6 weeks left until the big day.... Tom's training is going well. Judith gave him lots of stretches to do and a week off training so he was a little behind but has now caught up to roughly where he should be. 18 miles in about 2hrs 45 hrs today means he's on track for a reasonable time too. Just the small matter of 18th birthday celebrations and £1000 sponsorship in between now and the big day!

Tom's following the London Marathon training plan and today was a long run day. He ran just over 10 miles in an hour and half. At that pace the marathon will take him just under three and half hrs. Its too soon to start predicting his time though! A few muscle twinges today so planning a trip to see Judith the physio this week just to check things out.

We the new year festivities are over and Tom has started to pick up some running again. He found running in the special shoes a little odd at first (thanks Matt for the warning) but expects to start to pick up again soon.

Tom tells me that its important to wear the correct shoes for running. So his Nana gave him the money and he went to the shop to get his gait measured. They did the analysis and then he came home and bought the shoes on the internet... somehow avoiding the £15 charge for the gait analysis. Note that the shoes still haven't been worn!