21st February, 13.86 miles, 2 h 27 min 34 s

Today was a big and important milestone - my first half marathon.

Yesterday, when I was out running with Sarah the weather was perfect - no clouds in the sky, no wind, sun, plus it wasn't too warm. Today was completely different - heavy rain showers, strong winds and bitterly cold.

I tried a country route over to Martlesham, to pass by my old employer, BT, before heading back home along the main road. Heading out into the sticks early on a Sunday morning can be interesting - hardly anyone's around and you see more cyclists than cars. This is definitely a positive thing when running along national speed limit roads. You also see a lot of wildlife too which is brilliant.

After trundling through Purdis Farm and Bucklesham, I arrived in Brightwell. I had completely forgotten about the huge hills that were on this route! At the bottom of one of the hills I stopped briefly to take a couple of photos - hopefully you can see how much rainfall we had this morning!

After navigating the hills I ended up in Martlesham, passing Adastral Park, home of BT. It's a building meant to be in the shape of a aircraft carrier, but I'm not sure whether it really pulls it off; I'll let you decide.

I then ran through Grange Farm, where I was met by my lovely wife for a motivational kiss and hello, and made my way home.

This was the first time I'd used my Batman-like utility belt bought for me by my brilliant mum. This enabled me to carry a bottle of Lucozade round with me which gave me a little boost now and again when I needed it - I must now buy a couple of packs of energy gels to help me get through these longer runs.