Frank's 60th Birthday
London to Paris
Charity Cycle Ride
22/7/2009 - 26/7/2009

site went down and so did I whilst cycling in Brittany. Now I'll with acute leukaemia so really glad I did this stuff when I could.

It's almost four months since I wrote an entry, and this is a big update: I rode to Paris, and loved it. met wonderful people, in particular Rob, Bill, Matt, Clive, Nick, Sarah, Kev, the Irish girls and many more. What a fantastic way to celebrate my 60th birthday, and how good it was to redicover the pleasures of a team endeavour. People were so supportive and friendly, it was moving.

Sunday 5th April I competed in the Taunton Half Marathon. I cycled to Exeter and Rob Luke and his family gave me a lift to Taunton. It was a hot, sunny day, but I ran hard and managed to complete in less than 100 minutes: 1 hour, 39 minutes and 53 seconds. I was absolutely euphoric, and still am. It worked out at about 7.6 minute miles, much faster than I normally run, even in my Wednesday night training sessions.

On Tuesday this week, March 10th, we received a letter asking me to go for an appointment at Derrifield Hospital, Plymouth, at 3.10pm. On Wednesday morning I bought the train tickets on my way in to work. It promised to be a challenging journey, entailing leaving Crediton at 10.37am and getting back to Crediton at 9.05pm. As I cycled up to my office my mobile rang but I couldn't answer it. When I got to my office my assistant asked me to sit down and stay calm. Derriford had phoned my wife ca...

Well, I finally ran a Half Marathon. It was hard work, but it went fine, and I completed the 13.1 miles in 1 hour 46 minutes and 25 seconds. And I had no problems.

Well, the last week started ok, with a run on Wednesday evening with South West Road Runners which really pushed me: I think it was about 8 miles at 8.2mph. And it was wet, dark and miserable. Thursday I went up to London for a book launch, dinner with the Freud family (lots of them) and an invitation from Lucien Freud's daughter Jane to sit for a sculpture - how could I refuse such flattery?

Friday I spent the morning at the British Museum, and in the afternoon went for a swim at the O...

Cycled to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday ran at Arena: 16 laps x 400m = 6.4km. Wednesday night at running club: did about 8 miles at 8.3mph. Today, Sunday, I ran 11.2 miles in 1hr 45m, an average speed of 6.3mph which wasn't bad for the distance and the hills. Not too much pain in knee: have done lots of iliotibidal stretching exercises. Did weight training on Monday and Thursday, and again in a couple of minutes.

Sunday was the 10k race, and in fact I ran it in 48' 17", once the fact that I started after the first runners is taken into account. Monday I had a rest, I didn't even cycle to work. Tuesday to Thursday I cycled. Tuesday I ran 4km at lunchtime at the Arena, cycling there too. Wednesday evening I went to SWRR and ran 8 miles in an hour. Friday lunchtime I ran 4km again, and this morning I ran 9 miles (14.5km) in about 90 minutes, which is an average speed of 6mph, with Brana following on her ...

So I'm not out of the wood yet on this one. I got home from work to find a letter from my excellent neurologist, marathon-running Dr Harrower, saying that 'I had the opportunity to discuss the scan [the MRI scan I had a fortnight ago] at our disciplinary team meeting.' The team decided 'it would seem that you had a slight malformation in the blood vessels in the area where you had the haemorrhage.' This is known as an AVM (arteriovenous malformation). Lots more scary information at

I'm talking about running here, not cycling. I received a phone call yesterday afternoon offering me the chance of a place in the South West Road Runners' 'First Chance' ten kilometre run this morning. So off I went this morning with my kit on, and ran as best as I could. I'm pleased to say my time was 48 minutes and 39 seconds, which I think was quite good for my first run at my age. And I wasn't knackered afterwards! Nice guy called Matt from Sandford ran some of the last stretch with me, a...