Good morning! Well, good morning from Chicago, where the sun has just risen, so apologies for operating on my local time, leaving you all waiting today. Yesterday was a bit of a busy one: ran a marathon, toured one of the best art galleries in the world, went to a basketball game. Just your usual Sunday, then ...

So: Chicago marathon. What a race! The homemade signs (my favourites: “Run faster, I’ve got brunch reservations!” and “Running a marathon burns 675 M&Ms”) and the support, the kids offering hugs for runners, the skyscrapers, the lovely marshals, the high five from the US army and the (joking, I think) offer of a lift home in the back of a police car from a Chicago cop ... Just amazing. What a fabulous town, what a fantastic race.

I won’t lie though, despite having no set time goal for the race and with a plan to just run it at ‘easy pace’, it certainly didn’t feel very easy for the last 8 miles or so. I was really nervous beforehand, worried about the possibility of a DNF with my dodgy leg. Amazingly that was fine - it was just the undertraining and the heat that made it a tough slog. I finished pretty much as planned (on the day) in 3hr 25min, oddly I think the same time as my first ever marathon in 2014.

But if I was quite pleased to finish ok despite injuries, then my biggest kudos of the day goes to my friend Ben, who ran 26.2 miles to collect his mega Six Star finisher medal despite having not run a step in six weeks after a bike accident left him with a ruptured knee ligament. Now THAT is hardcore.