Anyone got a couple of spare calf muscles?

I've broken myself. Not majorly, but I'm in pain.

I woke up at 7 this morning, as J was heading off to Greenwich on a work field trip. We stayed in last night so, besides waking up panicking at 5am that I was hungover and had to go to work before remembering I hadn't been drinking and it was Saturday (no better feeling!), I felt absolutely fine this morning.

I put off my run yesterday because I knew I was going to be free today - so I had to go. The actual driving factor was the fact that, as usual on a Saturday, I was craving a fag to go with my morning coffee. Reasoning that I hadn't smoked for almost 12 hours and that if I did, I'd then not be able to have another one for hours to give myself a fighting change prior to going jogging, I dragged my bones out into the morning sunlight at about 10am.

It was a really nice morning here - not too hot and sunny. On Wednesday I managed to run around 5-6 km, the distance from my house to the park and back. The park is an extra 3 km round, so I decided I would run to the park, do a lap, and then try and get as far back to the house as I could.

It was weird running through the park at that time on a Saturday morning - there were quite a lot of joggers but also a fair percentage of people winding their way home from the night before. At one point there were about 7 of us boring pavement pounders streaming up a narrow section of the path, whilst a glamorous girl tottered her way straight down the middle in the opposite direction, all fluffy jacket, big sunglasses and contented smile. If I ever make a film, I'm going to somehow work that scene into it.

I was running really slow and ended up making it the whole way without stopping - bit of a shock and I was starting to hurt well before the end, but one of my worst/best traits (in running terms at least) is a determination not to stop until the finish.

I now have two red hot pokers where my calf muscles used to be, but a new feeling of serenity and relaxation with the race only 3 weeks away. This is the way I did it last time - training but not progressing for weeks, then suddenly just accidentally doing pretty much the whole race distance. There's something comforting knowing that I will be able to make it round the course, all things considered.