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Days 7 & 8 - Both marathons duly nailed.

You've been all waiting with baited breath for the latest but I can exclusively report that Hugh has now completed 8 marathons on the trot. Day 7 in 4:57 and day 8 in 5:45. Why the difference? Apart from more having to step over more road kill than usual today, Hugh had to cope with a muscle injury to the right quad. Don't all swoon; it's now covered fetchingly in pink medical tape.

We have been blessed with 2 days of clear skies, allowing us the luxury of thinking about sun cream in March but not much more than that as it's still 10 degrees. Still, we left Figueria da Foz on a slight route diversion to avoid a suspension bridge without any footpaths, navigating nervously out of town on the gps, finally gaining our bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. Soon we were on another suspiciously long and straight road. I checked on the intergoogle and indeed the Romans had built holiday homes here in the mid 400s AD, mainly in Conimbrigia from AD 200-400 uninterestingly enough, until the Germans arrived with their beach towels in AD 468.

Quiet enough for us at any rate - straight forested roads and Hugh got up a real head of steam after 16 miles or so as I left him as usual to tuck into an early lunch. All successfully achieved and we ended up in the absurdly attractive resort of Costa Nova for the evening for an enormous seafood casserole, sadly not with the Cosa Nostra which would have rounded the image off nicely. No internet owing to a power cut in the town and a night off for everyone.

Today was another blue sky and we did our exercises, always a source of local interest, near the beach clapboard church in Praia de Mira. What a start to the day - beautiful sunshine; an old fellow removing his cap and bowing before the Madonna whilst we lurched crablike in the sand before a disappointed sports therapist. We quietly got on with it and ticked off the miles of the morning's half marathon. Soon after, I left Hugh to crack on and noticed how his running technique had come on; far less the knee high 'morning vicar' look but more the relaxed lope of the long distance runner. An efficient, but somehow sad, metamorphosis. He did step in a pot hole for a bit of crowd excitement but all is fundamentally well.

For anyone easily statistically stimulated he covered 183.4 miles in the last week. That's an almost appalling distance to contemplate yet he intends doing so for the next 6 weeks plus today's successfully completed jog. More messages of support please and remember, this is for Marie Curie if you would be so kind as to donate. Thanks for all your support so far; it is great to hear of the level of interest in this venture. Also, anyone interested in running with us at any point, please let us know.