10 down; a piffling 40 left. Marathon in 6 hrs 58 mins

We call him 20 Per Cent. A step up from '50 Pence' or whatever that chap with the chains is called. Both marvellous at wrapping anyway. And yes, I'm curling my toes too.

Never mind all that. We set off from Leca da Palmeria this morning, north west of Porto. Sophie, Hugh's wife, guided us there and Freddie, his son gave some sage athletic advice to the old man. The start was another beach road with a raised boardwalk which was great for Hugh to run on for the first few miles. A necessarily tentative start to the day, testing the thigh injury and various different strapping scenarios were tried to try and take the pressure of the damaged muscle. So it was a run & walk scenario. My Achilles tendon is still bad so I couldn't join him for more than a few miles. Relief for him I should think, but only for a brief period methinks.

Most of the roads here are cobbled which is satisfying to drive over (in the same way popping bubble wrap is) but not good for running on with a dodgy leg. So Hugh walked on. You would think this gives the support team a lot of time to lounge around. Unfortunately not - lots of twists and turns in the roads means waiting for Hugh, giving directions with the walkie-talkie. H flatly refuses to use the gps, viewing the device and its pointy arrow with the same suspicion as I do an electric salt cellar - something gauche, electronic and bound to catch me out. So Samia and I sit and wait, gadgets fizzing cleverly everywhere, talking him in with something Fisher Price should have sponsored.

To be fair Hugh is not entirely spatially unaware. He now understands the basics of navigating by the sun. In the morning it is to his right (the east), the ocean at his left, as he walks north, cosily sandwiched in the middle. So far, so good. At luncheon the sun will have sauntered to the south to warm his back (we have had 4 days of lovely weather now, thankfully). By evening Mr Sun will be waving goodnight getting ready for bed tucked up beyond the sea to Hugh's left, giving me a splendid view - from the bar - of H's triumphant finish with a rosy glow on the ocean. Pretty technical all that, so I hope you're with me. Anyway, generally this works well. Just the nasty roads in between that can confuse matters. With his walking though, he's really putting in the hours and the sun is snoring contentedly before he finishes, poor chap. Hence I'm scratching my head working out how to introduce Mr Moon into the scenario.

Hugh's putting in a hell of an effort actually. Tonight it was almost 20.00 before he finished, needing a head torch for the first time. He'll be back running soon but these are the days that count - long slogs we didn't want but for which he is prepared. In the meantime I'm knackered too so I'm off and even Mr Moon has got his nightcap on, since you ask.

The latest videos from day 9 are now live, see them here