4hrs 42mins. Good, solid day.

Slight change of plan this morning. The car park we left the van last night turned out to be the location for today's weekly market. So we arrived to see the van enclosed by stalls and white vans. The great thing was that there was no problem with this as far as anyone else was concerned, just that we couldn't get out. Hugh and I did our warm up next to the costume jewellry stand. Normally (and actually for everyone else) this would be cringe worthy but by now we don't bat an eyelid. We changed the route which linked up with the original one later on.

As often is the case, having to adapt worked well - George and Samia were able to do some much needed laundry and George even picked up a fake blackberry for Freddie, Hugh's son to practice on. He may soon become more proficient than his father is on the real version.

The Englishness of the countryside continued today with lots of farmers in evidence. This provided added excitement for the run as they have little interest in moving out of the way and to be skewered by enormous corkscrew looking objects would be a shame at this stage. We even took a bit of time out today looking utterly suspect lying on a flower strewn bank with the tractor drivers going by, looking on, in some cases hungrily. We moved on.

We had a good day trotting out the first 15 miles without much of a problem. Hugh is horribly fit and nimble. By comparison I am strapped up on my left knee almost to the point almost of immobility and my achilles is still bound, though lightly. I long for those horse pills Lucy, the fragrant army doctor in the Marathon des Sables fed us, giving oblivion while running. Samia, however is quite right - this will only hide the true cause so managing the problem is important and the strapping is working. I have been fortunate in getting back on track running my half marathons. Hugh finds my pace useful for the lead in to the day and I'm glad to be able to help and get out in the French sunshine. Hasn't rained in this country yet. That's bound to jinx things.

Incidentally Samia is talking about this event from the perspective of a sports therapist at London Metropolitan University on 23rd April at 11.45, as part of a postgraduates' lecture. I have done an excellent video interview so please do go along - email Samia at samia.clinic@ymail.com