Two kilometres into today’s Milan Marathon, one of the lenses popped out of my glasses – just when I thought I’d seen everything in marathon running, if you’ll pardon the pun. Luckily, I was able to retrace my steps and retrieve the lens, undamaged by athlete’s foot. Undaunted, I continued, keeping more of an eye out than usual for the host of flagstones, cobblestones and tram tracks that had to be negotiated without a stumble.

A marathon is a marathon and always hard work, getting harder by the year for me, but I have to say that, as marathons go, I almost enjoyed today’s run. The weather was perfect – overcast, without rain and a gentle cooling breeze. The route was OK – the outskirts of Milan are nothing to blog about. But the last 4oo metres were absolutely stunning; you round a corner and there’s the magnificent Duomo (cathedral) towering over the runners. That resulted in an involuntary ‘wow’ from me.

You can see the film of my completing the run through this link. As you will note, I completed the run in 5:03:45 which I think placed me 11,163 out of 11,946 runners which doesn’t sound spectacular until you realise that most of the runners are 20-40 years my junior. That time is pretty well what I was aiming for and par for the course these days.

Milan was my third marathon this year, following Seville in February and Barcelona in March. So, I am now half-way through my ‘Year of the Sixes’ fundraising challenge for Pipal Tree as I take on six marathons this year to ‘celebrate’ turning 66 last month.

Thanks so much to my sponsors for today. If you would like to encourage me onwards for the fourth marathon – London in two weeks’ time – you can sponsor me through this link.