It is getting on for a year since assistant news editor Lee Winter got fit enough to run a mile without collapsing. For 2009 he's planning on doing 6.5 of them in aid of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. Follow his progress for the June 21 event and lend your support or mock.

Better still why not sign up by filling in the entry form included with the print edition of the Friday Medway Messenger. Alternatively enter online at www.medwaytownandgown.org.uk

Friday, June 12

Today I had one of those eureka moments. A decisive moment that may make all the difference between completing the course later this month. I've decided to quit. This is my last entry and indeed my last day with the Kent Messenger Group. It means I can now totally focus on my training; something which has become more critical ever since I discovered that us runners have an hour to get around St Mary's Island before they lift up a bridge. If I don't watch it what started out as a run around a park and some ships could easily turn into a duathlon dock swim.

I am off across the river to work on a project that it is hoped will help defeat the fear of crime in the Towns. My new desk is also marginally closer to the start of the Medway Town and Gown 10k, allowing me to acclimatise to hills and shortcuts. It is very much a strategic move. Thanks for reading. See you at the start!

Thursday, May 14

The fan of this blog - you know who you are mum - may have wondered why its been 10 days short of a month since my last training posting. Victorian work schedules, the closure of my gym and the A20 Lewisham Way for resurfacing works have all played their part in scuppering any hope of getting across the finishing line next month on two legs. At the moment it's looking like I may have to do it SAS style with a commando crawl or - thanks to trainer gate - by hopping.

This here website is the place to come for breaking news and police appeals. And in a website first - its also your premier fount for footwear fatwahs. Last week I was ready to run up steps talking Italian and repeating my Medway Mile impression of Rocky does Riverdance at the top. Sadly I was forced to retreat back to the sofa by a missing trainer. Without it I am lost. All I'm able to do with the one left is a sort of triple jump style lunge which sadly in parts of New Cross can get you committed. In Cinderella style I have started going around the shops looking for the lost one but so far nout. Can you help? If you spot a grey, padded clog of speed lying around anyplace please return it to our Strood HQ or to my home address - Lee, 57, The Hood.

Friday, April 24

The problem with holidays is that they get in the way of work for people like me who consider the office their second home.

It's also put the kybosh on my training regime. Saying that I partly blame Goldsmiths College across the road from me up The Smoke for closing their public access gym during holidays. It's given my willpower an excuse to scarper.

It's not like I haven't done any exercise. I have walked up a hill near Windermere and got my heart racing by tumbling off a £1,500 mountain bike belonging to someone else. It all must add up.

I have also restarted my three steps at a time down to the kitchen tea urn and back ministry of funny skips routine which I'm convinced will aid my quest to run the extra mile.

This evening I am driving down to Devon complete with body board and a wetsuit that all being well I will still be able to squeeze into. A surf dude sold it to me a couple of years ago saying it would feel like a second skin. My only concern given my 30-something girth is that it will have become a permanent fixture. It's going to be a fitness routine worthy of champions getting it off.

Tuesday, April 7

In the beginning I tried all sorts of things, including ritual humiliation playing Warwickshire disc golf, to get fit without going to the gym or strolling around a field with a stoop/stagger while panting.

Over recent days I have finally realised that with longer nights there is no longer anything to fear from folk looming out of the gloom in leotards and headbands. Saying that I'll be far happier when the London Marathon is over in a couple of weeks so I can have the moors of Medway to myself. Last week on my first major run I literally ran to the Circus and back across the former plague pits of Blackheath ducking and diving to avoid an ambush of Flora sponsored tutu runners.

I'd sort of hoped the Big Top acrobats would spot my athletic prowess - or failing that the clowns - and invite me onto the trapeze. Incredibly I was ignored bar the sunset walker who offered to call an ambulance after hearing me wheeze near the A2 Tea Hut.

One other thing I have decided as my regime steps up a gear is that all modern runners should be fitted with Sat Nav either as a wrist watch type device or surgically. In these days of honed targetted fitness it's important to keep an eye on where you're going. Sadly I went slightly off track while seaching for where I'd left the car. What should have been a 20 minute run turned out to be a puffing 40. Luckily I didn't need to call out a search party or fire a flare.

This week I have been to the gym twice running four treadmill miles in total - not sure what the equivalent is in street jog metric or imperial? No major injuries to report apart from slight damaged pride after slipping off the treadmill. Advice to blog followers - never reapply slipped out earphones while pace setting to 80s hits like It Bites - Calling All the Heroes and Melvyn Bragg - In Our Time.

Tomorrow I head for the Lake District where I have been told by my host to pack swimming trunks for a secret treat that I hope doesn't involve two lengths of Windermere.

More next week. In the meantime happy Easter and, fellow Town and Gowners, good runs. Like we say in Wales - Don't grumble and Mumble [lovely sandy bit near Swansea] Run to Flint with a glint. [Web Ed - quality control alert]

Tuesday, March 31

I woke up this morning with a dose of pre-gym tension. Having joined just as they were closing last night I had been full of vim and vigour for the morning session after Sarah, my beloved, bet me £50 that there wasn't a hope in Hull that I'd clamber out of my chambre and hit the treadmill running.

Like a phantom pregnancy my back felt in two as I reached for me mobile alarm clock and its fifteenth snooze at 7.15am. But like a pheonix from the flame I rose like er Lazarus and by 8am was just about out of bed and raring.

It is always important to eat something small before taking exercise so finished off last night's cous cous before running with iPod on shuffle to properly begin my extreme fitness regime.

For a full 30 minutes I rowed and ran listening to the beat of a Radio 4 discussion on the Great Fire of London and for the final sprint Slade's I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day. Hardly Chariots of Fire, but like Yazz said the Only Way is Up.

Tuesday, March 24

Well I did it. This morning just as dawn was breaking at er 8.45am I donned my athletic apparel and ran for the door after first agreeing a three doorbuzz SOS with me beloved in case of doorstep collapse.

The opening route took me frogger style over the A20 past the Gourmet Bar where Chinese Elvis used to perform then up, along a bit and back.

Living in the Smoke anyone running towards you or away from you at speed especially first thing or at dusk is usually treated with suspicion. Luckily my chosen pace and stride put those I passed instantly at ease..as long as they kept out of my way. I even managed to get an 'Awright' from one, possibly out of respect for my focus and obvious marathon talent. Either that or concern for me wheezing.

Wednesday, March 18

There was a queue on the way home last night on the A2 which scuppered my plans to run off into the sunset. It meant that my exercise regime was limited yesterday to carrying trays of tea up and down the stairs. That might not sound too tortuous but as part of my budget conscious exercise regime I tried to max the honing as they call it in tray-fitness circles by carrying the one that is slightly warped and thus needs maximum resistance to avoid it being dropped. Oh have just been informed the route for the race may be tweaked. Will let you know more once I have the detail. Hopefully the one will have fewer riverside hills or speed bumps.

Tuesday, March 17

This being St Patrick's Day thoughts turned this morning to what I should be inbibing in order to maximise my initial hop skip and a spurt planned to coincide with a hopefully inspiring New Cross sunset this evening. Given that it was 6am at time of waking have decided pass on the Guinness until the sun passes over the yard arm. Given that we still have blackout style curtains on the windows it might be a bit tricky working out when I can run to the bar. Will keep you informed on progress.

Monday, March 16

Today is the day when it starts. Everything has been building up to this moment and that moment is here - I've managed to get my running kit [with trainers] into the backseat of the car. It's just a matter now of putting them on and starting to hum Chariots of Fire before breaking into a sprint.

Over the weekend I have been working on my all over physique starting on Friday with a night out at an 80s Roller Disco courtesy of birthday celebrating early Madonna clad Helen. I was a revelation. Even the instructors said my style was futuristic. Sort of Torvil and Dean but with a robotic twist.

Have just returned from a photo-shoot with Jo, a KMfm freelancer from Tenterden who will be running the London marathon in a few weeks time.

We were snapped by Vernon with whom I have a 24 month old beef after he ignored my arm flailing efforts to get noticed and captured for KM posterity on the first Medway Mile run at the Black Lion Leisure Centre in 2007.

Changed into our respective kits Vernon suddenly came over all coach like putting us through a game of Twister in the name of getting a good picture. These are hard to come by in my case so it went on for sometime until the light/gurn ratio was perfected. Luckily I managed to do a runner before the photographic legend used his powers of persuasion to get us to perform leap frogs.

Friday, March 13

Yes Monday was the day for deciding routes and gym joining but with things still uncertain about one's future job location I took the decision to continue with iffitz body toning using whatever comes to hand in the cupboard - soup as weights, recycling tub for step aerobics etc.

One thing that has been decided is the timing of the first run. I have tried to wriggle out but my word is my cul-de-sac that word was Monday at about half 6. Wish me luck. All tips welcome.

Thursday, March 12

Have been focussed on the road these past few days. Will write something zenlike post Friday deadline workout. Standby.

Right where were we. I have been emailed by the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign PR trying to coax me to give up on what I consider to be essential mental preparation for the 10k. She provocatively wrote the following more or less -"here's the link to signing up online. Other people from Medway have already agreed to run."

Yes they may have done but I refuse to be pushed into making a decision until I've seen the long range weather forecast for June 21 - apparently there's a slight risk of showers according to the piece of seaweed hanging by the door.

Friday, March 7

This weekend I am going to gear up for my first run. I realise I should have ventured out or at least leapt up the stairs by now but I am deadline driven and require a set timetable and a good build-up to function. I blame the lifelong scars of teenage years in the aircadets - mostly spent getting marching orders. Mind you those regimented days have left me with a good stride.

As part of a cost saving exercise I am going to spend Saturday poring over a map to plot potential jogger routes avoiding wherever possible hills and speed bumps to replicate the riverside runway around St Mary's Island and its environs where the Medway Town and Gown event will be taking place this June. There's also the small matter of entering.

Monday may be the day to join a gym or to look around the flat for suitable alternatives should the cost of joining or the smell of sweat prove too much. I already have my eyes on the fridge thinking I could possible drag it outside and run it up and down the roof balcony or garden Geoff Capes style to build up me strength and stamina. If it's too heavy I can always take the petit pois and Aunt Bessie's yorkshires out the freezer compartment until I'm ready. Will let you know how I get on.

Wednesday, March 4

Am trying to think of an excuse for not training yet with gusto. There's only three and a bit months to go and while I have been running about in recent days it has mostly been done in a horseless carriage with wheels. All advice and shortcuts to becoming a 10k running Adonis are welcome. Add your comments below.

Monday, March 2

One of the things "experts" say you need when it comes to creating the perfect running machine - human not treadmill - is focus. In my case my bosses have come up with just the thing to hone the mind - redundancy.

With three weeks or so to go before the verdict is delivered the rush is on to get myself trim for the 10k run around the Historic Dockyard and St Mary's Island on Sunday, June 21.

I am a man on a mission. This morning while my beloved rivalled the dawn chorus with her rendition of What's New Pussy Cat I got down for 30. Sadly my chosen spot - a shagpile rug not hoovered since the Stone Age - caused an allergic reaction and the sit-ups become more like squat thrusts as the sneezing fit kicked in.

Friday, February 27

I've had experience of this before. The limbering, the aches, the fear of anything resembling a hill. Last year I did a 10 minute run for the Medway Mile, the annual scarper organised by Medway Council up at the green field next to the Black Lion leisure centre. I managed a sub-10 as they call it among running pro circles swishing in at 8 minutes and a few seconds. Sadly no-one else was there to see it because of a dates mix-up. I was two days early. Technically I was first across the line.

This year I have volunteered for a greater challenge - 10K's worth of running around one of Medway's most historic quarters - the Historic Dockyard and its environs.

In theory I will be regularly posting on this blog my training progress as I transform from doughnut demon to svelte, sprinting er stallion. If you have any tips and advice on crossing the line or can give me a lift pop us a comment at the bottom.