28 Days of Pain - Day Eight

By Jamie Hill

Fat Joke #378 - I'm so fat that when I walk I show up on the richter scale....

I burnt off 549 calories this morning during my run according to my Nike + app. That might go some way to making up for the Chinese meal I had last night. Half of it at least.

Despite this, I managed to run my planned five kilometres this morning. It was exhausting and I felt like I was going to keel over and collapse at points especially with one of the worst stitches I've ever had. But I did it.

Saturday mornings are weird on the common. It's like Piccadilly Circus, except without the statue of Eros, the Trocadero, all the neon lights, the traffic and mad bloke, who is usually in Trafalgar Square, screaming that David Cameron is the devil. Actually it's not like Piccadilly Circus at all. But it's still really busy.

Lobot, from yesterday, was there. Still with the bald head and the unfeasibly large headphones but this time he had two different accessories with him. Two really, really small dogs. So our 'running' duel will have to wait until another day.

But there was also loads of other people up there at 8am on a Saturday morning. There was even a gang of runners which I had to make way for. They all nodded at me as if I was a member of their club as well and I tried to smile back but due to my exertions it probably looked more like a grimace of pain than a grin. The accompanying grunt from me probably made me seem a bit psychotic.

I did get a bit worried during this run as when I entered the field going towards Rockley, the farmer was there standing by his range rover.

I could see him watching me. At one point he went back to get something from his vehicle. In my fevered running head I thought it could be a shotgun and was half expecting him to shout 'Get Off Moi Land!" whilst brandishing said weapon in my direction.

It wasn't a shotgun. I think it was a phone and when I passed him he simply smiled and gave me the thumbs up. So I've now got tacit consent to run in the farmer's field. Bonus.

One thing that I've already mentioned is that I listen to very loud music during these runs. I find it helps me find my rhythm and distracts me from my tiredness - helping me keep going.

This morning's musical accompaniment was LCD Soundsystem, which is pretty damn perfect when it comes to running with its repetitive beats and anthemic qualities that build slowly up to a perfect crescendo. It was good stuff.

Today was the first time that I had run for two days in a row. I know that my legs are going to be feeling it over the next 24 hours.

Tomorrow is my much-needed day of rest. It's also my weigh-in day. I'm trying not to be nervous about it and I'm trying to stay as negative as possible so that I don't get demotivated when it turns out that I've lost no weight at all over the last seven days.

The fact is I'm aware that muscle weighs heavier than fat so if I haven't lost weight it doesn't matter. That will come later.

Visit http://www.theocelot.co.uk for the rules of the challenge and to see previous blogs.

Only 20 days to go until my suicidal 10,000 metre run....