My race pack for the National Lottery Anniversary Run finally arrived this week. Having not made it to the Olympics last summer, and having missed out in the ballot for this run last year, to say that I am slightly excited would be a huge understatement. My tickets for the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games also arrived. I didn’t get to see the Stadium in 2012, now I’m seeing it twice in two weeks!

This time next week I will have seen the Olympic Stadium and will have run on part of the track. Not many people can say that they have run on the track. The event organisers have released the race route which takes in some of the Olympic Park. I wonder how much is actually left from last summer.

I can’t wait to finish my Sunday 5-mile training run inside the Olympic Stadium!

My only concerns relate to the secure baggage area which the organisers aren’t actively encouraging people to use. I’ll be travelling to the run alone, I wish that race organisers realise that some people don’t have an army of supporters.

While on the subject of training runs, I got up relatively early this morning (OK I was out of the door before 08:00) and completed my 4-mile run. To be honest the run was a disaster and I felt rough from the start. I’m not blaming the heat but I was really struggling today.

On the plus side I completed the 4 miles in 41:04, the run was meant to be “easy” so I went slightly slower than my usual pace. I think that I actually need to slow my pace down more, I haven’t got these long slower (time on feet) runs right. I also need to find what I’ve done with my Nuun tablets, I really needed a couple today.

Finally, I spent Monday and Thursday getting my Visa for the conference in China sorted out. After a 2-hour wait in the queue at the China Visa Application Service Center in London on Monday, I had to wait less than 5 minutes to pay for and to collect my Visa on Thursday. Guess which donkey had predicted that she would be in the payment queue for hours? Emma. Guess which donkey had also booked train tickets taking such a long queue into consideration? Yes Emma. Next time I’ll stick my passport in the post and hope for the best!

All I need to do now is write my presentation for China, no worries!!