This was the 4th time I've done this marathon, an event that I have previously claimed is one of my favourite races.

I was very surprised this year that they had moved the expo outside onto the beach front. I can see how they would want to make the Event Village open for longer, but was this subtly more to do with the financial gain of keeping food outlets open which normally wouldn't be in the exhibition centre? Call me cynical but not sure what gain it would have being outside as opposed to in....

Race day itself was roasting hot, the hottest I've had to run a marathon in and I have run quite a few now. I always run with a couple of bottles of isotonic drink for the first two hours and hopefully get my wife to pass me another at 13-14 and I'm glad I did this year.  The water stations this year weren't great, around 16-18 when I grabbed one, there was less that a quarter of a cup of water in it, handy if you don't want to spill but worrying if you are that far into a race and need a drink. I don't think that this was any of the volunteers fault, just that they were giving out more water than they expected to. I've heard stories of people further back than me with their lack of water and it is deeply worrying in those conditions that they couldn't get a cup of water. Also, not sure if it was an advertising thing, but it made me chuckle when the volunteers with the isontonic drinks were nearly saying the caloric breakdown of the drinks and how refreshing they were.

The course was it's usual challenging self, I've always said that if you want a good time on Brighton, run it twice: the first year to get used to the challenging and surprising hills and the second time when you know what to expect then you know what to do. This year was no different, some absolute pigs of incline which gladly were in the first 9-10 miles.

The crowd as usual was absolutely electric and back to when I once said it can rival London for atmosphere at times. Phenomenal support from the home crowd and I can't see why local residents moan about this marathon considering the good feeling it brings from this area. The steel drums around mile 15 were a personal highlight and their rendition of "Get Lucky" was brilliant.

Shoreham power station was its usual dragging self with about as much excitement as flat lager, but at least this year there was some shade from the sea wall that we all clamoured to like parallel dimension moths who were trying to get away from the light!

Once out of Shoreham, it was up on the seafront for the final few miles. One thing that was a bit of a concern was the amount of spectators who were walking on the course itself completely oblivious to the fact the marathon was taking place, this is apparently the 2nd biggest marathon in the U.K. so a bit more could've been done I feel to make the beachfront section safer for runner.

The Madeira drive last .2 miles is always amazing and it was here where you always find a little tiny bit of reserve in your legs and give it a go.

I finished in 3:26:46 which although not a PB, is my third consecutive sub 3:30:00 marathon so I'm very happy with that. Well earned pint on the seafront before the chaos that ensued trying to leave the Event Village, but everyone reading this has probably read about that elsewhere too....

I'd like to say thank you to Paul Addicott as well who offered to pace me to 3:20:00 a week after he did the Manchester marathon. Paul advised that he would get me to a certain point (later stages of the marathon) then I could go off on my own and did my own thing. My pacing was absolutely spot on until 18 and it was only my decision to drop back and enjoy the company with Paul, rather than worry about my time which was I didn't hit what I planned to do. Did I care? 100% not at all - as I said to Paul on the way round, I have run three amazing marathons out of seven and they were when I was running with someone, had a bit of company and someone to chat to. This was one of my favourite runs to date and largely a lot of that was having a running buddy, something I very rarely have when I run races. Paul is an excellent pacer and got all the times I needed spot on. Also, running a controlled race helped me, if I'd have set off too quick in that weather I'd dread to think how I would be feeling today. I'll see you at Milton Keynes Paul!

Also, an absolute pleasure to meet Kev finally! That's the thing with social media, you build up a real rapport with someone you've never met before and when you do meet it could be awkward, although it wasn't like this at all Kev and you can add me to your twitter bio Kev of people who I think you're a smashing fella. You ran a great time in that heat too and will smash your 3:30:00 target.

Thank you Brighton, it was a challenging year. But as the good friend that I am, I can see you tried hard and will be back in 2018 expecting to be wowed once again.