We're now only a month away from my first half marathon, and it's all going to get very serious very soon, when the race packs arrive. Training has been going really pretty well all winter, with decent chunks being cut off my training times - apart from this week, when I've had a bit of a cold, and have had to spend most of the time nursing and/or entertaining Aimee.

Since it's my first crack at the longer distance, I decided to do a bit of research into the course itself. It has the reputation as one of the fastest half marathon courses in the country, which makes me confident of setting a good time. But then I traced out the course in Google Maps:

Yep, that's one heck of a climb in the early stages - and I understand it catches a lot of people out. Well, forewarned is hereby forearmed. Won't make it any easier though. After that it's all fairly steady in terms of climbs and drops.

My original target was 100 minutes... and that shouldn't be a problem. Realistically I should be able to do 1h33, which would put me in the top 8% of the field, based on last year's times. With a fair wind, and if I can avoid traffic in the early stages, that 1h30 'dream target' - and a top 5% finish - is surely feasible.

But I'm almost more excited at the prospect of racing against a few celebrities. With the London Marathon imminent, a lot of people use Reading as a warmup - and in previous years, quite a few celebs have done it too. I've already beaten Fatboy Slim twice round Brighton beach... who's the next victim?