No tequilas (well only one), lots of snow and achy legs

Welcome to a slightly nervous third part of a tequila-fuelled marathon training schedule expose, all in aid of IT Relief (http://www.itrelief.org )

Slightly nervous because there's less than a week to go before the starting hooter goes, heralding 26.2 miles of hell for everyone stupid enough to have got themselves roped into the event. And those nerves get considerably worse every time the BBC shows that trailer featuring Paula Radcliffe on how she's always wanted to run the London Marathon. Arrrggghhh... no pressure!

So given how important this event and raising money for charidee has become, learning to ski two weeks before the crucial date perhaps wasn't the brightest thing to do. I had to put up with looks of horror from close friends when I told them I was going to Chamonix, known for being one of the harder-core ski towns. And their looks weren't entirely unjustified I admit. Skiing after all comes with quite a high potential for massive injury. My best friend snapped his left femur when he went once, leaving him with an 18-inch stainless steel plate and 23 screws to trip airport alarms every time he flies.

Even so, I managed to avoid breaking anything other than my pledge not to drink (hence the one tequila) while I was away. However I did manage to eat enough snow whilst falling over at high speed to leave the French authorities debating whether to close the entire resort as there was very little of the white stuff left after I'd been there.

Despite my sprawling, I was rather proud that I still managed to keep up some running while I was away. However, the 1000m increase in altitude plus a load of hills makes putting one foot in front of the other considerably more challenging. I also found that I was viewed as no less insane by the French locals than I am by the natives of London. Lorry drivers nearly swerved off the road in horror seeing me pounding up the alpine passes in my rather fetching running tights and trainers. The latter had frightened mothers in the villages, making them hide their children as I approached. Good job I wasn't wearing shorts or they might have gone snow-blind.

Still, there was one major advantage to running in France, and that was I no longer got tooted at by passing drivers. You see, since I started training with my 'running buddy' several months ago, I get a lot of attention from passing vehicles. Well, it's not strictly speaking me that gets the attention. It's her. As the weather has got warmer, her outfits have got skimpier, meaning that every white Ford Transit with ladders on the roof seems to find it necessary to beep their horn and shout: "Gah orn dahhlin... git summa vat lads..." out of the window.

In the first two miles of a training run this isn't a problem. By the time it's happened seven times (and the record in 24 times in one run), it gets quite annoying. If only I had a pound for every letch she has had to endure over the last four months, then KIDS (http://www.kids-online.org.uk ) would be one very rich charity. Which brings me neatly onto the sponsorship again.

First a marathon-sized thank you to:

Network Appliance: You are absolute stars for your generosity. Anyone interested in the storage specialist should log onto http://www.netapp.com

The Source: Heroes too, and equally as generous as the aforementioned firm. Again anyone interested in this excellent industry resource for PRs and journalists, log onto http://sourcewire.com

Plus others I'd like to thank personally are Megan Codling and Caroline Hitchen at Insight, Bill Mew at IBM, Sean Corbett at Grouptrade, Bob Jones, industry entrepreneur, founder of Equiinet and all-round nice bloke, plus Miriam McNicol at Red Brick and the myriad friends and relatives who have also helped out.

If you want to add your name to the list, bung a cheque in the post payable to 'KIDS' to IT Relief Marathon, c/o Silicon Media Group, Anchor House, 15-19 Britten Street, London. SW3 3TY.

And feel free to lend your support on the day, by popping down to the Marathon course and watching me humiliate myself, or even just to see my running partner in her rather brief Wonder Woman outfit (probably the more attractive option). I'll bring you a post-marathon update next week.