For the past six months, Bristol Evening Post reporter Simon Peevers has been training for the BUPA Bristol Half Marathon.

And the moment of truth finally arrived for Simon's as he took to the streets of Bristol with around 7,000 others for the 13.1-mile race.

Going into the race, Simon told Post readers: "Staring at the calendar is much like staring down the barrel of a gun right now as there is no way of avoiding the inevitable.

"Despite trying to injure myself playing in a six-a-side football match at the weekend, I am as physically fit as I can be, probably, and have no excuse to duck out of the BUPA Bristol Half Marathon.

"For the past six months this newspaper has chronicled the Herculean challenge of turning a sofa-loving, calorie consuming anti-athlete, into a lean, mean half marathon running machine."

Simon optimistically placed himself in the "finish in two hours" section of the start line up.

"Inevitably everybody in sight ran ahead of me and I was left to run my own race in my own time - virtually in my own time zone."

However, Simon didn't run out of steam and kept going.

"Crossing the finish line was for me the greatest feeling of the last six months. With my stop watch showing two hours 40 minutes I was more than happy with my time," he said. "Frankly, simply finishing was good enough for me."

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail pastill@nep.co.uk