Team Run are en route between two fine European cities. Day two, like day one, is a non-running day; today our two ‘mid-size’ rent-a-cars are powering their way through Northern Italy. In car one, Graeme Kirkpatrick and Shannon McKenzie are playing the role of mum and dad (respectively), the kids Adam Graham and Richard Tipping appear to be behaving themselves. Currently car one are listening to the classic ‘it’s raining men’ song which featured in the Bridget Jones movies and contemplating the prospect of running a half marathon every day in temperatures in excess of 30 degrees Celsius. Hailie Gabreselaise said he could only marvel at our efforts in admiration on ‘radio al italia’s’ shout out show.

Car two has Chris Pateman Jones and Nick Watson at the helm. Rupert Guppy is playing the role of only child, the gregarious French speaking tax consultant has just informed me that the occupants enjoyed a pizza and an ice cream in the city of La Spezia and that their car has just passed Pisa, approximately 100km behind car one who decided to plough on and eat on the move and are now within 200km of the eternal city.

Team run are a flexible bunch. Already car one have taken a little detour from the proposed route in order to fully appreciate the delights of Italian infrastructure. The road to Rome is laid out before us and like barbarian raiders from the north we will not stop until we reach a city that contains more UNESCO World Heritage Sights than you can shake a proverbial bread stick at. Delightful. Our stay will be brief however, we have much to do. Tomorrow morning we will set off on the truly epic part of our journey. This is the uniting force which binds our team of young athletes. An unquenchable thirst for perspiration will drive us all on to achieve that which we set out to do. Tomorrow, as the Pope takes mass in front of an audience of thousands, seven men will start a 714km discussion with their bodies. It will start with a question, are you up to it?

Also the temperature has dropped, it has just started raining, where’s the wind-screen wiper switch? Shannon, we are on the right side of the road?

From a wet road in western Italy, over.