At least the sun came out for the Mug's Game 5

I always had in mind that I would organise one of the 80 races planned for the 2007 challenge and so the Mug's Game 5 was born.

For the past nine months I have been planning this 4.5-mile race around Itchen Valley Country Park near Eastleigh. It has been a huge undertaking.

The task has not been helped by the fact that I had ambitiously organised an old-style school sports day and traditional summer fete to run alongside the race. Both events were in aid of the Hampshire Autistic Society.

Kerry, Gemma and Sally at HAS have been central to the organisation of the two events. They managed to get the company FoneTrader Business to sponsor the occasion, and with the sports day and the fete, they have been drumming up support.

For my part, I have focused on the race, but also publicising the fund-raisers in the newspaper and other media. I managed to get a three minute spot on Meridian TV who came down to interview me at Southampton Common last week. And I gave interviews on both BBC Radio Solent and Wave 105 to pump up interest.

With the race, I have gathered together a team of friends to help me - Malcolm Price and Eryl Penney from Southampton Running Club, and Stubbington friends Nick and Helen Kimber, Paul and Marj Hammond, and Liz Hall.

We've planned together, agonised together, and worked together in those months towards this day.

And to be fair, it has not been easy. Despite the heavy promotion in the media, the response to both events was slow.

It's not been helped by the awful weather of the past six weeks; rain, rain and more rain, which has meant few people have been prepared to commit to the date. When I planned the date last summer, I felt the odds would be on my side for the weather, how wrong it could be.

Come Saturday, by the time I opened my curtains at 6am the omens looked good; blue skies and bright sunshine.

I drove to Itchen Valley with my dad for a walk around the running course, and though the woodland section was a little boggy, it was not too bad.

The rest of the day went by in a blur, and the weather deteroriated. With the team pulling up in an assortment of vehicles we set up for both the sports day and the race, but then the showers set in. It was miserable, and hard to keep a smile on your face.

The sports day started at 2pm and the afternoon's games were dogged by showers. It was not pleasant. The fete stalls had to seek shelter in the various tents, and business was slow. The poor ice cream van was doing hardly any trade.

But fair play to those who turned up. With Wave 105's Steve Power providing a stream of commentary and tunes, he did his best to lift people's humour.

Inwardly, I was feeling so dejected. Months of planning had gone into a day which had turned on the unseasonal weather.

I managed to see a little bit of the sports day which was organised by Brian Richardson, a Royal Navy Warrant Officer and physical training instructor and his colleagues from HMS Temeraire.

Meantime, just across the way, I was working the rest of my team to get the course set for the race.

Eastleigh Air Cadets were ushering in a stream of cars, St John Ambulance were on standby, and the wonderful park rangers were helping out.

Come race time, a good-sized crowd had turned up, the showers had disappeared, and the sun was shining.

A 1km and 2km children's race was held at 5.15pm, which passed off relatively peaceful but for one parent unhappy that her child hadn't got the correct prize.

And then at 6pm, 108 runners took part in the first-ever Mug's Game 5. I was so delighted when Malcolm Price sounded the starting horn and the race was under way.

The multi-lap race was based on grassland and woodland, and is a tricky test. It was won by the talented Chichester runner, James Baker, with Karen Rushton from Southampton Running Club claiming the ladies' race.

There were a few pre-race hiccups, but everything seemed to go off well. Prizes were handed out efficiently, no-one got lost or was injured on the route, everyone seemed happy with the post-race drinks and fruit, and the atmosphere was a friendly one.

Come 7pm and the finish of the race, I was feeling exhausted. I was acting as a runner between the finish funnel and the results recorder, Richard Dean, who did an outstanding job.

As competitors and their families started to head home, so the heavens opened as we began the process of packing away. Thankfully, many of the volunteers had stayed behind to assist, and despite a brief respite in the tent to hide from the showers, we were gone by 8pm.

I still had a van to drop off, tables to clean to leave at the local church, and it wasn't until almost 10pm until I could shut the door behind me and collapse with a plate of chilli.

It was a long day, but a very worthwhile one at that. The race alone raised almost £1,200 and much more will have been raised from the sports day.

Once expenses have been taken off, so as the hiring of toilets, the park, St John Ambulance, and the various prizes, a very tidy sum will have been raised for the Hampshire Autistic Society.

I was due to have run in Kent this morning at the Dartford Half Marathon, getting up at 5.30am and driving there for a 9am start. But I slept through the alarm call and so today was a day spent at home catching up.