A reader writes and why a runner runs

Quite incredibly someone seems to have noticed this blog. It's been so neglected during the upgrading of the malehealth and Men's Health Forum websites that the last thing I was expecting was to be mentioned in someone's ten best blogs list.

But Nursing School Search.com, the US site for would-be nurses looking for info on colleges, education and careers, have included it in the general section of its 100 Best Men’s Health & Fitness Blogs. Thanks, guys. They say the malehealth website is 'a great place to find health information for men, and the editor maintains this informative blog as well' - now I just need to do it!

Marathon correspondence

Interesting research from the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference following yesterday's post on my mate Ian's marathon run. A survey of marathon runners found that men and women tend to run for different reasons. Men were more likely to give personal goal achievement and competition, such as time or place in the field while women were more likely to run for reasons around feeling better - ‘to improve my mood’ or ‘to feel at peace with the world’ - or to keep weight down. What do you think Ian?

Trying to run faster than the missus

A good friend of mine braved the hottest day of the year so far and the imminent descent of the ash cloud to run the Brighton Marathon yesterday. Apparently his main motivation was that once his wife ran the London one last year he 'really had no choice but to try and go faster'. Hmm, what can I say except there's plenty more on the idiosyncracies of the male psyche on malehealth. Of course, there are, I imagine, many good reasons for being able to outrun your wife and Ian is pleased to report that he managed this.

If you'd like to support Ian, he was doing the run for the Alzheimer's Society. He says: 'It's not something I'd given much thought to until a relative of mine began to suffer the effects and I've seen the impact on the rest of the family. With the advances in medicine to cure other illnesses it's a sad fact that many of us are likely to have our lives or the lives of ones we love impacted.' Very true. There's more on Alzeimer's on the site and of course, everything you need if you want to train to run a marathon yourself. You can sponsor Ian here.

My User's Guide has been shortlisted for a respected book award

My most recent book The User's Guide to the Male Body (Sheldon 2009; £8.99) has been shortlisted for the Medical Journalists' Association Open Book Awards in the self-help general readership section.

Now I've no idea how many general self-help books were published during the eligible period but all the same, it's great to have something that you've done recognised by your peers (especially as I'm not even a member of the Medical Journalists' Association!) Thanks very much. Since the book's not medical or even technical and at just 120 pages makes good health as simple as possible, I'm hoping it's the writing, based on the interviews I've done for malehealth, that they liked.