So then first of all who am I and what’s my running pedigree?

Well, I had never run until the late summer of 2009. I was on a camping holiday on the Isle of Wight with another family. A member of that family had been running for a while and we (Helen and I – (Helen is my long suffering Wife) noticed the real positive change in our friend. 

About that time I’d been sitting at my desk at work, chocolate bar in one hand and noticed that my tummy was a little bit too far over my belt. 

“that’s it!” we both proclaimed.

After the holiday we decided to give running a go. Step by step, mile by mile we got ourselves into a rhythm. Then a couple of months later we took what then was a massive step. We entered the 2010 Reading Half Marathon. It was great, the running bug was implanted.

Shortly after that we both joined Huncote Harriers and the various races came thick and fast. The bug rubbed off on my daughter Isobel. So in June 2011 she joined Wreakeandsoar Valley-ac on her 7th birthday and I became an assistant coach. 

So in summary I’ve not been running all my life, just the 10 years now. I’m not the fastest runner but I really don’t care about that. I have learnt over the past 10 years that everything is achievable, but nothing is easy, quite the opposite.

I started all of this marathon nonsense in 2013. I was 40 that year and decided to set a few sporting milestones which included multiple 100+ mile cycling sportives and my first marathon, the Snowdonia marathon. I loved that so much that I did it another 4 times sticking the Manchester marathon in there for good measure. 

Onto the London Marathon 2019. Well I was massively happy to be allocated the club place for this year’s event. This will be my 7th Marathon and I have always wanted to get this onto my CV. Helen has done it a couple of times and we’ve gone and spectated. It’s a magical event. 

This has transpired to be my most challenging when it comes to prepping. Life can get in the way of running. I don’t want to bring this article down but this is my story I guess. In May 2018 my good old Dad was diagnosed with cancer, was operated on in October and sadly passed away in February (last month). As his carer I dedicated this past year to him in terms of my time and emotion. That means that quite rightly running took a back seat. It’s against that backdrop that I am now facing this run in to the big day.

So leading up to the old boy leaving me I’d describe my training schedule as erratic, fitting in a run here and there and certainly not sticking to any sort of plan. I didn’t bother with one knowing it was going to be like that. So the sad day came on 9th February and guess what, running didn’t seem like a priority at that point believe it or not! I didn’t run a metre for 3 solid weeks.

On 2nd March I looked at the diary, realised I had to run a marathon next month, realised I needed to get stuck in and quick.

So the next day I threw myself into it with a 14 mile target. I’d run 13 miles some weeks earlier but to think I could resume with a 3 week break was optimistic. I wasn’t wrong, I got to 10 miles and it all fell to pieces. For the first time I stopped. I couldn’t believe it, I sat looking at Thornton reservoir and wondered what on earth I was trying to do! I dragged myself the remaining 4 miles. 

So the next 7 saw me run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday then another attempt at a big run yesterday. I decided to stick in a 16 mile run. What on earth could go wrong. Last week was so perfect!!!!

Bizarrely I went out and completed the 16, it felt ok. I finished knowing that the marathon was back on.

What my running has taught me over the past few years is that I can do anything when adversity hits. I’ve been injured at inopportune moments but made the line, I’ve suffered lack of motivation but again made the line, I’ve even lost my Dad, but I’ll make the line next month, no worries. 

I’ll keep you up to date with how rest of the training goes – 18 miles this Sunday.

Bring it on

Alastair