Cool running ramblings : issue one
The first of our ‘words of wisdom’ from the lovely Simon Allchin.
Admit it, how many times have you stumbled out of bed on a bright and Sunny April morning, grabbed a cuppa and found the London Marathon on the box? And then after ten minutes of watching a variety of people in daft costumes having a microphone shoved under their noses, how many times have you thought “I could do that”. I mean, if someone can run a marathon dressed as a telephone box then how hard can it really be?
I’ve been there, I’ve even bought the trainers a couple of times and once I even paid a couple of quid for an entrance form from JJB Sports. But when it came down to it, both times I got a couple of weeks into my “training” and got disillusioned that I wasn’t already on the verge of an Olympic place, mainly because I found it impossible to smoke fags and run at the same time! The late great Roy Castle was bang on when he sang about dedication being what you need, God rest his soul, and no matter how hard I looked for it in my shiny new copy of “Runners World” there didn’t appear to be anyone selling it in a handy cereal bar form.
But when I overheard a couple of people in the office talking about the opening of the entry list for the inaugural Brighton Marathon a few months ago, the memories of my previous enthusiastic but ultimately pathetic attempts at being a marathon runner had faded enough for me to once again be flooded with optimistic thoughts of running glory. I also thought to myself that if I was to run a marathon before I’m 40 then this April was going to be my last opportunity! That is why I decided there and then to stump up the early bird registration fee reserved for the first 1,000 entrants and begin my assault on the 2010 Brighton Marathon, much to the surprise and slight bemusement of my far healthier, fitter and younger workmates. They soon warmed to my enthusiasm though and one of them even emailed me a training guide for the novice marathon runner that she had downloaded from the internet.
The guide I’d been sent stated that its prerequisites were:
1) You have been running regularly for at least a year
2) You can run at least 5 miles comfortably in one go
3) You are averaging 20 miles per week or more in training
4) You are not suffering from a chronic or recurring injury problem
Oh dear.
Well one out of four’s not the worst start possible, is it? At least I didn’t have any pesky injuries to worry about. Even armed with a plan for the first time I was beginning to realise that this was still going to be an extremely long, hard ten months.
Check in weekly for Simon’s training and update progress
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