Rachel and I just after the start of the Bupa Great Edinburgh Mini Run - look at the concentration on the faces - and that's just on mine!
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Marathon effort ...
Well it’s now nearly 4 days after the first Virgin London Marathon (the 30th overall but first with the new sponsors) and my first for 10 years. After such a long gap between marathons I did feel like a virgin marathoner again, so the title sponsor is an apt one! I had a target of between 3.30 and 3.45, I only got the place in mid January through Virgin Money and their chosen charity for their Edinburgh office, Fertility Scotland. When I was offered the place I was only running 5k events and was probably totalling around 10 miles a week so it was a steep progression to get to 26.2 miles in 3 months! However, after watching Eddie Izzard doing 43 marathons in 51 days with just 5 weeks preparation beforehand I had taken the view that anything was possible.
Sadly I had a bit of a tough second half - I was fine for 13 miles, going well and on for about 3.26 but then my quads started to tighten up and went into cramps and then spasms at 15 miles, from then on it was survival to the finish line with walking, jogging, stopping, stretching and a bit of massage thrown in just to get me to the end! It was only in the last mile and a half I was able to start running properly again and when I finished I was actually feeling fine! I even managed to help a struggler down the finishing straight, he was wobbling a bit and looking like he might not make it so I gave him some encouragement to get him going again and ran with him until I knew he was going to get to the line safely. Believe it or not some people make it all the way round the 26 miles and then the last 0.2 miles beats them! My split times of 1:42 for the first half and 2:35 for the second make for painful reading but really, apart from my legs going into spasms, the last half was actually fine – at one point I took my heart rate and it was 140, indicating that I was in the right zone for getting round! I won’t say ‘there’s always next time’ as I don’t know if there will be another marathon for me, but I am not saying 100% no ... for now though it’s 10ks and half marathons – maybe even a spot of track running to get the legs going a bit faster.
So anyway, that was that! My first marathon in 8 and a half years, my first London for 10 years and my first ever Virgin London Marathon! I finished, which I am proud of, and I also beat my fundraising target for Fertility Scotland, again something I am really pleased about.
There’s still time to sponsor me, if you haven’t had a chance before, go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/jogster and click on the ‘donate now’ button. A huge thank you to everyone who has sponsored me already.
Keep on running!
The jogster
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Track the jogster at the Marathon
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Thanks to all my generous sponsors ...
... today was the day for sending out ‘The’ fundraising email to friends, family, work colleagues, people I know or have known through work and probably a few other people who thought ‘who the bloody hell is that asking me for money!?’. Anyway, in just a short space of time my fundraising total has increased sharply, so a big thank you goes out to those who have already flexed the plastic and helped me towards my total, it is most appreciated! I hope to get over the original target of £500, so if anyone is reading this and wants to sponsor me there is still plenty of time, the page will be open for quite a while after the event so if you are a) waiting until pay day at the end of the month or b) waiting to hear whether I made it round or not (which barring being buried in Volcanic Ash will be the former) then you can still donate afterwards.
My running number is 28887 if you want to search for me in the results, which should go up on the marathon website at www.virginlondonmarathon.com on Sunday night or Monday morning. I am making no time predictions, but suffice to say there will probably be an Elvis or two, a Womble and a man in a tutu ahead of me ... my main aim is just to challenge myself to complete the distance for the first time in 8 and half years and to soak up the atmosphere from the other side of the fence, as I have been a spectator at the event for the past five years.
I’ll update this again before Sunday but once again thanks for all your kind words and support everyone!
The jogster
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