Saturday 17 December 2011

A Personal Best

Dear All,

Ok, so I don't admit to being the next Shakespeare or JK Rowling, but I will try to give you an initial brief run down (no pun intended) of our training so far.  Without wanting to send you all off to sleep with tales of just running, I may just keep it brief on this occasion (ok, less of the cheering).

So, the shock of getting into the marathon has now set in and the three of us are on a mission to make sure we do the best possible job.  This, as you can imagine, is something that we are all immensely passionate about so we are dedicated to putting in the miles to ensure that we finish the race in a reasonable time.
For those of you fortunate enough to have known Nikki, you will know that as we pound the streets in our training runs, she remains our key driver and the reason why we don't stop.
I often find myself looking up into the sky for some kind of sign or encouragement during the runs, just at the point where I don't think I can carry on going.  Someone recently told me that he, during his own training runs for his marathon, would have arguments with himself on a regular basis as to why he should stop, "i just need to stop, I just need to walk, stop being such a wimp, you can do it"! 

This is not uncommon as I have found recently and has taken my talking to myself issue to a whole new level, especially when hitting certain physical barriers during the training runs.  The reason why I try not to stop?.......simple!  Nikki went through so much more than a bit of leg pain, breathlessness etc so I owe it to her to carry on and 'man up'!  The strength she showed to us all during the last few months was nothing short of gladiatorial, a real inspiration to anyone, so I have to carry on running.....its that simple!

The first few weeks have gone well, especially into the lead up to Christmas.  At work, as many people will know, its hitting 'silly season', which means lots of work parties, client nights out etc so I am trying to be strong and keep the alcohol levels to a minimum.

Having said that, I did find myself giving into some un-marcus like weakness and on the way home from a night out last week found myself in a kebab house!!

Waking up in the morning, with a mouth like the Gobi desert, I still knew that a run was on the agenda so set off on my merry way.  I had no specific target but I knew that being the weekend, it had to be a longer run.  My maximum to date was 7 miles which I achieved the week before, however after the night before, one mile in and I was seriously thinking of turing around and blaming that damn kebab for ruining my training (i might have had something to do with it) - but to this day, I still don't know why I had a kebab? My first in YEARS!
Having said all this, the day was beautiful, with stunning views, sunshine and still my goal firmly in my mind!  With that, I managed to achieve a personal best of 9.6miles....I was very chuffed and the facebook update to shout this from the roof tops went straight on!

Today (17th December) the three of us set off on our big challenge to hit 10 miles!  This would be a PB for all three of us during this training period, plus a 3 mile uplift for Shelly on last week!.
Below is a before and after picture, but I am happy to say that we all did it......together......without stopping.......in a wet start but ending in stunning sunshine again! 
The legs are now burning, and its safe to say that although we are over the moon to be able to run 10 miles without stopping, there is much to do to get to the 26 miles that the marathon is going to ask of us.

Christmas is coming, its normally a time to celebrate and share with the family, however this year is going to be different.  Its going to be missing someone very special and that's something that we are all going to find intensely difficult to comprehend.
The only thing we can do is run, keep on running and just when we think we cant run any more......run some more, knowing that what we are doing is nothing by comparison to what Lady Fagg managed to achieve!

Until next time everyone, I am off to have an ice cube bath followed by a full body 'Ralgex/Deep Heat' rub down! 

Marcus x


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