It's Official

It's official - as you will see from the picture I'm not in the marathon.

Interesting to see though that the entry system is going totally online next year and opens in April. Will it still close in October or will the closing date also be brought forward a few months? It must make the work involved a lot easier for the organisers, but it will spoil our fun of watching for cheques being cashed!

An entry form for Edinburgh was also included. Tempting, just not sure on the whether for the race. Plus there is a favourite race that is probably the week before. Not sure whether that would be too much.

Could it be Blackpool

Just found out that another person in the running club hasn't got into London - that's 2 "no" and 1 "yes" so far out of 4. It's likely the 4th guy, never having ran London before, will also get a "no" but be given the club place. Especially as he's a good friend of the guy who's in.

The other "no" is talking about running the Blackpool Marathon, so it looks like the pressure will be on to enter that one. Will wait and see what happens regards club place etc first!

Third Time Lucky...

For the first time ever, someone I know who applied to the London Marathon has been accepted. 2 rejections then an acceptance. Lucky him!!!

Good news is that there are only a limited number of us in the running club interested in the London Marathon, so if the guy who has never ran it before also gets a place (fat chnce!!!) there's a good chance for the rest of us of getting the club place. If he doesn't get his own place then as he's never had the club place it's offered to him first.

Helsby Half

Well the entry form for the Helsby Half has finally left the desk - almost 3 weeks of it just sitting there in a pile! I would estimate from looking through the entry list that 1200 of the 2000 places have gone in those (less than) 3 weeks. Fills up pretty sharpish for a local event!

Well the race is 8 weeks on Sunday - means that I really must get back into those long runs and also decide what other spring races I'm going to do!

Don't People Annoy You???

At a party I was cornered by another guest who started talking to me about my running. Without being asked to comment she started telling me that I was doing far too much running, that I would need a pace maker because of it in 15 / 20 years and that my diet was totally wrong. Anything I said back was greeted with the fact that she worked in a hospital cardiac department.

Not only did this upset and worry my wife - it was totally wrong and unnecessary. First, I refuse to take health advice off a 'lady' over a foot shorter than me and weighing probably a couple of stones more than me (being generous).

But what made her advice even more dangerous - remembering that she was claiming to be an expert from the cardiac department - was that at no point did she ask how much running I did or what my diet consisted of, yet she criticised both. How can anyone tell another person that their diet & exercise regime is wrong just by looking at them and seeing a tall, slim build? I'm not under weight - a BMI of slightly over 20.

3 runs of about 45 minutes each per week and a well balanced (and plentiful!!!) diet. How can her 'expert' advice be to reduce exercise when the government are advising the country to do more.

People can annoy me - especially experts who look at me and tell me what I should be doing!

Training Frustration

Been doing my usual 10km route the last few weeks as part of my weekly schedule. But I've been running hard and not breaking 45 minutes. Back in the summer I was breaking 40 minutes.

Really getting frustrated with this - why is the training run so much slower than it should be? Was talking this through after the run and then suddenly I realised what the problem was.

As part of my preparation for the Great North Run I wanted to increase my weekly mileage so changed my daily route and slightly lengthened it... It's not 10km - it's 7 miles.

So it's 45 minutes for 7 miles, not 10km. Feeling a lot better about the running now! (just got to extend it by a further 19 miles...)

A New Leaf!

Trying my best to get back into this training lark - but without a race to focus on it's hard.

Started with the first interval session since before the Great North run - almost 2 months. Surprisingly my speed hadn't dropped off that much. Not got around to the weights yet!

Decided that if I do a marathon next year then I'm going to need to get used to drinking on the run again. So took a bottle on the interval session and sipped it between efforts - which resulted in stiches every time. Hopefully I can sort that out else there will be no point entering a marathon at all as I won't be fit to finish.

The Running Has Stopped???

Not a good week for running. Monday work took it's toll and no time to get out. Managed a short run Tuesday, but didn't really feel good and the running felt overly hard. Yesterday again a rush of work prevented me getting out at all and looks like a meeting at the bank at lunch time will stop me getting out today.

Sometimes, these weeks are just sent to try us! Trying really hard to get back into training, probably need a race to focus on. Nothing arranged yet - still not sent the Helsby form off.

New York Marathon

A peaceful afternoon today watching the New York Marathon. Well done to Paula for winning again after such a long lay-off, but I have to say that I didn't find this marathon course very inspiring. I didn't watch the race and think I'd like to run there.

But started looking around at other Spring marathons. Blackpool & Shakespeare are both on the same day. Blackpool I can drive to the morning of the race, but the reviews describe it as quite boring in places. It's a 2 lap race. Plus a cup of water every 3 miles doesn't seem much.

Shakespeare would need a hotel the night before and is "undulating".

Plenty of time to decide, I suppose. And if one fills then the decision is made!