Jog On...

The past 13 weeks have been leading up to this race, I had learnt a lot from Brighton and I wanted to put in practise what I had changed from April. I was really looking forward to this this race.. Until 3 days previous I got hit with a stomach virus (and to save on details) I was sat on the white porcelain phone for most of the 72 hours pre race. Not a great start to my race day weekend, I drank lots of water to keep hydrated and went through my pre-race meals, along with some imodium to help me out, I woke up 05:00 Sunday morning as my wife was running the half marathon so it was an early start for me as my race didn't start till 10:00. I lied in bed, and nearly said I'm staying here, but I thought people run marathons with serious illnesses and I'm complaining about a stomach bug, man up and get out of bed and get into your running clothes.   We jumped in the car, an hours drive and we were soon parked up and walking to the start line, I waiting with my...

Well that's it I've done my training train, the past 12 weeks has finished... Was it hard, was it easy, was it long enough, was it focused in the right areas...? I ran Brighton Marathon in April, it was my 1st marathon "only" race, (I did Long Course weekend which was the Wales Marathon)  and I learned a lot from the day. The biggest lesson I learned is that it hurt, I wasn't conditioned enough for the race after 14 miles so the last 12 miles hurt... a lot! I could go out an run 8/10/12/14 miles with no issues and often my shortest runs would be in the 8-12 mile space. I needed to plan my time better, as this was the main reason I didn't get over the 14 mile marker as I had other commitments to the family, work etc, so when I entered my next marathon I knew I had to get the planning sorted. I did enter the Wales marathon but due to a family emergency 4 weeks out I knew I wouldn't get to the start line, so I took my foot off the gas and eased up on ...

The day arrived after 18 weeks of "sort of" committed training since Christmas week I was race ready, I could have been in better shape but its been a long 18 weeks, and by the end of the race I could tell I could have done that little bit more. We (me and my wife) arrived in Brighton on the Saturday, collected our race packs, did a little bit of shopping in the expo and ended getting my name printed on my shirt, if I ever needed support it was going to be at mile 16+... so I got this done.. I didn't want to hang around to long on my feet on Saturday so did the social "hellos and hows sales going" with my mates at Runbreeze & 2XU and then off to check in at the Premier Inn in Crawley. (which was about 25 minutes away) I decided to get out of the hussle and bussle of 16000 athletes and not have to worry about parking fees and queueing all night for a restaurant table. It also was far cheaper than staying in Brighton too. I slept great for...