Chapter 4: It Begins

I’m not sure whether I had the clichéd mid life crisis but apart from succeeding as a father, husband and working man I decided I needed another couple of goals to spice things up.

I found out recently that there is a funny phrase that sums up mid-life obsessions.
Supposedly ALL males of a certain age fall into one of 4 “M”’s:
• Motor cars
• Motor cycles
• Mistresses
• Marathons

I would also add cycling to this list but I guess it doesn’t work with 4 M’s and 1 C.

I decided in Autumn 2009 that I wanted to do a number of things before I was 40.
1) Play guitar in front of friends
2) Run a marathon

I am unsure as to why the notion of a marathon appealed to me but it did and I signed up to run for British Heart Foundation.

My inaugural run was on 9th August 2009. A 9:30/mile 2.5 mile run. But it was a start!

As I went through training I was enjoying my iPhone app to record my progress with Nike+. It helped me analyse my performance and I could see that training was paying dividends. I could run faster and for longer.

In November I was sporting a moustache as part of “Movember” (funny as I worked for 118118!) as well as my running attire purchased in New York 2 years prior to this but with little use in the intervening years.

Training was slow and whilst I read about training plans and the notion of tapering I did not (and still do not) follow a regimented plan.

Training for a marathon is quite time-consuming but not overly so. The hard stuff comes when you are running in the freezing cold, driving rain and wind day after day. Oh and the fact that for at least 4 weeks you are racking up over 40 miles a week (or at least that is what you should be doing as part of your training plan!).

I was also experiencing pain..I had never experienced pain anywhere before when doing exercise and this was strange. I was getting shin splints that were making it painful to walk, let alone run… things were looking bleak! It was February, 2 months before London Marathon.

On advice of work colleagues, I saw a specialist at Pure Sports Medicine in London’s Threadneedle Street (Dr Amanda Lau) and she looked at my gait, posture etc.. and recommended that I got custom made carbon fibre orthotics (insoles).

It worked and I stepped up my training.  This was fortunate as the shin splints had forced me to drop down my mileage. By the end of February I was only at 11 miles maximum. By end March I was only up to 13.5 miles and it was not until the week before the marathon that I ran 20 miles in 3 hours dead (8:56 per mile).

I think that it is safe to say that I was not applying myself properly. The absence of following any semblance of a training plan and sporadic running was to make my first marathon a deeply unpleasant affair.