As if life isn't hard enough, I've only gone and got myself a place in the London Marathon next April! It would appear I'm one of the lucky 1 in 5 who have secured a ballot place for the gruelling 26.3m 'race'. The news could not have been more of a surprise and I don't think I gave it a second thought since I rather half-heartedly applied all those months back, expecting nothing in the process.
At the moment I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. There's no doubting it's something I've always wanted to do and as I'm 40 next July it would be a really memorable year to take part, but I feel a genuine sense of guilt that I'm a tad underwhelmed about the whole thing at present, especially whilst a couple of my friends who were desperate to take part are gutted to have been rejected. This could take a few days to sink in...
I'm not fazed by the time-consuming training regime I will need to undertake (and that's not saying I think it will be anything other than very hard work, by the way) as I'm no stranger to running. I started doing regular jogs to get in shape for my wedding over 10 years ago and like Forest Gump I've not stopped. I do around 16 miles a week and run 4.2m in around 31 mins which is a pace I'm more than happy with. I love running. It's always been a great time for me to grab a small piece of solitude and think things through. I will train alone for the marathon as I've always run alone. My MP3 player will be my only companion: there is nothing better than falling deep inside the music whilst pounding the streets in all weathers.
There's so many things to consider, not least of all what charity I will run for. Of course, by getting a place via the ballot I can chose things like this rather than 'buying' a place for a charity that no matter it's worthiness, may not be dear to my heart.
Over the next 7 months I will use this blog to occasionally update my marathon preparations as, purely from a selfish point of view, its the closest thing I have to a diary and it will be good to look back on in years to come.
One things for sure, I'm already looking forward to the prospect of running past The valley!
Exactly why my Blog is a ramble of wide ranging subjects. It is my diary too.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on getting into the London Marathon. There are many runners amongst us Addick Bloggers, me not being one, especially when there are taxi's!!