August 2013

[El Gordo]

I've entered as a walker, with my main target to "beat the Bishop" as it were. By which of course, I mean to improve on the time of that substantial athlete, SP.

MLCMM reckons the great man puffed his way to the top in around 3:40.

I sincerely hope you do beat my time EG, although it appears you'll be cheating by actually training for it.

Of course if you are successful, we will have to find another race to do together so honour can be properly restored.

Yo, SP. Thanks for taking the bait. Hope all is well.

Well, if I could just get to a start line it would be something. I won;t deny that I've dabbled in something you might call "training", but it's not going well. I went out for a fairly strenuous hour's walk last night, just around the town, and now I have a swollen foot too painful to walk on. Lawd knows why, but it's all very annoying. Maybe my physiology is trying to tell me something. Perhaps weekend hiking really is my niche.

I'll persist for a bit and see what happens. I was bragging to MLCMM that I secretly hoped to do the Berlin Marathon in a few weeks as a run-walker but I can't see that happening if I can't even walk for an hour without being crippled.

Best longer term hope is probably more blubber burnt off. I've shed about 20 lbs over the past couple of months which is a start but perhaps if I got it down another 20, well past the point where I've always failed, something miraculous might occur. Perhaps I have to meet my body halfway.

But anyway, in principle I would be delighted to accept your challenge. The Brighton 10K is on the same day as the P2P unfortunately. The annual Hyde Park 10K on New Year's Day would be a good one to aim for but I suspect you'd not be keen to have an early night on New Year's Eve.

We will have to come up with something. Hurrah!

[@sweder -- apologies for hijacking your thread.]