Flm 2005

[Sweder]

You must be feeling the usual mixture of relief, glee and sadness today.

As astute as ever, my friend.
I hadn't reckoned on 'Post-Marathon Blues', but they're real enough.

I got back to Brighton last night in time to join my Sunday training partners in the Fortune of War on the seafront. 6 of us had completed London, another 12 Paris the week before. Dress code was finishers shirts and medals, and the banter was frenzied and excellent. Paris sounds like a 'must do' - it's easy to get in, they have very stylish medals (if that floats your boat) and the circuit sounds delightful.

Today was odd, really. Lots of great messages including several here, yet there's this impending void that is not having a Marathon on the horizon. Happily I've entered the Seaford Half on 5th June, a lovely hilly offroad experience to warm the cockles, and I made a commitment to Sam Lambourne last night to enter the Jog Shop Jog in October (I reckon that's as good as a Marathon anyway).

As an aside I learned Sam's Marathon PB last night. I'd heard rumours that he was pretty tasty in his time, but he's always modestly avoided discussing his running history. There are those in our camp that question his methods, especially the punishing long cross country runs. They favour shorter, faster, flatter runs to improve times. They might be right.
Happily a little Guinness loosened his tongue before I left.

2:18. Not too shabby, not too shabby at all.