The forum comes and goes. Just
recently there’s been a buzz around the place. After a few lean months,
several of us are now gearing up for races and/or midway through a
marathon campaign.
By contrast, one of our most loyal parishioners, Seafront Plodder,
has just renounced marathons. Understandable. As I said in my
reply, it’s all about motivation. When that sense of marathon wonder
seeps away, the motivation soon follows it, and when that’s gone, it
becomes a very tough obstacle. Well, it becomes an obstacle, full-stop.
It should be an aspiration, the golden temple at the end of the long
journey. When it ceases to be that, you’ve had it.
Shorter race distances are different. As long as you keep yourself
moderately roadworthy, perhaps by chalking up 2 or 3 runs a week, then
you can wake up on a Sunday morning and decide to do the local 10K. If
you’re doing occasional longer weekend runs of 7, 8, 10 miles, then you
can comfortably turn up at a half marathon on a whim. But unless you’re
a 9 stone, 60+ mile-a-week fitness nut, you can never do a spontaneous
marathon. They have to be planned. Time must be allotted, momentum
built, diet planned, and most of all perhaps, you have to ‘get your
head right’. Without that, you’ve no hope.
I’ve got Zurich coming up on April 9, and things are bubbling away
nicely. I’ve never completed a marathon in less than 5 hours, and
Zurich has a 5 our cut-off. If I haven’t reached the 10K, 20K, 30K
points in a certain time, I’ll be escorted from the course. No medal,
no teeshirt. Erased from the records. If I pass the 30K test but fail
to finish in 5 hours, the same humiliation awaits. I chose the race for
this very reason. It’s time to live dangerously.
It focusses the mind alright.
I reckon weight is the shortest short-cut to faster running. If I could
lose 25 pounds, I’d make life very much easier for myself. Since making
that calculation, 4 weeks ago, I’ve got rid of about 8 of them, and
feel much better for it. The last couple of runs I’ve felt a bit more
streamlined. Last night, I joined up with the local club again. I came
in last, as usual, but I could at least see the 2nd and 3rd slowest
this time. Five sub-10 minute miles. That’s good by my wretched
standards.
Today I took a day off work to sort out my tax return. If I’ve not
returned it by the end of this month, I’ll be dismembered.
I didn’t do it of course, but I did sort of visualise it as I plodded
along the canal for 7 beautifully sunlit miles. Legs felt a bit heavy
after last night’s exertions, so at least I can console myself that it
was a taxing run.
Not a totally wasted day then.
