for Keech Children's Hospice and Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Amulance
Well it’s not a pretty sight, but i paid through the nose for these so may as well share them!
I must add these photos are all from the last stage of the marathon where I was in a LOT of pain, hence the constant grimace! (Mark was more sensible and remembered to smile despite himself!)
Posted in Our Sponsors.
– May 7, 2010
Well it has been a week and I think that the euphoria of finishing the marathon has finally now fallen away. The same could be said about my toe nails as two have now dropped off with another possibly to follow!
Aside from that I have to back up what mark said about looking forward to when I can enter the next one as the whole thing has been awe inspiring.
The next thing we have is an evening function with our fellow keech runners. We have reached most of our target but need to finish off getting the last amount and begin collecting it. I’m sure we will swap stories of the day and how great it was (see the picture of my boy ash taking in the sights of London)
– May 3, 2010
Well what can I say , what an amazing day Sunday was? Unfortunately for James and I we where both on different starts, James starting from the red start and me from the blue start. The day started off a bit bad, even after leaving the hotel at 730am, I didnt actually arrive at the start until 925, so a brisk walk up the hill from Blackheath station to the start the heavens opened and i got soaking wet. Then I discovered that I had forgot to put a change of clothes in for the finish! DOH!!! But anyway, I got on at the start and then was the amazing journey to the finish!
My race went well at first, getting to half way at 2:02 , and only a couple of minutes outside the time I wanted but I knew I could make that up, but then at 15 miles an injury I had suffered a few weeks previous decided to rear its ugly head which slowed my pace right down for the next 3-4 miles, only the supporters in London keeping me going. I was in a lot of discomfort so walked for a little while and then ran and walked for the next couple of miles but I was determined to run the last mile , which with the help of the crowds I did.
The sight of the finish line, fills you with an amazing ecstacy and emotion that is hard to explain to anyone unless they have experienced ‘London’. I crossed the line in 4hr 47 min 47 sec with tears in my eyes, it was well out of the time I wanted, but despite my injury I had managed to finish and was still standing.
Whilst making my way from the finish to the Keech charity, I passed James who had finished a lot earlier than me in an amazing time of 3 Hrs 52 minutes.
At 18 Miles, I said I would never put my body through a marathon again, i even repeated this to myself and anyone who would listen at the finish, but then when the pain had settled and I had time to reflect on what an amazing day it had been, my next thought was ‘ so when does the entry for 2011 open?’
May I now be selfish and raise a glass to James and I and say well done, and to all the other 36000 amazing people running on Sunday, well done!
Mark
Posted in Our Sponsors.
– April 30, 2010
Well the day is almost upon us now, with less than 4 days to go I had a long trip to London yesterday to collect both James and my numbers from the London Marathon Exhibition in Docklands. It was a long trip with signal failures and what not, but the exhibition was enjoyable and I spent more money!
With only days to go we are both on a taper down, and just running the odd couple of miles just to keep the legs moving and now I am concentrating on my diet and making sure I have been eating plenty of carbs during the week.
So nearly there now, and with the hottest day of the year so far coming on Sunday it should be a nice day
Posted in Running.
– April 22, 2010
Well its only 11 days to go, as I looked at the calendar this morning and thought ‘bloody hell’ its only next week,and we will be pounding the roads in the exhalted company of ‘Princess Beatrice’, Gordon Ramsay, Dick n Dom, Eddie Jordan and the Apprentice’s James McQuillan ( I think I remember who he was!) and numerous other minor celebrities. If you want to know all the celebs running have a look here (http://static.london-marathon.co.uk/downloads/pdf/celebs2010.pdf)
Anyway back to us, as we are more important I think training has been going well for myself and James and apart from the odd ‘niggle’ . I think we are both looking in good(ish!) shape for next weekend, and now into the taper down of our training, we are still getting the miles in but not quite so many high miles.
I think sponsorship has gone well and now in the final push, so please if you haven’t sponsored us please do it, we are running for 2 very special charities (www.keech.org.uk * www.wnaa.co.uk) who do great work between them.
Posted in Running.
– April 14, 2010
I write this entry with only 3 more weeks to go, and it has to be said that my judgement of just how well I will do on this marathon is based mostly on guess work. I say that because a combination of things, including work, family, injury and plain tiredness, has meant I have not trained as well or as often as I would have liked.
So, just how well will I do? Will I finish the marathon? Oh yes I have no worries about that. Will I finish in a respectful time? Well I don’t expect to be waking the final leg with the runners dressed as cows or the ones running the marathon backwards. Will I run it in around 4 hours? Well I do hope so, but this is probably the best I will do I think. I had hoped to come in at around 3 hours 40 minutes. But while my middle distance running seems to be quite good and I clock in some respectful times, I find that pure distance takes its toll on my body, and an unexpected backache or calf strain or something like that could scupper my chances of a good time.
My fund raising is going well, and aside from standing in front of our IT department like a lemon while our communications officer told them about my efforts, my fundraising has been quite relaxed. As the next few weeks roll up however, I’ll do what it takes to reach my targets and get in as much money for Keech.
Posted in Charity.
– April 6, 2010
Well, we are only now 25 days to go until race day. I would like to say thank you to everyone who has sponsored us so far but we still want more, please please sponsor us. They are both very worthwhile charities, and they would both really appreciate the money very much!
Well on to our training, we are both now in the full swing of the heavy training and completing a 16 mile run on Saturday, but personally I have taken a few days off training as I have been away, but now back into training again. This weekend will see our biggest and final big run before 25th April, and we are hoping to get a 20 miler in this weekend. Then the training should taper down again.
Again, thank you to everyone who has sponsored us so far but please if you haven’t, please sponsor us every penny counts
Mark
– March 31, 2010
‘Why am I so tired?’ The question I keep asking myself every day, before I remember that I am training for a bloody marathon.
It is tiring, now at that stage of the training schedule that means there are more miles each week and longer runs each week. That training was going reasonably well until the weekend and then 6 mile into a long Sunday morning run, I felt that thing that most runners dread! Oh, is that my Hamstring that’s feeling a bit tight !!! so, stopped in my tracks and one phone call later for my girlfriend to come and pick me up ( well I didn’t want to damage it anymore) and then spending the afternoon sat on an ice pack, watching TV. Luckily, after an ice pack and a day off I was back running again.
Myself and James’s running schedules do not seem to be meeting a lot lately due to both our family and work commitments, but we are trying to get a run or 2 in together each week and hopefully that will help on the big day!
Just over 4 weeks to go, what was I thinking entering this silly run!
Mark
Posted in Our Sponsors.
– March 24, 2010
Well we are now half way through March and just over 5 weeks until the big day. The good thing now is the weather appears to be changing and for the first time this year, I was able to train in a short sleeved top yesterday. The training is going well, apart from the little niggles you get from different training surfaces and so much running.
Now that we both appear to have got over most of our injury problems, myself and James where finally able to get a big run together under our belts. We both did 2 circuits of Pitsford Reservoir on Saturday, which was about 13-14 miles, the run was fine up until the last mile or so, when the usual niggles started. The weather started off well, but then was overcast and bloody windy which I dont think helped. All in all , training was good and the time was okay.
Mark
Posted in Our Sponsors.
– March 16, 2010
Has James has already mentioned, I ran the Milton Keynes Half Marathon on Sunday 7th March. I was very pleased with my time of 1:47:48, which is the best time I ran a Half Marathon for 18 years 
. The race conditions where perfect, the sun was shining, no wind and it wasnt too hot so all was good.
Now the training starts getting a bit more serious over the next 6 weeks, with 17 and 20 mile runs to come over the coming weekends, I hope our bodies can stand up to this punishment
Mark
Posted in Running.
– March 9, 2010
TP Marathon 2010
Here you can see a graphical view of all of James' training activities as logged by his iPhone and Runkeeper
Air Ambulance
Keech Childrens Hospice