Day One

During our holiday last week, Lindsay (both wife and coach) came up with our marathon training schedules for the next 3 months, before the New York Marathon. (For the story about how we ended up in the New York marathon in the first place, see Lindsay's blog.

"Do you think you can run 16 miles at 8-minute mile pace at the moment?", she asked. Well, there were only 2 problems with that question - firstly, I don't think I've run that far since the last time I did a marathon about 16 months ago, and secondly I rarely have any idea about what pace I'm running, unless I've got mile markers to help me.

"What happens if I say no?" I asked.

"Well, then your marathon training schedule needs to start 2 weeks ago."

So, back from holiday, I thought I'd better get going. Luckily Northy had already arranged the usual Sunday run from the club, and the forum told me that Kevin Ferry (back on a flying visit from Oz) and Tash (hopfully also doing New York) were going to be there too. Stewart Bryant and Richard Thackeray made up our complete set, and we set off in the sunshine towards Weston. After half an hour we were subjected to a heavy downpour, which was actually quite refreshing, then the sun came out for the rest of our run. We had to extend the route a couple of times to get the whole distance in (even for those of us not training for a marathon - which was unnecessarily keen for some of them), but I was pleased to get all the way round without too much trouble.

Good job there was a Grand Prix on in the afternoon, though. I wasn't fit for anything more than sitting on the sofa with my feet up. 13 weeks to go...