This years London Marathon was inspiring yet again, so when the new site went live at midnight on April 26th I just had to enter the ballot for next years race. I have to wait till early October to find out if I was successful, meanwhile the training has begun, 8 weeks ago actually. I had planned to run the 2009 race but I allowed stress at work to affect my training. A quick blog about it here.

I’ll keep my projected finishing time for the marathon to myself for a while. I’ll just say it is ambitious but do-able.

I’ve penciled in a few races on the way with the intention of equaling and beating all the running PBs that I set 18+ years ago before fatherhood kept me busy.
MY RUNNING PBs
3 Miles ——- 19 mins
4 Miles ——- 26 mins
5 Miles ——- 33 mins
6 Miles ——- 40 mins
7 Miles ——- 48 mins
8 Miles ——- 55 mins
9 Miles ——- 63 mins
10 Miles —— 70 mins
13 Miles —— 93 mins
Most miles run in a week ——- 40 miles
Most miles run in a month ——- 124 miles

My 2009 Races And Target Times
1st September — Gallovidian 10k — sub 40 mins
27th September — Dumfries Half Marathon — sub 90 mins
25th October — Cumbrian Run (Half M.) — sub 88 mins

I’ll reveal my training schedule in another blog post, wish me luck.

It was one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. It’s also something no-one will ever take from me, and well worth the effort.

So how did i do it? In a word ‘Dedication’, I saw an add for a Kung fu class, and decided there and then to devote myself to it for the next few years. I didn’t know what to expect in that first lesson but before I even went in the door I’d made my mind up “they would have to kick me out, cause I wasn’t quitting”.

There really are no shortcuts, it’s all about doing the training. The Black grading was in front of Master Yau, instructions were in Chinese. At one point my mouth went very dry and I felt an ‘out of body’ sensation  like I was above looking down at myself. I performed all techniques and combinations asked, fought 2 other guys, did stick defense, knife defense using a real knife, and punched through 2 x one inch boards sandwiched together, (one guy before me dislocated a finger attempting this). My tip for this is do more knuckle press ups to toughen the skin. As you can see below I bleed for my art.