Inspired

The great thing about running is that you are inspired by the people around you; those who you know well and the stories of others who have run - their efforts give you momentum to achieve too. Today was London Marathon day, the biggest of them all. So I sat down and watched the day unfold on TV and on the internet and what a day it turned out to be!

The story of Jane Tomlinson is one that has always stayed with me; she had terminal cancer and spent the last years of her life raising huge amounts of money by running marathons, triathalons and the like. Her determination to succeed was amazing and when the TV showed library pictures of her in tears in awe of the support she was getting whilst running the London marathon brought a lump to my throat. So off I went and did an 8 mile run - the furthest I have run for a long time; it wasn't a good time at all, but it's the distance that matters at the moment. My total mileage each week is now increasingly nicely - up to 17 miles now and split across 4 days per week. Friday's session was a hilly 5k run - it is a challenging one (a killer in fact) that I have always felt has benefited my running the most. I'll be doing this run once a week from now on and use Sunday as my long run - 8 miles today is progress from my 10k last week and it will be good to be able to do 10 miles + again soon.

Back at the London Marathon, I arrived home from my run in time to see the elite women's finish - I was looking out for Liz Yelling, friend of Brueton parkrun and VIP guest at Brueton parkrun PLUS in June 2011. Her comeback from injury 12 months ago in attempt to make the Olympics didn't quite happen today - but the way she was in the final stages of the Marathon waving and smiling shows her underlying character. When I had the privilege to have a night out with her and some others from Brueton parkrun last June, her message was clear, it's about enjoying running more than anything else. Respect to you Liz, I was so impressed by how passionate she is about parkrun and how important she believed parkrun is to running and the health of the nation - certainly puts the Brueton parkrun critics to shame.

A fantastic feature of the London Marathon is that runners progress can be tracked online with 5km split times. So the next few hours were spent watching progress of a group of people I know from parkrun and most of all Eric Robathan who was running his first marathon and I have been following his training progress all the way through. It's down to Eric to give the full story of his experience, but the excitement, anguish and final sheer joy whilst I tracked Eric certainly made for a rollercoaster experience, even though I was 100 miles away. Eric, to pull it back like you did in the final stages of the run to post a time under 4 hours is awesome. And all that after falling over 9 miles into the run. I found the whole experience of following Eric and the others truly inspirational. Even though these runners are far better than I am or ever will be, they made me feel that my own marathon can be achieved if I do put the work in and play it right on the day....

Which comes to the most important lesson of the day for me - pacing. Eric had a pace in his mind to follow and that's what I need to do; to find my marathon race pace and learn how to run at that pace too. Browsing through the split times of some London Marathon runners, I could see clearly how they went off too fast and exploded on the way round - that 20 mile wall that you hear of I suppose. Yet I saw others who kept it steady all the way and posted some great times. One person, who's name I forget ran around 11 minute mile pace all the way and although at half way may have appeared slow to some came through to post a time around 4 hours 50. My aim for Chester is simply to get round, yes and on the day anything can happen. But I need to have something to work against in training and on the day too, otherwise I could have a great first half only turn to disappointment by the end. In my mind, I always seem to settle on the figure of 5 hours, well 4:59:59 really. I don't know if I can achieve it - only the next 5 months can give me some indication on that. I did read somewhere that if you can do a half marathon in 2:15, you can do a 5 hour marathon. Well, my half marathon time is 2:14, so could it be possible? For now, I have to say yes and believe that I can and will do it. Thanks Eric.