Runningmachine

I started competitive running in May 2005. In 2006 I was pleased with my time of 3:38 for my first marathon. I ran London for Help the Hospices. In 2007 I ran Rotterdam, desperate to achieve 3:15 to secure a Good for Age place for London. It was very hot and I ran the final 14 k with cramp finishing in 3:52. Undaunted, I tried again in Berlin the same year. After a congested start I got a negative split and 3:28 in a fantastic race.
I won a Club place for London in 2008 and was ecstatic with 3:22, despite getting cramp in the final few miles. In the 1st 5 months of 2008 I got pbs at 5 miles (and an Athleticsdata Standard), 10k (1st M55 at Whitstable) and half marathon. In September 2008 at the start of training for the Hastings Marathon I got a 5k pb. I did not enjoy the centenary Hastings Marathon and was lucky to finish in 3:45. I ran Rotterdam 2009 after failing to get a place in London, but my training was interupted in February by an operation. I was pleased with my 3:40 result 8 weeks later. Delighted to get a club place in the first VLM. Now that 2009 is behind me I am starting to get better results again with 2nd best ever times at 10k, 10 miles and 20 miles...except at the VLM where I had cramp after 15 miles after being unwell for 3 weeks. Beachy Head was fantastic. All I wanted out of it was to enjoy it. I got 4:11 and afterwards thought I should have done better. Psychology and confidence is the key.The 2011 Brighton Marathon did not go well. I could not sustain the pace I started with in the hot conditions under full sun and finished in 3:43:20. Beachy Head was hard this year but I was surprised not to improve on last year's time. I kept going and finished in 4:17:03. Afterwards my muscles hurt more than ever before and I got a calf strain at the Brighton 10k which laid me off for several weeks.
2012 was not a good year. It started with an attempt to return to become competitive again, interupted by a heavy cold in and antibiotics in January. Training for the London Marathon was hard and it was only April when I scraped under 1:40 at the Paddock Wood Half. London was difficult and 3:51:25 was all I was able to achieve. Just before I started training for Beachy Head Marathon, I injured my Achilles doing extravagant dance moves, which laid me up form several weeks. I ran 400m of the mid Kent 5 Miler before pulling up and decided not to go to the start line of the Newick 10k. Marathon training was minimal with a few rather slow 10ks and a very slow Half at Barns Green, the Lewes 10 and Jog Shop 20. I was quite pleased to go sub 4:30 at Beachy Head.
In 2013 I have a place in the Brighton Marathon. and my times are a bit quicker than last year. My podiatrist, Ian Lenehan says I need to be very careful of my right Achilles and calf muscle and has prescribed new carbon fibre orthotics! Hopefully they will arrive in time for Paddock Wood Half in April. The outward turning of my right foot means I am running inefficiently and using more energy than I should - which would help to explain my tiredness. In 2014 I had a place in the Brighton Marathon, but then won a club place in London, soi I decided to do both, treating Brighton as a training run for London, putting myself down in the pack at the start and plodding along at a slow pace for about 5 kms. The inevitable happened, I got 3:40.04 and a gfa place on London for the following 2 years. I started London a week later too fast and was unable to match my Brighton time. The same happened in 2015. I don't train as much these days and my times have dropped off, compounded by a non-running injury in October 2015. 2016 is my last gfa place in London so I will try to be better prepared and have a slow start.......Well, if I make it, that is! On 23 February 2016 I kept on falling while skiing in fresh snow in Val d'Isere. No problems on the first 2 occasions - just picked myself up, brushed off and carried on. I was in Level 4 ski school and nearly 2.5 hours into the session the instructor started taking us down an infamous black run - Le Face. The fresh snow was heaped up in mounds and, apparently, one of my skis when into one of these on a very steep part of the run. I fell over again, but as I fell felt the calf in my downhill leg go. As I slid a short way down the mountain it went again. The instructor cajoled me onto my skis and down to the bottom of the next lift up so I could come down in the gondola from the top, but that was the end of my skiing for that holiday. I have since missed out on the Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings and Paddock Wood Half Marathons, and Folkestone 10 mile and Lydd 20 mile races. I managed to finish the Ashford Half 15 minutes slower than 2015 but retired from the Goudhurst 10k and have deferred my London Marathon place until 2017.