“It’s much more important than that”
3:41pm, 24th Dec 2024 | 9 Comments
Blog by SailorSteve
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Bill Shankly was talking about football. It applies to running too.
I am almost 64 years old. For most of the past 10 years I’ve been running roughly five times per week and averaging around 30-35 miles every seven days. I rarely wear a watch and it’s thanks to Fetch and its route-building feature that I know that I’ve covered approximately twenty thousand miles in this period.
I was running regularly for the 10 years before that. If I was only covering 50% of the distance of my “marathon years” I guess it’s reasonable to assume I’ve got at least 30,000 miles of running in my legs.
As a kid I was a decent footballer and as a teenager I played wicket-keeper for my village teams on Saturdays and Sundays.
My achilles tendons are shot.
Some days I can’t imagine ever running again. I understand the relationship between rest, repair and recovery.
I ran my first marathon in Prague in 2015, in 3:27 high. Since then I’ve run 18 more and generally find myself working hard to achieve roughly 3:24ish, plus or minus 5 minutes. On a couple of rare occasions, when everything came “right” in training and on raceday, I’ve managed 3:12. Twice I’ve carried injuries to 3:30+
And here I am on Christmas Eve 2024 contemplating marathon #20.
I’ve never faced a harder running challenge.
I’m injured. I’ve had two consecutive, awful, Christmases. Close family illnesses. Bereavement. Mental health struggles. Others have had worse and more. But this is literally a life/death moment. Last night my wife and I were discussing not being around anymore. We’re in this together. Without making things even more black, I simply have to run. The strength that I get from running has kept us alive before.
I have three goals:
Get to the startline.
London GFA.
Beat my running club buddy.
I won’t burden the sub3:30 thread with this malarkey, but posting it here is a declaration of intent.
I am almost 64 years old. For most of the past 10 years I’ve been running roughly five times per week and averaging around 30-35 miles every seven days. I rarely wear a watch and it’s thanks to Fetch and its route-building feature that I know that I’ve covered approximately twenty thousand miles in this period.
I was running regularly for the 10 years before that. If I was only covering 50% of the distance of my “marathon years” I guess it’s reasonable to assume I’ve got at least 30,000 miles of running in my legs.
As a kid I was a decent footballer and as a teenager I played wicket-keeper for my village teams on Saturdays and Sundays.
My achilles tendons are shot.
Some days I can’t imagine ever running again. I understand the relationship between rest, repair and recovery.
I ran my first marathon in Prague in 2015, in 3:27 high. Since then I’ve run 18 more and generally find myself working hard to achieve roughly 3:24ish, plus or minus 5 minutes. On a couple of rare occasions, when everything came “right” in training and on raceday, I’ve managed 3:12. Twice I’ve carried injuries to 3:30+
And here I am on Christmas Eve 2024 contemplating marathon #20.
I’ve never faced a harder running challenge.
I’m injured. I’ve had two consecutive, awful, Christmases. Close family illnesses. Bereavement. Mental health struggles. Others have had worse and more. But this is literally a life/death moment. Last night my wife and I were discussing not being around anymore. We’re in this together. Without making things even more black, I simply have to run. The strength that I get from running has kept us alive before.
I have three goals:
Get to the startline.
London GFA.
Beat my running club buddy.
I won’t burden the sub3:30 thread with this malarkey, but posting it here is a declaration of intent.
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