The futures bright

I was recently back in my local Italian with a few blokes from work.  We were getting stuck into the Peroni when I left them briefly, to their tales of mid-divorce spats and impure thoughts towards the Sardinian waitress, in favour of the gents.  I bounded up the stairs two at a time, to what has become a place for contemplation, reflection and a progress check on training. 

The place is Fluffs Urinal.  It is an appropriate place, given that we will be in my local italian after the race, and toilets were a place that Ian spent a good deal of time.

The training had been going really well and it was a joy to pull on a medium size shirt for the evening, a joy that was quickly and brutely removed as, standing at Fluffs Urinal I looked left toward the mirror and saw me,  a fat bloke, in an ill fitting shirt!  I laughed out loud.  It was a very Fluff moment.  It showed me just how far I still have to go.

I returned to the divorcees to find said Sardinian sporting a bovine stare which was the result of some misplaced comment from my colleagues.

I have just agreed to go on a 10k run on May 19th  with another bloke from work who is doing the run.  I need a deadline to get me to keep increasing the distance. 

I like to think of running in terms of 'range' rather than distance.  Being a pilot, range means to me, the maximum distance/time you can go on a quantity of fuel.  After that point it all goes quiet, and you can't progress any further in any particularly controlled way, (spectacular nonetheless) you are guaranteed to end up on the floor and Stelios would get the hump.  It's much the same as me and my running. Stelios doesnt know about my running, but thinking about it I might be able to tap him for a few quid given that he is of nautical descent and we are donating money to the RNLI, and their boats are the same colour as his planes.

My max range was 200 yards but now I am upto 7.5k, and the future seems bright.

It was bound to happen eventually...

Sunday morning managed my normal run. Everything nice and comfortable and feeling good.
Monday morning sore throat, bunged up nose, dodgy guts. Fingers crossed but am expecting to miss training a bit. Two steps forward, one back eh?

Bad Week Blues

Its me again the large runner!
I have had a nightmare of a week, after a very succesfull couple of runs last week i thought things were on the up.....................however after popping a disc on Tuesday that's the end of that again. Can anyone help, spare peice of rope or sharp knife!!!! I feel delfated, keep your comments to yourself about big people etc etc.

Love as alwaysUncle Rab

Beer

Have drank some. No ipod, ears silly shape. Will run Thursday as on stike, empire strike thing. Has anyone got a dislike of (brand)+? (aprt from Russell). Will challenge anyone to a race at Girlies wedding. As long as it's to the bar!

Did 2.67 miles in 18 mins, not quick, not slow.

Music and running

It's a funny thing music, the last couple of posts have talked about the use or non use of the generic MP3 type player while running. For me, I wouldn't run without it! Music is a huge part of my life one way or the other, picks me up when I am down and songs are markers in my life.
The comment was made today in the office; 'how can you listen to that whining noise while you are trying to work?' You know the guitar solo in Seven nation army?? Well he walked in at that point; 'how can you sit there in silence; it sucks the soul!' and I think that's the point. It's always there in the back ground; music helps the creative part of me in the office; it helps me relax when I'm running; it's helped define the huge moments in my life (good and bad)!!

Ian has been in my thoughts so much the last few weeks and it was on a run last week that my thoughts turned to music. It was only then did it hit me that I associate music to parts of my life; dancing to 'the key the secret' with Mr. H drinking Labetts in madison's; Dancing with Mrs E to 'With or Without you' at Ian & Donna's Wedding; Looking up at Ian at Hyde park during Everlong; standing next to Si when the drummer boy started in wembley; Hearing Ice, Ice Baby for the first time; you get the idea.

The other thing here are the lyrics. As I am running, I find that I hear things that I haven't heard before. Sorry Si, but Coldplay's Fix you for the line 'Lights will guide you home' had me blubbing like a little girl whilst running last Friday night.

So ultimately, i am a big fan of running with music; it cleanses the soul as far as i can make out. Right, what's next on the playlist??

For once I agree with my brother...

Sorry Chris, Russ, but I'm with Simon on this one. I used to run with my iPod, but coming back to it again now I find I struggle to keep a steady pace when I listen to music - I end up running to the beat and it totally messes me up. I find it much more enjoyable now just to tune everything out when I'm running and enjoy the view of the beach... plus I can hear when my breathing goes to pot and I need to slow down a bit!

I went for a run along the sea front back home this weekend and it nearly killed me - its not the distance, its the repetition, I've decided. This was the third time I went out for a 3 miler in a week (which I'm quite chuffed about, considering my poor effort the week before) and my shins were really complaining... I'm hoping it isn't shin splints and its just another set of niggles to get through as my legs get used to this running lark.

Random question - has anyone worked out how to stretch the muscle that runs down the front of the shins yet?

T'isn't nobler in the mind to suffer hills and valleys in silence.

Christina, you are not alone. My iPod and more recently my Nike+ plugin thing have managed to drag my sorry ass onwards more than once. Just like the decision to run or walk it comes down to personal choice and comfort. Rhythm may be a dancer but phat tunes and trance anthems are runners! You can even drop in a high tempo special at the point you know you might start to struggle (after about two minutes in usually does it for me). I wonder what the experienced runners in our group think....

Managed 7.5 cold, grey, rain-assisted kilometres today in 44 minutes and I couldn't have done it without my little Nano.

On a bum note I read that some marathon courses are banning music devices in future events.... humbugs.

To ipod or not to ipod - that is the question

Things are slowly starting to improve. Today I ran our 5k course in Veyrier (with hills and everything!) in 39 minutes. Obviously I would like to be able to run it quicker, but bearing in mind the disaters of last week, I'm going to cling on to all the small victories that I can. Running the entire half marathon seems impossible at the moment, so I'm trying to break my training down into "manageable bite sized chunks".

I started running with my ipod last week. I have found the runs much more bearable with the help of said ipod and disc three of The very best of euphoric dance breakdown - a CD that I would never listen to at home or in the car, but really motivates me when running! Simon wasn't very impressed with the ipod and informed me that running was a mind game and I should enjoy the beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at mind games and don't take much notice of the admittedly beautiful scenery when I feel like my legs are about to drop off. Simon was also very concerned that I would get hit by a car (you can't blame him really with my track record for accidents) and now, very kindly, runs behind me and lets me know if danger is iminent by shouting very loudly. The pedestrians find it a bit strange, but there you go. It works for us.

Many other runners frequent our route in Veyrier, particularly at the weekend. They always seem to be running in the opposite direction, so I wonder if there is something they know that we don't. Some of the other runners (many seem like absolute pros to me) have suddenly starting saying "bonjour" as we pass each other, which I am delighted about! Obviously I try to look like I know what I'm doing as we pass and wait until they are out of sight before I pass out or keel over!!!!!

I just wanted to let you know how much I'm enjoying reading your comments on the blog. I'm lucky to have Simon to train with and find it a big help. The only thing is that he is a bit of a pro (he will never admit it) and it would be nice to run with some of the members of team_atko who are beginners like me. Geography keeps me from being able to do that. Hearing your stories reminds me that I'm not on my own. Keep up the good works guys and gals.

That's Better

Its me again the large runner! After my slight glitch last week of feeling defeated, did have something to do with working in Guernsey! as well as the prospect of this race and not completing it, I have succesfully completed two trips from my house to Greve De Lecq and back and not as dead as i thought i would be. I tried the running lark but it's a steep hill so i walked, however thats not a defeat that's toning the beer muscle and the chicken legs as well as building up to the run, or so i'm told. On a serious note having spoken to an x runner... Quote" it says its a run but you can walk if you need a rest."! I have some more excursions planned for this weekend i.e. Greve to Devil's hole and back a not to shabby 6 mile round trip.

Keep going troops we will succeed!!!!!!!

Love as alwaysUncle ( I think you all know who i am now)!
xx

Race calculator...

Morning all - thought I'd share with you a rather nifty little calculator I found that can predict your race time based on your current pace over a known distance...

http://www.runningahead.com/tools/calculators/race

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, you've created a monster.

I have bought a copy of this month's Runner's World.

Yes, let me repeat that for you: I have bought a copy of this month's Runner's World.

I didn't even realise I was doing it until I got to the counter and there, beneath my copy of Top Gear like some sordid surreptitious delve into top shelf territory, it sat beaming up at me. A little later it hit me (no, not the magazine, that would be ridiculous) that I am actually starting to enjoy this running lark. In and amongst the motivational quotes I found this which I felt was fairly apt for those of us 'running impaired' folk and made me think of one Mr I Atkinson at the same time:

"Get up and walk if you have to, but finish the damned race." (Ron Hill)

What a wheeze (literally)

New best for my Queens Valley circuit, woohay. However chuffed I may feel at having taken a full ten minutes of this particular circuit in ten days is somewhat tempered by the fact that the 5.5K it involves (twice round in case you are wondering) is merely a quarter of what will be required in October! Don't think I am getting full of myself with times etc. far from it...I have no doubt about my Red Bull Racing status but I like to think that being relatively open about what I have and haven't been able to do will make others feel better about their own times and achievements thus far.

Remember, there is always someone worse at something than we are. Now, if any of you could point him out to me....?

p.s My three year old daughter is now insisting on "going for a run with daddy" every time I don the running gear but I don't want to get shown up so for now she stays at home!

Training Blues

Its me again the large runner! Whilst i sit here In Guernsey working i can't help but think how close this thing is now! Less than 6 months. I have had a pathetic attempt at running and am quite concerned that i will fail at this. However remembering that Atko would have been a year older now with a lot of abuse from myself naturally and seeing all the thoughts posted recently and whilst wiping a tear from my cheek (even boys cry).I have to decide the best way to tackle this head on. My running times are not worth publishing and the feeling of must do better always overwhelms me. I feel really bad and in the last month have managed one walk from L'etacq to Grosnez. I just have to remember one thing and that would be the abuse from Fluff for stopping and the words of encouragement he would have given.........Run fat boy Run.

Keep going guys all of us will set of at the same time in 6 months for one reason.

Love as always
Uncle Rab Aka John Cabot

Kick up the backside...

After a few months of sticking to a training plan, finally overcoming most of my aches and pains and getting into the swing of this running thing, it has to be said that of late things have gone a bit rubbish. Despite the best of intentions, last week I managed the sum total of one 3 mile run... kinda pitiful really.

I spent this weekend through in London with the girls - staying in Blackheath near the start of the marathon. We ended up walking back via the marathon route through Greenwich, with all the mile markers, barriers and things up. The following morning, watching the marathon on TV, we started talking about running - Jo took part in a marathon last year (and is full of useful advice like don't wear new trainers for the actual run, don't wear cotton if it rains and take jelly beans with you to eat on the way). I realised that this isn't meant to be easy and that the whole part of doing something like this is that it is meant to be a challenge. So as some of the others have said, time to suck it up, stop whinging about how I don't have enough time and just get out there and put the miles in.

So the new training plan is written and stuck to my fridge, along with a photo of Uncle Fluff. That, together with reading the posts from the rest of Team_Atko will hopefully give me enough of a kick up the backside to get out of the door and get on with it...

"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'" - Peter Maher, Canadian marathon runner

P.S> I'm back on The Rock this weekend for Trudy and Krista's 30th birthday party - anyone fancy a run along the front on Saturday morning?

Tales of the Unexpected

It's always good to see a little flurry of activity on the blog and it is perhaps understandable given the time of year but it is also nice to know that we are all hurting as much as each other. I had this nagging suspicion that come race day I would watch the other twenty or so Team_Atko members steam off into the distance hoping against hope that they wouldn't be waiting somewhere at the end trying to be positive and supportive (whilst checking their watches) and that I would deeply regret getting involved at all but listening to the painful and breathless team zeitgeist in this blog is actually, and rather perversely, giving me a boost as it does actually feel like a proper team effort. I am not sure I even care how long I take any more as long as I can continue to feel part of the collective achievement to do our best. Thankfully this hasn't stopped me pushing myself harder and harder, hell I took five minutes off my 5Km time today!

Licorice Allsorts & Banana Suits

I am pretty bad at remembering things like my friends birthdays. I have a number of good reasons to remember Fluff's birthday, cos it was also the day Christina and I got engaged. It is therefore 6 years ago (+1 day) since Christina and I got engaged, and 6 years+ 1 day since we met Donna for the first time (we remember how proud Ian was to introduce us). This was at Fluff's birthday bash at the Salty Dog in St Aubin. No super-heated cans of Heineken on the BBQ on that occasion- but that was more due to the positive influence of Christina and Donna rather than anything to do with Fluff and I.

Today's posting is going to be a little like the end of school church service at Wesley Grove in Jersey - you remember the ones, where the vicar talks about licorice allsorts for ten minutes, and then says, "and in a funny way, licorice allsorts are a lot like Jesus", and tries to make the anecdote fit the point he was trying to make. A little bit like that anyway.

One of the best times I had with Ian was when we piled a load of windsufing kit and a couple of guitars into his Bedford Midi van (aka Fluffy 2) and went off to the French student windsurfing champs in La Tranche sur Mer. Beer was drunk, rubbish was talked, and Ian parked his van in other people's caravans. Whilst they were trying to eat breakfast. This was the famous trip where a guy called Matt tried to convince everyone, in a public-spirited kind of way, that if they should ever fall off something high, they had to grab the grass when they hit the deck. It apparently wasn't the landing that killed you, but the bounce - grab the grass, you don't bounce. Matt then demonstrated this by falling/jumping off the roof of the bungalow we were staying in.

However, when it came to the competition, Ian was all business. When he wasn't asleep in a board bag in the back of his van, he was absolutely 100% committed to each race he did. I spoke to him once when he was just about to start, and he didn't even register I was there - he was focused on what he was about to do.

I took the event far less seriously, which wasn't particularly hard to do when you're entered as "Scary" (The guy filling in my entry form only knew my nickname..) I came a typically unfocused 56th. Ian came 6th, behind a few guys from the French Olympic Squad.

(Here comes the licorice allsorts bit).

As time passes, and our training plan lurches forward - it is increasingly clear that I'm going to need to be a lot more focused to do this. I can bleat on and claim work commitments/travel obligations (I have to go to Washington and New York this week) but, come October 5th, the excuses will just sound lame. I have done 10k this weekend, but I'm still a long way off being ready, and I'm not going to be ready without some serious effort and focus. The weathers getting better, running is starting to be more fun than it was, and having watched the London Marathon start today, it made the big old start of the Great North Run seem to be not that far away.

Finally, from watching the London Marathon stuff on the telly today, I have identitfied a new and dark fear - it is that of being overtaken by someone wearing a banana suit or deep-sea diving outfit, when I think I'm running really well.

Finally..

Well i've finally got the password and log in sorted and here i am! you'd think i would be better at this type of stuff.

Firstly, Ian and why i'm doing this. I feel very lucky with my group of friends; as a group we've all been friends for over half my life and i think that we are as close now as we were back then. It seems that if we have spent a day apart or a month apart; it makes no difference, everything is always cool. We laugh, we have a few beers and much to the girls annoyance, we tell the same stories over and over. Other's on this blog have described what a great friend Ian was (I still can't get used to the past tense; it still doesn't seem right), but he was always a huge part of this. 'cause of the way things have worked out in all our lives it's hard for us to all get together at any one time; we always knew this; but now the group will have one missing because he won't be there. and it's not a nice thought. It really hit me on the ski trip a few weeks ago.

Ian had time for not only us, but everyone he meet, it was a skill that i can only aspire to. He encourged me to push me myself in every thing i did, he supported that in all of us even if he had you in a head lock. I am greatful that I spent a lot of time with him over the years and there were many times that i will not forget; his stag do was a great day out and I can't listen to the Foo fighters in the same way again (I have infact today booked flights and a hotel for when we see the Foo's in June). But it's the silly things that I miss; the BBQ's, that Dakine hat, his abuse that I can't cook rice, the fiesta ecomny light, the first time he met Mrs. E, when all came round for that Chilli and that stupid grin (especially after a beer) is probably the biggest one. I saw itlast on the monday before. He was sitting on the wall opposite Mrs E's store waiting for DD, he'd had a business lunch and he had that look (and all of the boys know all about that look) and was about to go and cause trouble.

I am really greatfull I saw him that day.

OK Secondly the running. I'll be honest, it's not my favourite thing. At school I ran the Quennevais mile in over 12 minutes, they made a massive fuss when I ran it in a little over 8 mins. So this GNR thing is all about pushing me out of my comfort zone and to do something i wouldn't normally do. Which I think the man would be proud off. However, due to my impecable timing, Mrs E is due on the 5th October. So running this may be in doubt, but at this stage I'm still going to do this.

I went for a run this morning for the first time in about three weeks. It hurt. It hurt more than I thought, but not from the bashing that my knee took from the rails when we snowboarding a few weeks ago! My lungs were screaming. I only managed 16mins! looks like I have even further to go than i thought!

What have I let myself in for?? Go big or Go home - yeah thanks mate.....

Pain is temporary, glory is forever and chicks dig scars.

Saturday 12 April 2008 was the most miserable day of my (admittedly quite short) running career.

My husband Simon has already given some background information in respect of my broken leg. I’ve always been quite accident prone, but breaking my left leg in two places was a particular low point. The last two years of my life have involved a lot of pain, two operations and much effort trying to get my leg back to full health. I was patched up with the wonders of Swiss technology, a handful of screws and a titanium rod that ran down the middle of my tibia from my knee to my ankle. My limp was so bad that my sister gave me the nickname “Quasimodo” (ta for that Dannii). After my second op in April 2007 to remove the metal, my husband gave me the nickname “Frankenstina” (ta for that Simon). Unfortunately, both descriptions were quite accurate.

Simon has also mentioned the virus that flattened me recently. Up until that point, my training had been going quite well. I’ve never been a natural at any kind of sports, but I try hard and enjoy it – even if I do look stupid and finish last every time.

Being ill meant that I didn’t set foot in the gym or put on my running shoes for over two weeks. Boy did I feel it when I went back to the gym last week. Everything hurt afterwards!

Yesterday I went running for the first time in three weeks. I got a shock. I think I just expected to be able to run as well as I did the last time. I ached following my visits to the gym, my bad leg hurt and I couldn’t breathe. Half way through the 5k run (and this is extremely embarrassing to admit) I burst out crying and gave up.

After my pathetic attempt at a run I went home. Then two things happened:

1. I’m sure most of my team mates have been watching coverage of today’s London Marathon. Yesterday BBC News told the story of Buster. Buster is 101 years old and running today’s marathon. Buster recently completed a half marathon in four and a half hours. Buster is now my hero. Quote from Buster: “I’m not rich in terms of money, but I’m a millionaire in terms of my health”.

2. I thought of Ian. Ian was getting over his second major heart surgery when I met him. I never heard him moan or complain. His attitude was amazing. He just got on with it. Quote from Ian when I moaned about my scars: “pain is temporary, glory is forever and chicks dig scars”.

I felt thoroughly ashamed of myself and vowed to have a better attitude. I’m very lucky really. My leg will make (and almost has made) a full recovery. Maybe my leg looks like a patchwork quilt (not quite as cool as a shark bite), but it works and my legs were never that pretty in the first place anyway so who cares. I’ve been given the opportunity to do this run. It was always going to be a challenge and that is why the money that the members of team_atko raise in memory of Ian will be well deserved.

I gave myself a mental kick up the a*se. I went for a 5k run today. I finished it. It went much better.

Moor thoughts

It would have been Ian's 34th birthday today.

Fluffs birthday was traditionally the first barbie of the summer back home in Jersey.  The weather generally played the game.  One memorable year when it did end up raining I arrived to find a crowd huddled, partly undercover, in the Atkinson Family Gazebo - a mighty construction, which was predominantly full of windsurfing kit. Nearby was a bbq with a can of Heineken Export on it, so I wandered over to drink it.  Thing was, the barbie was lit and the can was red hot.  It was a real struggle to open the ring pull of  a cold one with burnt finger tips. That was a great party.  I think that was the year we took up skipping and trashed the grass, and Ma Atko found beer in the tumble dryer a few days later. It was in there because the fridge was full of beer and we didn't have anywhere else logical to put it. 

Today, was a different day.  In my little world it was the day that I had secretly been saving up for: my first outdoor run on the Town moor.  That's the lump of grass and cows between my house and the start of the Great North Run.  It was overcast and rained a bit but that was fine.

It went well.  I managed to get round my little 5.24K course I had plotted on my computer in 32 mins 17 secs.  It hurts more now I am home than it did at the time.  I also tried out my new running tights, which I am suspiciously enthusiastic about.  The wife thought I looked less daft than she had feared.  My son seemed genuinely troubled and told me I looked silly.  The youth of today!  Outrageous.  Actually, I hope I find my sons beer in the tumble dryer one year.  It will have meant he had a great party.  But if it's my malt, there will be big trouble.

I know I shouldn't but......

As Russell will qualify I have a habit of saying things I shouldn't but what the hell! (see outside large circa 1998).

Am I the only one to have registered the screaming irony that is Tim Huelin's ex next door neighbour? Just dawned on me, SIMON PEGG!

You couldn't make it up, still Run Fat Boy Run!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.s.
Sorry mate!

Feelings of inadequacy

And I quote:

Great North Run

Paula Radcliffe won the Great North Run in a world-best time. She completed the 13.1-mile (21.1 km) half marathon course from Newcastle to South Shields in 65 minutes and 40 seconds.

Cow.

What was that Tim, it is going to hurt....it already is mate , it already is.

Training for large people

Hello from Uncle Rab,

After much technical issues i can now post! Haza. All to do with junk filters ! Anyway whats new with me and training? not a lot walk to the pub every week thats excercise! saves driving and the enviroment. Apart from cracking two ribs whilst skiing, i was doing good, so am out for another couple of weeks yet before fully commited again. On a good note the local boxing gym have taken me in under their wing to circuit train with them twice a week (they are really fitguys and gals!) and if you try and stop for a rest you get shouted at just what i need. They train Tuesdays and Thursdays and run on a Saturday morning, so all good.
Good luck and remember NO PAIN. All the best,

Uncle Rab aka JC

Definitions of surreal no.1

Running in Jersey in April on a Sunday morning... in the snow!

Cold and wet and probably good practice for up North. Now where are my tights?

Training tips??????????

Just get out there and run!

Which is exactly why I'm off on a stag do next weekend in Magaluf............!

In all seriousness I'm now a twice a week man with my 3.5 mile circuit getting a good pasting (in my head!). Now I realise there is the small matter of another 10 miles after that but St. Helier wasn't built/made ugly by Dand........ in a day!

Gotta get out twice before next weekend but as I'm off work for the next two weeks I shall be following a Radcliffe esque schedule, not sure where to get enough ice for a bath though and always make sure I go before I go.

Today is Sunday however, and a day of rest, or "beer friendly" as Master Whickam might call it.

Terrific!

As possibly one of the more experienced runners in the team I thought it might be helpful to report the training schedule to date and offer a tip or two.
The schedule started 7October 2007. Jersey Marathon Relay. 5 miles Quennevais to St.Helier Waterfront.(Ian did this leg last year). Good to be back running after all the traumas.
Pre-Christmas 2007. Two sessions a week. Good weather 5 mile run. Bad weather row/cycle/run in the gym; apart from a 2 week break late October with an apparently typical runners problem around the pelvic bone.
19 December fantastic snow in Meribel. Quick coffee at the top of the ski lift and off. Piste all to myself. A projectile in the form of a snowboarder connects with my ribs breaking one or two. No ski-ing, running, or much else for that matter for 6 weeks.
End January 2008 tentative running in the gym. All seems O.K.to go back on the road. 2 March competitive 10K run at St.Ouens. Hard but 49.32 not bad in poor conditions. Couple of blisters right foot due to not usual shoes.
13March arrange appointment with doctor for 08.10 following morning, en route to airport for another try to get some ski-ing in at Chamrousse between baby sitting. Badly infected right foot where blister burst. Anti biotics/bandaging. No ski-ing or running. Right leg raised as much as possible
1 April. See physio back in Jersey. No walking or running for a few days yet, particularly if hoping to catch last week of the ski-ing season commencing 12 April.
2April. Fall down small hole in Norman's cement store. Something "went" in the left foot. 4 hrs at A&E.
No broken bones but torn tendon, or is a ligament, on top of left foot. Left foot to be elevated with ice pack for 2/3 weeks. No walking or running. Ski-ing? well it is a stiff boot so if you can cope with the pain it should be O.K.
24 April. Should be back in Jersey and ready to run. Just in case , is there a wheelchair race on the 5th.October?
The tip. Don't do what I am doing.
There is still plenty of time, hopefully to get it right. Atkopop.

Back from my local Italian...

Now, It's very late, so bear with me.

I have just returned from my 'local Italian' where we shall be 6 months from now, post race.  

I stood at the left-hand urinal and, looking left, saw in the reflection of the mirror the fat bloke that is me.  I looked straight ahead (at eye level, dare I say) and saw a black and white photo of a sailing boat at sea.  I had a vision of Ian, staring back, pointing with the Sh*t eating grin that he was famous for, challenging me, and laughing.  Just enough to inspire, but also just enough to mock, leaving you slightly uncertain if you were making a complete arse of yourself.

It is odd to think I will again be there in 6 months time having completed (however long it takes) the 13.1 mile run.  It will be a great night.  It will be a celebration of Ian and everything he was passionate about.  It will be about personal achievement and it will be about a common bond.

This challenge is big and it will hurt.  Ian would be very proud of us all, standing at that urinal, contemplating stuff after a good days work 'going big'.  

Ladies of the team; feel free to check out that urinal, it wouldn't have stopped Fluff!

Choices we must make and live with.

Further to Tim's post I was advised that tights are, and I quote, "nigh on essential in cold conditions". However I have tried to weigh the undoubted truth and value of this and that they may hold my bones in place for the duration of the race and act like some sort of meat sock against the following considerations:

1) do I wish to look like some sort of transvestite runner;
2) when I collapse over the finishing line (!?!) looking like the amateur that I am do I really want to be wearing more pro kit than is normal;
3) isn't it going to complicate things if any of us have a "Paula" moment, I mean come on it would be like pushing nutella through a sieve!

Overall I fear that whilst I can just about afford to be ridiculed by all and sundry for being overtaken by two pensioners dressed as a pantomime horse, a bloke running backwards and a glacier I very much doubt I could slump at the post race table enjoying beer and pizza whilst wondering whether I should have gone for the 10 denier sheer or the 20 denier opaque!!!!

p.s. I have decided to revise my target for the race to a sub five hour time. Aim low, you know it makes sense.

Tights and jelly beans are for men

It is 6 months to the day until will will congregate on a dual carriageway near the Town Moor in Newcastle, probably in drizzle, waiting to 'go over the top'.  We will wait in pens dependent on how fast or slowly we think we can get round.  We will then set off leaving a trail of nipples and toe nails along the 13.1 mile route.

I have just seen an advert for the Medoc Marathon in France.  The picture shows a bloke holding a glass of red wine, on a hot sunny day, and wearing a viking outfit, sunglasses and running shoes.

That seems more Team_Atkoesque, maybe next year.

I have been tied up in all sorts of stuff in the last month....but... I did manage to get up to doing 5K in a little over 30 minutes..., last month.  since then I haven't run.  You might pick up on my concern here.  This little 5K milestone was a big deal for me.  I used to be fit, in my youthier youth and I was getting to the point where I was just about remembering what it felt like.  In the last month I have continued to loose weight, but I really need to get the running shoes on and get cracking, I am quite literally running out of time.  Research however tells me I just need 12 weeks to get up to race distance.  I can't have Rus beating me - after all he is hanging in tatters and could fall apart at any moment.

My aim is to run the whole way.  My ultimate aim is to do it in under two hours.  I want to enjoy the race and I don't want to be in bed that night in bits.  Yeah right, we are booked into my local italian for a beer and pasta fest!  Now the days are getting longer it becomes a little easier to fit the training in.

My biggest concern is what to wear.  It seems from reading magazines that tights are the way to go, wickable and breathable, lightweight and damn pricey.  Also, it seems that there are a number of drinks to drink before during and after the race.  Thanks lucozade for the post race drink tip, but I'm sticking with the tried and tested Atko approach of Peroni.  If I need a little pick-me-up, the caffeine in a Rum and Coke will do just fine, but carry on with the research.

To mentally get through the 2 odd hours that it will take me to get to South Shields I am told, again from the magazine, that counting to 100 and then treating myself to a couple of Jelly Beans will get me through.  

Nothing to worry about then.

Woo yay....sort of.

45 minutes non stop running today. Such small pleasures and such sore nipples! Any suggestions gratefully received and field tested. Only another two hours to add on and I am there..........???

Some pain, some gain

Back in the saddle and Nike+ to the hilt have now managed a distinctly underwhelming 7km of laddered interval training over the course of two days (15 mins and 30 mins respectively) and a whole load of strength training to boot. But hey, some progress is still progress. So in the wholly unlikely event that I can maintain that pace that gives me a feeble 2' 15'' GNR time! Damn you Father Time, damn you all to hell.


The shame of it.