26.2 miles, 42.195km, 50,000+ steps, 4,689 laps around your sofa or 46,112 yards. However you measure it the marathon distance is one of the toughest and most rewarding things you can put your body through. Ever since my first at the London Marathon back in 2016 I have been well and truly addicted to the highs and lows that sort of distance takes you on.
2022 hasn’t really gotten off to the start I had dreamed of. As of the end of April I have run four events and cancelled five; two of those should have been ultras. You can put it down to fitness, confidence or bad planning but the simple fact of it all is that my plan for the year is not unfurling as I had hoped.
Yes you read that title correctly. Back in November the Running Channel asked me to take part in a completely unique race with very little other information. I've come to the realisation that if they call, you say yes. So before I had really heard of any of the details I agreed not really knowing the full scale of the challenge I would be facing...
would be my first half marathon and arguably the worst in terms of race day experience. I ripped through my shoes like the Incredible Hulk, felt pain unlike I had ever before and ran out of energy/the will to live at about mile 6. I felt like a broken man coming across the line but I had done it; I had run my first half marathon.
Training through winter feels like its own right of passage. It is a time when your shadow, drawn long by the 4pm setting sun, is your only company in the golden cold light. You battle through storms so brutal they have names and vindictive personalities. The laundry pile of wet and muddy clothes seems to be unending and smelling worse with each passing week. The crisp frosty air robes the breath from your lungs and your steps crunch upon the hardened earth. You put on layer upon layer of clothes only to get one mile in and regret about twelve of them.
2021, was a year that you wouldn’t want to walk, let alone run, in many people’s shoes. But for me “the year that shall be forgotten” still featured some epic runs and adventures so I thought it would be great […]
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