New Year, New You…or just another fad

Me at a Cross Country Race

I have been taking a long time to think about what I want from 2016. January always seems to be a strange month; a mixture of everyone full of good intentions, trying to get through the hangover of Christmas and waiting for the first paycheque of the year to tide them over from an expensive December. It may be a cynical way to look at the year, but it’s not helped by the range of diet books promising to help you become a new improved version of yourself. I’m not disputing whether these diet books help or not, I’m not qualified to make that decision, but I always find it fascinating that these books are launched at this time of year. It seems we go through a ritual each year of saying that we are going to finally change all our bad habits and become a new person.

National 3 Peaks Challenge

With 2015 drawing to a close I am noting some of my other achievements besides marathon training. One of these happens to be the National 3 Peaks Challenge (N3P), which I did on Friday 21^st August to Saturday 22^nd August this year. What makes the N3P so exciting and daunting at the same time is that it manages to combine sleep deprivation, a real endurance challenge for any type of person, extraordinarily beautiful scenery and driving across Britain like a madman all in the space of under 24 hours. This blog is about my experience of the N3P and what my tips would be to people attempting it.

On our way to Fort William to scale Ben Nevis

Humbled by Bournemouth

Enjoying the seaside

A photo posted by Edward (@uncertainrunner) on Nov 22, 2015 at 2:58am PST

I have been doing a lot of thinking since my last post, as I wanted to really reflect on what happened at Bournemouth. I think my initial reaction to not getting under three hours at Bournemouth was one of trying to look at what I did wrong. Now that I have had time to think about the race I see it in a much more positive light and feel like even though I did not get the time that I aimed for, I did well under the circumstances. So really this post is about how I viewed my race with hindsight. Inevitably my new job has conspired to stop me from posting twice a month, as I had originally planned, but I am still happy with posting once a month. When things calm down at work I aim to try and keep to writing two posts a month or even just updating things about myself on my blog. 

Battling with Bournemouth

This blog post is going to be one of two parts about Bournemouth, as to cut a long story short, things did not go according to plan with how I had envisaged. I will discuss that in the second blog post, but in this one I want to talk about the race and how it went. It is still quite ‘raw’ for me as it is only a week since I ran the Bournemouth Marathon. So if there is anything that comes across as me feeling sorry for myself or like I am moaning then forgive me. It’s simply me trying to describe how I felt at the time.

For Whom Bournemouth Tolls

So I think it has been over a month since I have made a post, and this in turn throws out the intention of my last post- namely to post more consistently around once or every two weeks. However I have been very busy over the last month, so my lack of writing has not been in vain. I successfully completed the National Three Peaks Challenge, upped my mileage before the Bournemouth Marathon, recovered from injury, started a new job, replaced my Brooks Ghost 7s and ran the Ealing Half Marathon. So it has been a packed month between August/September to say the least. Being this busy has taught me the importance of thinking through what my blog posts should be about and keeping the word count well below 1,000 words.

Looking to the Future

1 Corinthians 9:26 “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air”

I have been doing some thinking about what the purpose of my blog is for. It is approaching a year since I made my first blog post about running. I still remember the Joseph Campbell quote that I ended with and I still believe in that quote. In some ways my thoughts about blogging and running have not changed since that article, but I am starting to get a better understanding of why I want to write about running. At a basic level it is to do with sharing and documenting what I enjoy about running as well as the challenges that I face; at a deeper level it is more about trying to find my best potential in running and realising at the same time that the very act of running takes me beyond myself. It may sound idealistic, but it is truly what I feel, and as in my last post I want to aim for something ambitious so that I can look back on my life beyond the world of work and money. Therefore I thought the quote from Corinthians was appropriate, as I see it as just as much a challenge as a statement about why I run and blog about it.

Preparing for Bournemouth

So it has been a while since my last blog post. Over the last month I have been in the process of changing jobs, which is great, but I am in the handover stage in my old job and inevitably this has meant things being busier between July and August. So a lot in terms of my running training has taken place, but frustratingly I have not been able to write about it. So this post is really a catch up on my activities in July and early August.

The main race I did in July was the Wimbledon Half Marathon. The course was relatively difficult, as there was a tough incline verging on being a hill for the first 1.5 miles, and the weather was awful. Rain and wind turned the dirt/ gravel foot path into a mud bath, where I competed with fellow runners to avoid puddles and seek grip with my lightweight shoes. The key positives to take from the race is that my resolve stayed intact pretty well throughout it, there was a slight wobble in my mentality just after coming up to half way through the race. Having the wind and the rain there gave me a good preparation to how things could go at any of the marathons I do in October, which was helpful. Also I came in at only 11 seconds off my personal best- that was on a completely flat course; coming in 16^th place on my chip time.