After the Ironman 70.3 World Championships at the end of August I knew I needed a fresh goal that would excite me once again. One that would be hard enough to be worth doing, interesting enough to maintain my attention and realistic enough that it could fit into my increasingly busy life.
While my two year venture into triathlon has taught me to appreciate the wonders of both a coffee stop on a long ride and the freedom of open water swimming, nothing has come close to beating the 2 hours of meditation on your feet of a Sunday long run.
And in the last few months I've rediscovered this simple love of putting one foot in front the other for endless hours each week.
Hence the challenge of the marathon.
Having only ever covered this distance twice before; once as part of a full Ironman earlier this year, and once in 2019 alongside over 100 obstacles as part of an Iron Viking, it will be my first ever official marathon. Yes, I know I can complete it. But, can I get a pretty fast time in the process too?
That’s the question that excites me.
My running coach Colin seems to think so. Estimating from my 1:09:55 half marathon in Feb he reckons I’m on for anywhere between 2:19 and 2:29 depending on the quality of my training. To get me as close to that 2:19 as possible we’ve decided to embed the lessons from triathlon training into our plan, utilising easy cycling, nutrition strategies and faster recovery times. Which feels like a full circle moment where learning a related yet different endurance sport for two years has actually made me a better runner.
Proving that to get better at something you love it often requires applying your seemingly unrelated new skills to old challenges.
Finding My People
With the marathon now firmly set in my sights I decided to return to the clubs and communities in the space. In the 2 years since having left the scene for triathlon a lot has changed…
The sport has become insanely popular. In part driven by the rise of run clubs as an inexpensive yet healthy way to stay fit. And powered by an onward march towards endurance sports that seems to have it’s roots in the 2020 lockdown challenge where you’d run 5km, donate £5 & nominate 5 people for the NHS. It’s been awesome to see, in both meanings of the word - as a great way to get people into sport and as a sheer spectacle with thousands of runners descending on London’s parks every weekend.
I’ve attended several of these run clubs - specifically Run Social, Friday Night Lights and Midnight Runners - which have all had endless waves of enthusiastic endurance athletes turning up to hit the pavement together. I’d fully recommend every single one of them.
However, it was only after joining Belgrave Harriers, a traditional athletics club, that I re-discovered a group willing to push themselves to their limits in search of their true potential. Having signed myself up and donning their legendary Tracksmith kit I was thrown in the deep-end of their A team to race for 4 out of my first 6 weekends with the club.
It was a trial by fire in which I succeeded and failed in equal measure, lacking the top-end running speed needed to transition back into the sport. But even as I found myself disappointed by my efforts, I still loved being back racing again alongside a truly great bunch of people. So much so that I even ventured back to cross-country, a race format I’d actively avoided for the last 3 years for it’s lack of comparable results or progress.
Now, as the Winter months lie ahead, I’ve made the club’s Tuesday evenings a staple in my training plan, turning up as much to knock back a great session as to socialise with other people who just ‘get it’. And do you know what? Truly nothing feels sweeter. I’m back with my people, making progress towards a meaningful goal and remembering to laugh along the way.
One Foot In-front of the Other
Nowadays there might be carbon plated supershoes that can shave minutes off your marathon time and nutrition plans that can give you that extra 1% of marginal gains. But, when the protein shakes are drunk, the pasta parties are eaten and the training plans are followed, all that’s left to do is put one foot in-front of the other for miles upon end. And that is sense of infinite purity is something that I feel can’t be replaced in any other sport. There’s no bike to blame, team to tell off or assistant manager to appease. All that matters is how good you are on the day. Everything else is just noise.
Now to bank those Winter miles for those Spring smiles.