I first started really running in adulthood in 2008 at the age of 26. There were a couple of factors that combined to lead to this happening. I changed jobs for a start and found that my evenings and weekends were mine again so I had the time to do it. I also felt too many nights out and takeaways had taken their toll so I had some extra weight to shift and my weekly exercise had been limited to games of 5 a side football. It was getting harder and harder to get 10 guys to commit to play every week and games were either being cancelled or turning farcical when you only had 6 guys showing up. I felt that I needed something that it only needed me to do so inspired from the build up to and watching the 2008 Olympics it was off to Achilles Heel in Glasgow and a pair of real running shoes were bought, paired with a Nike plus foot sensor and my ipod I was ready to go!
Living in the city at the time I was off round Bellahouston park most evening and managed to build up to the target of my first 10k the Great Scottish Run in September. I completed this in a time of 55.25 so was overjoyed with making my sub 1 hour target. At the finish line in the pack was a flyer for the Edinburgh marathon the following year, in a post run high myself and a friend agreed to sign up for it. So when I got home that is what I did. Speaking to my friend a week or so later I asked him if he had signed up for the marathon to be met with the reply of ‘no, of course not, are you mad’. So it was a solo expedition of marathon training that winter and spring and come an extremely hot sunny day in May the 2009 Edinburgh Marathon was completed by me in my target of under 4 hours with a time of 3.58.12. I think people say you cross the line in a Marathon and are either of the opinion that was hell never again or that was hell and strangely enjoyable, when is the next one?!
I have fallen in to the later camp of now being able to say I have completed 9 marathons with a PB from Loch Ness in 2011 of 3.30.47 so one of the big targets for me this year is to finally manage a sub 3.30 marathon.
Since starting running in 2008 I have obviously enjoyed it and continued doing it regularly completing races of a variety of distances each year. My PB’s are currently sitting at Marathon 3.30.47 (2011), Half Marathon 1.33.37 (2014), 10k 41.50 (2014). All my running training had been mostly solo with a few friends joining me for training and racing at different times. So I’m thinking that another aim for this year is to get along to the local running club to see if I can bring my running on with the help and support of a club environment. We’ll see how I get on.
Trimm Dich blog 