How inspirational are the people who run the London Marathon? Come to think of it how inspirational are those who run any marathon?
I do know a little of what some of them will be going through today as 30 years ago I ran my one and only marathon and it was bloody hard. It was the Bungay Black Dog Marathon, two circuits of a Waveney Valley course through Bungay and Beccles. I seem to remember walking quite a bit of the way after my training had gone to pot. I had been running round Hethersett on a course that was 2.4 miles long round the village and had worked up to over 18 miles when the best possible distraction stopped my training dead - our first son Chris was born!
It meant sleepless nights and the training schedule going to pot. So I struggled at the event, but did complete the course and still have the medal somewhere to prove it. It was one of those things in life I wanted to do once - but never again. Same as appearing in a stage play which I achieved at Sheringham Little Theatre and then promptly retired from acting.
I think it's good to set these goals. Now my running goals are a bit more modest - just the two mile village event in June and continuing with the newly formed village running club where we made a really good start on Thursday as I mentioned in my blog. My problem is distance running and breathing. I seem to tie up all too quickly and Thursday night showed this again. When it comes to sprinting I can still run pretty fast and I'm sure outrun most people of my age. But at my age I should be more comfortable with the distance running and I'm just not built for it. At school sports I always took part in the 100 and 200 yards and the sprint relays and in football I always played on the right wing because of my speed.
That's why it's quite humbling to receive coaching from Norfolk Olympiad Paul Evans who is a very good coach, makes you want to run and has done it all himself - so big respect there. The thought of running for 26 miles just fills me with horror. Mind you yesterday I heard about a guy, whose name escapes me, who ran 100 marathons in 100 days. Now quite plainly this guy is nuts!!! But all power to him because we need nutty people like that.
Had a bit of a lay in this morning after a very tiring but excellent evening quiz at the Junior School. I got the questions finished on time and we had approaching 100 people taking part and first estimates are that we made around £400 profit to go towards the village jubilee fayre in June. This will give us the chance to make most of the attractions free and it should be a good day.
There was a bit of controversy at the end of the quiz when we had to reverse the first two places due to a marking discrepancy. Everyone was very gracious about it, however. So overall an excellent if a little tiring evening.
At last the sun is out and its warm and no hint of rain yet!!! This afternoon I'm off to the Memorial Field in the village where there should be plenty of interesting activity. Our Ladies Reserves football team will be playing Stalham in the semi-finals of the Norfolk Women's League Cup and Hethersett Hawks Cycle Speedway have a big match on. I will be taking photos of both events for the newspapers and various web sites - so looking forward to that and I will report back tomorrow on how things went and weather I got wet (or should that be whether I got wet -play on words there)?
Sorry I only partly finished yesterday's blog - just ran out of time through shopping duties and preparing for the quiz. I will return to it and finish it off later today.
I do know a little of what some of them will be going through today as 30 years ago I ran my one and only marathon and it was bloody hard. It was the Bungay Black Dog Marathon, two circuits of a Waveney Valley course through Bungay and Beccles. I seem to remember walking quite a bit of the way after my training had gone to pot. I had been running round Hethersett on a course that was 2.4 miles long round the village and had worked up to over 18 miles when the best possible distraction stopped my training dead - our first son Chris was born!
It meant sleepless nights and the training schedule going to pot. So I struggled at the event, but did complete the course and still have the medal somewhere to prove it. It was one of those things in life I wanted to do once - but never again. Same as appearing in a stage play which I achieved at Sheringham Little Theatre and then promptly retired from acting.
I think it's good to set these goals. Now my running goals are a bit more modest - just the two mile village event in June and continuing with the newly formed village running club where we made a really good start on Thursday as I mentioned in my blog. My problem is distance running and breathing. I seem to tie up all too quickly and Thursday night showed this again. When it comes to sprinting I can still run pretty fast and I'm sure outrun most people of my age. But at my age I should be more comfortable with the distance running and I'm just not built for it. At school sports I always took part in the 100 and 200 yards and the sprint relays and in football I always played on the right wing because of my speed.
That's why it's quite humbling to receive coaching from Norfolk Olympiad Paul Evans who is a very good coach, makes you want to run and has done it all himself - so big respect there. The thought of running for 26 miles just fills me with horror. Mind you yesterday I heard about a guy, whose name escapes me, who ran 100 marathons in 100 days. Now quite plainly this guy is nuts!!! But all power to him because we need nutty people like that.
Had a bit of a lay in this morning after a very tiring but excellent evening quiz at the Junior School. I got the questions finished on time and we had approaching 100 people taking part and first estimates are that we made around £400 profit to go towards the village jubilee fayre in June. This will give us the chance to make most of the attractions free and it should be a good day.
There was a bit of controversy at the end of the quiz when we had to reverse the first two places due to a marking discrepancy. Everyone was very gracious about it, however. So overall an excellent if a little tiring evening.
At last the sun is out and its warm and no hint of rain yet!!! This afternoon I'm off to the Memorial Field in the village where there should be plenty of interesting activity. Our Ladies Reserves football team will be playing Stalham in the semi-finals of the Norfolk Women's League Cup and Hethersett Hawks Cycle Speedway have a big match on. I will be taking photos of both events for the newspapers and various web sites - so looking forward to that and I will report back tomorrow on how things went and weather I got wet (or should that be whether I got wet -play on words there)?
Sorry I only partly finished yesterday's blog - just ran out of time through shopping duties and preparing for the quiz. I will return to it and finish it off later today.
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