THE BEGINNING - PART TWO

I was, perhaps, a little naive over what preparation was required to run a marathon.  In hindsight, laughably so.

I was, at the time, playing football.  I am not sure why, as I was, and still am, absolutely shit at it.  I also regularly went to the gym (chucked a few weights around, did some x-training. Even did some running on the treadmill now and again.).  I thought this would provide a decent level of fitness and that the marathon would be a doddle.  A girl I worked with at the time told me that her cousin, who was a bit fat by all accounts (her words, not mine...I had never met him) had run it in four hours.  That was 9mm (nine minute miling).  I could run forty-five minutes for a 10k (despite never running previously, I had still ran a few 10k's in the preceding years) which was 7:15mm.  9mm for roughly four times the distance? Piece of piss.  I took a bet with her of £50 that I would beat the four hour mark.

Now, there was some method in my thinking (not that I knew it at the time)...if you can run a forty-five minute 10k then you should be able to run, with the correct training, around 3:30hrs for the marathon.  But note the words: with the correct training.

It is different now, but back then you found out if you had a place in the race by getting a letter and magazine in the post, in the first or second week in December.  An absolutely appalling time to be told.  If conventional wisdom dictates that you should be running at least six months (if not a year) before attempting your first marathon, then why inform people just over four months from the big day?  And not only that, inform them in the one month when one is least inclined to get out and run, what with the festive period well and truly taking over.  So I did what, I imagine, countless others have done, got my confirmation of entry, put it to one side and went down the pub, promising to start training in the New Year, once Christmas and New Year's Eve, and the associated drinking, had passed.

Sadly come January 1st - well, January 2nd, as January 1st is hangover recovery day - I was not enthused enough about my mission to actually do anything about it.  I did however, for the first two weeks of January, continue to visit the gym and played football.  It was whilst playing football, on a cold day in the middle of January that my 'training' took a set back.  I came on as a sub for the last twenty or so minutes of the game.  All had gone fine except that in the last few seconds of the game, whilst shepherding the ball out of play (I played left back - no jokes about the changing room, please) I put in an increased effort - a devastating burst of speed - and POP!, my hamstring went.  I self-diagnosed that I had strained my hamstring, and so self-diagnosed that I needed to take a month off all exercise to ensure that I did not damage it further whilst marathon training.  This left me with eight weeks before the big day...eight weeks of training.  Somewhat short of the recommended six months.