Author: MarathonMannUK

In the James Bond film GoldenEye, there is a character called Boris Grishenko, a computer genius who’s favorite expression is “I am inveeeencable” after he escapes from various scrapes.  In the closing sequence Boris says this just before he finally meets his end!  I felt a bit like him today.

There is a local off-road race in Januay that I did last year called the Temple Newsam Ten which is famous for its muddy bits and hilly bits in roughly equal measure.  When running friend Jess suggested a group do a course recci after parkrun, a “jog” round it seemed like a great idea, especially since that due to a family get-together, I can’t do a long run tomorrow.

I thought “Of course I can do this thing” It’s only a half marathon distance with a break after 3 miles.  With my current form I am invincible!  What I forgot was the “challenging” nature of Temple Newsam parkrun and my propensity to give it all and certainly chase down anyone with the audacity to try and finish before me.  To be fair though, Jess’s running friends were, to be frank, rather speedy and by about 1/2 way round I was wishing I had volunteered at parkrun (“it’s only a run, not a race” yeah, right)!

So to conclude, however fit I feel, I am not invincible and there are limits to what I can do.  Onwards though,  because I’ve plenty of goals to acheive and today’s run, although tough, was brilliant!

“for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭24:16‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

http://bible.com/113/pro.24.16.nivuk

I heard a story of a man who was going to Heaven and was told he could bring one physical thing from his life on Earth.  Since he had a lot of gold, he chose to bring that.  When he arrived, one angel looked at him with a bemused expression on his face and he asked “you brought pavement?”.

While Heaven may be paved with gold, London most assuredly is not as I found out Friday morning.  I think this must happen to every runner at least once; that moment when what you take for granted, the miracles known as your legs, that you rely on for stability and motion, are suddenly whipped away as the ground beneath your feet seems to fall away.  For a moment (and it only needs a moment), the combination of forward momentum and the force of gravity, have sole and unimpeded authority over your body and it’s brutal .  Physicists describe gravity as a “weak” force, runners don’t!

I think if you had to design something that would hurt if someone fell on it, you would be hard pushed to better paving slabs.   When you hit it (the pavement) and have got over the initial confused shock, you start to work out exactly how badly hurt you are.  If you are a child, the strategy is clear: start crying – even if you aren’t really hurt then a bit of attention can never be a bad thing.  However at 5:30 AM on Cromwell Road in London, there isn’t anyone else about so that plan is a dead loss.

When I saw blood dripping on the pavement I had dread thoughts of spending the day in A&E or worse.  Fortunately when this mishap took me I was only about 10 yards from the enterance of the hotel where I was staying in South Kensington and I knew that they would probably have a first aider.  When I looked into the mirror however, I didn’t see a gaping hole in my head and the damage looked to be more costmetic than structural.  Again fortunately I had my “longs” on, which protected my limbs and I think I would have bled more if I was in shorts and t-shirt.

Since I have been logging my running, I have clocked 8,276 miles and in that time I have only fallen once before and that was on a slippery off-road route.  So, what’s the moral of my story? Well I dont think there is one except this:  If you do that sort of mileage this is pretty much bound to happen sooner or later but, I suspect that you won’t do anything like as much damage to yourself as you would if you didn’t excercise.  So I’ll take the knock thank you very much!

“‘Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you moulded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.”

‭‭Job‬ ‭10:8-12‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

http://bible.com/113/job.10.8-12.nivuk

Something happened this weekend which has caused me to re-evaluate what I can achieve in running.  It has made me dare to hope that I can achieve things I would never do again.  In short, it has enabled me to believe in myself again.

My home parkrun is Temple Newsam and it is known as one of the toughest courses in West Yorkshire and is arguably THE toughest.  Some years ago when I was very fit, I achieved a personal best of 23 minutes 31 seconds.  In general, times at Temple Newsam for me are around a minute slower than other less challenging routes.  This, in recent years, has always seemed a feat that I would be unlikely ever to repeat.

A few weeks ago, I was trying to reach the significant milestone of under 25 minutes for that parkrun and surprised myself by not only beating this objective but absolutely smashing it by doing 24:08.  That was hard to do but nevertheless I thought that on Saturday I would try and put a little extra into it and squeeze under 24.

By sheer coincidence, there was a 24 minute pacer running on Saturday (the amazing Wayne Herbert) so I had a way of gauging progress without looking at my watch all the time!  To my amazement, I was able to keep ahead of Wayne for most of the time and finished some way in front.  I was even more amazed when I looked at my watch and realised that I had finished in 23:24, some 7 seconds faster than that record of long ago!  It was only a few weeks ago that I was chasing 25 and this was almost too much to take in.

This experience has brought home to me that just like a goal seems out of reach, there is no reason that with hard work, commitment and faith it cannot be achieved.  I have therefore set my goals for next year to be more challenging than that I had originally planned, and really go for those long-standing PBs.

My goals for the year (and it doesn’t matter if I do some early):

Pontefract parkrun PB (22:44)
5K PB (21:38)
Marathon PB (3:58:36)
200 miles in a month
1,500 miles in a year

Some are harder than others but now I dare to dream!

In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.

Acts 2:17 NIV