Hello All,
Im a recent addition to runningwithus group. Nick has kindly taken me on and I have been under his guidance for last few months now as we prepare for the Berlin Marathon on September 25th.
My background in running, is that my now wife bullied me into running after getting sick of me away every weekend playing football for various local league clubs. I never ran as a youth and finally went down Tipton Harriers at 24 years old to help supplement my football fitness. Gradually the running took over and I gave up football. I started running middle distance track at the beginning but I enjoyed Cross Country and Road also, so I soon moved up the distances where I finally made my marathon debut in Florence in 2008 where I ran 2hours19min40sec.
Last year I made a significant breakthrough in making the Great Britain team for the European Championships in Barcelona where I finished 28th in the marathon in 2hours28mins and then a couple of months later represented Scotland in the Commonwealth Games in Delhi where I finished 14th in 2hours25mins. Both marathon were in extremely hot and humid conditions, but none the less great experiences.
My PB was set in Seville (Feb 2010) where I ran 2hr17min36sec. The aim for Berlin, is another PB and hopefully under the Olympic ‘B’ Qualifying standard of 2hr16min.
Touch wood!… training has gone quite smoothly so far in the build up and I feel as though Im making good progress. Nick has got me to concentrate on some of my weaknesses in the early part of the build up which seems to be making the longer runs and marathon workouts seem easier ie Hill work and V02 max workouts.
Yesterday I ran the Dublin 10 mile race for Scotland which incorporated a Home Countries International, England v Scotland. I was representing Scotland and finished 4th in 50.14. The race was won in a new course record by Spanish International Marathon runner Hernandez in 48.15, followed by Englands Anthony Ford 48.36 with Irelands and well known to runningwithus, Steve Scullion (49.59) in 3rd. The course was a 2 lap run in Phoenix Park (apparently Europes biggest urban park), its a gently undulating course with gradual decline then the second half gradually inclines. The race for me proved a good blowout. I through caution to the wind early on went with Ford and Hernandex on the early miles but paid for it on the middle miles where Scullion overtook me as I slowed. John Beattie, Andy Douglas and Ross Houston started to close in at mile 7, but thankfully I managed a second wind in the closing 2 miles to hold 4th and the gap to Scullion.
More pleasing was that today I was scheduled a 2hr15min relaxed run, and I felt pretty good and relaxed throughout the run, running 5.50-6m/m….I had the same run set last week and felt a lot better and ran a lot quicker as well, so can start to see the background of the early marathon work start to pay off as I now hit an important couple of weeks in preparation for Berlin.
Happy running!
Martin
