About 41 hours to go...

Hi All. Not long to go now til the Bristol Half Marathon 2011. Fund-raising has been going brilliantly! I'm amazed by the generosity of people despite the difficult times that we're in, so thanks to all who've sponsored me already! For anyone else, there's still time to sponsor me using the links over on the right of the page...please do if you can, any amount helps and no donation is too small.

I can't believe it's been more than 6 months since I signed up for the Half Marathon, and about 9 months since I decided that it was time to get back into shape. So much has happened since then, fitness-wise and other-wise. So many milestones!

Bradley Stoke 10k

Back in February I could run 3km, at a very slow pace. I had absolutely no idea how I would step that up to be able to run 7 times as far in just 6 months. Then the distances started increasing...the first 5km felt like hell. The first time I ran 10k I felt like I was on top of the world when I finished, but the next day my legs were seized up and I could hardly walk...I guess I just wasn't ready for that!

My highlights so far were the two 10k races that I've done, the Runners World Trailblazer 10k in the Forest of Dean, and the Bradley Stoke 10k back in June. The Forest of Dean event was a warm-up to see what a race would be like, but at the Bradley Stoke I wanted to push and see where I was, fitness wise. After only managing about 60mins in training, I ran as hard as I could and just about nudged under 50minutes...way better than my target. It was definitely the high-point of my training.

Since then I've put myself through it a bit. I sometimes wonder whether I'm really as fit as my distances indicate or whether I'm just too stubborn to stop so just more idiotic than the average person! My first half-marathon distance and my first 50mile+ bike ride with significant climbs were brutal educations on how it's going to feel coming into the last 5 on Sunday, but at least I know what it's going to be like.

I've also realised that I'm too dumb to pace myself from a stopwatch so I've shelled out on a Garmin Forerunner 305...something which I actually wish that I'd done before! The virtual training partner function is brilliant for judging your pace, and the GPS logging and heart rate monitor is really useful. Simple things like the ability to see my total distance for the last month is really motivating too, and gives a real sense of achievement. A trace from it is shown below...helpful analysis geek stuff can be done from those numbers! Hopefully it will help in the main event to

 Garmin 305 Readout from my PB 10k

But now, here we are. I feel pretty good. I've been tapering down my training runs to the main event, hitting a PB for 10k in my last run over that distance before Sunday (49mins 36sec). My resting heart-rate is about 45bpm now, which is quite good for a guy who's still about 14stone! I think I'm as fit as I've ever been, and I'm ready...

Now watch it all go wrong :)