I started to write this blog entry nearly a week ago. At the time I had a lot of information about the fact that I had hit a real high in my training (the 40km super long run) followed by a real low (a pretty painful knee that I had to manage carefully for nearly 2 weeks). I had also written a great deal about how my work schedule was really messing with my running plans (so injury + work = almost no running).
When the Earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan I decided that the niggling knee injury, the long work hours and my struggle to run was really not that relevant. Like many of you I watched the images emerging from Japan and besides being in awe at the power of mother nature I was sure that compared to all the suffering and loss of life my troubles were insignificant and somewhat self-inflicted. I reached out to several friends I have in Japan and thankfully they are all safe and well. Others have not been so fortunate.
Last weekend I was also reminded about the precarious nature of life when a friend lost her husband. The weekend running thoughts again took a back seat as we all pulled together to help however we could. In truth I cannot think that more could have happened over the past 3 weeks to remind me again of why I am doing my running. I am doing it because I want to, because I can and because at the end of the day you have all contributed your hard earned cash in support of a cause that will hopefully ensure some lives somewhere are not needlessly extinguished too young! We cannot stop mother nature but through research we can help children with XLP. We cannot control the natural cycle of life but we can fight back in the XLP realm through research funded by each of you.
So I deleted most of what I previously wrote removing all my discussions of hardship. I am fortunate enough to have a great life full of positives. My running is not a chore but something I enjoy to do and also something that is kicking me back to a level of health I have not been at for many years. Work is an important part of life and while it is sometimes busy I am fortunate to have the job I do with the company I do.
So looking back on the past 3 weeks since the monster run I have not been doing too much running. I am hopeful this will not impact me in 4 weeks (yes… 28 days today is the actual race) mainly because I have somehow managed to keep up some semblance of distance running with some fast races in-between. I am also still alcohol free which I have been now since February 11th. I do not miss it either although my friends remind me often about it ;-). If I continue on this path I will reach 65 days without any alcohol… I have not managed that since I was 18 … so there is a definite positive there.
In terms of runs I am up to about 124km for March which breaks down a bit like below:
· March 1st: 4km, March 4th: 10km, March 6th (Race): 20km in 1hr 35mins, March 10th: 7km, March 12th: 12km, March 13th: 13km, March 19th: 16.5km, March 20th: 31km
So moving on a bit there was some big news just this last week.. I have my race number of London and that is both exciting as well as nerve wracking. It brings home that the race is really going to happen.
The information dropped into my inbox in the middle of last week and as you can see my race number is 51491. I also know now that I will be starting in the Red Start area… this likely means a LOT of people around me and that it will be hard to get going at race pace quickly.. I might be grateful for that later in the race.
Ok.. so that’s all for today. I am flying to Cary on Wednesday 23rd and will be hitting the trails around the Umstead over the following week until I fly to Las Vegas on April 1st. I will arrive back in Germany on April 8th giving me 9 days to get over Jet lag and be ready for the big day.
I will keep you all updated and for those of you who are also runners.. Happy Running!
Mark.
