I didn't even realise that it had been That long
Nope...I really didn't, that's the honest answer and I was pretty surprised almost shocked by it. I am running in the Worksop half marathon tomorrow, which offers nothing but 13miles of pain. It's part of my planned running comeback, having raced the Kilomathon in March this year and struggling through that I felt I owed myself to re-discover my fitness, motivation, weight loss plan and that competitive streak that used to make me pretty unstoppable when the mind was focused. So, after a few months of training and a calorie counting diet later I am 1 stone lighter when I started training and feel comfortable I can finish a half marathon. So, I check my race history, when you are a geek you have one of this, in a spreadsheet or other form to see when I last ran a half marathon...it was September, 2006!!
My head nearly fell off, has it really been 4 years? yes, yes it has, it was Nottingham Half, timed finish at 1hr 33mins. I shall be fortunate to make it under 2hours this time around. This is not the point of Worksop, although it's still painful to live with that knowledge of a past speed. The plan is to have a good winter training and start again next year, but who knows what the forthcoming son might bring?
Just to point out that although I haven't run a half marathon in 4 years, I have run other distances, but here's the last 5 years for amusement value, from my running history of course
2005 - 2 x half Marathons
1 x 10k
2006 - 5 x half Marathons
1 x marathon
2 x 10k's
2007 - 3 x Marathons
2008 - 1 x marathon
1 x 10k
2009 - 1 x 10k
As you can see and what this highlights to me was the great year of 2006, when I was at my fastest and when the rot set in from Mid 2007 onwards when I remember having a great first marathon in Rome, in March, (my fastest still). And then it was a combination of picking up a horribly niggly injury from running Rome so fast and badly, but that's another story. And having a huge life changing year in 2007, never excuses but definite factors that seemed to stop me dead in terms of training and finding the motivation and 2008 was declining and 2009 will I hope appear always to be the nadir of my running, never to be reached again when I hardly ran and nearly gave up because I could never find my mojo or even an enjoyment of running.
2010 has been a pretty tough year all in all but the running has come back a little by little, like an old friend reminding me it's time to get back again and I have felt, over the last few months a little more like my old self, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.
My head nearly fell off, has it really been 4 years? yes, yes it has, it was Nottingham Half, timed finish at 1hr 33mins. I shall be fortunate to make it under 2hours this time around. This is not the point of Worksop, although it's still painful to live with that knowledge of a past speed. The plan is to have a good winter training and start again next year, but who knows what the forthcoming son might bring?
Just to point out that although I haven't run a half marathon in 4 years, I have run other distances, but here's the last 5 years for amusement value, from my running history of course
2005 - 2 x half Marathons
1 x 10k
2006 - 5 x half Marathons
1 x marathon
2 x 10k's
2007 - 3 x Marathons
2008 - 1 x marathon
1 x 10k
2009 - 1 x 10k
As you can see and what this highlights to me was the great year of 2006, when I was at my fastest and when the rot set in from Mid 2007 onwards when I remember having a great first marathon in Rome, in March, (my fastest still). And then it was a combination of picking up a horribly niggly injury from running Rome so fast and badly, but that's another story. And having a huge life changing year in 2007, never excuses but definite factors that seemed to stop me dead in terms of training and finding the motivation and 2008 was declining and 2009 will I hope appear always to be the nadir of my running, never to be reached again when I hardly ran and nearly gave up because I could never find my mojo or even an enjoyment of running.
2010 has been a pretty tough year all in all but the running has come back a little by little, like an old friend reminding me it's time to get back again and I have felt, over the last few months a little more like my old self, so we'll see what happens tomorrow.
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