Distant Mountain

The good news so far, is that the training is more or less going to plan and has been injury free apart from a few niggles. It’s been a hectic month with the real world pushing away at the time available for training. At the time of writing in mid-March, I’m now up to long runs of about sixteen miles with the longest training run planned for the third weekend of March. This should be about nineteen or twenty miles which should then allow a three week ‘taper,’ where I’m still out running but for shorter distances. That’s not to say the training has been easy, it does impact on family time when you disappear for three or four hours and come back exhausted and hardly able to walk! It means that the day after a long run, stairs are usually best avoided as they use parts of your legs which, quite frankly, had ‘quite enough to do the day before thank you very much and we don’t want to play anymore.’ The time I spend alone running, is however, great thinking time where I can clear my he...

On Saturday I ran the Rhayader Round the Lakes 20 mile road race in a time of four hours and two minutes. This is quite slow because I'm not a quick runner, but it gave me plenty of time to take in the beautiful Elan Valley in glorious spring sunshine. Being a road race, we had to follow a set route, so there were arrows and marshalls pointing the way at every junction. There were markers at every mile and the path was clearly laid out for us. Long runs are a great way to clear your head and give plenty of thinking time. I took up running to get fit and lose weight, which has worked, to a degree. But I was a hillwalker before I was a runner, so every time I saw a footpath leaving the side of the road, that was where I wanted to go, to explore and see what was above the next rise. Somewhere along the way, the reasons for running have become clouded, so that now running instead has become the main activity. So I have resolved to restore the perspective. Once the London Marathon...

Written for St Georges March Parish Magazine. As reported last month, on April 17th (Palm Sunday) I’ll be taking part in the Virgin London Marathon. This is one of biggest and best known running events in the world and should be a fantastic day. Those who have run the race before have told me that just the crowds cheering you on can be a hugely uplifting and exciting experience. The crowd support will hopefully keep me going when things get tougher in the later stages. In many ways I’m really looking forward to the day itself. I’ve got my train tickets and youth hostel place booked, the Christian Aid ‘Team Poverty’ will be waiting for me and I’m hoping that, with your support, I can raise some substantial funds which can really make a difference to those for whom living below the breadline is just another day. The fundraising will also help with the training. When it’s howling a gale or pouring with rain, knowing that the hard work can make a difference to people with emergency ai...