Never too late, never too old I have always liked running. Correction - I have always liked the idea of running. Unfortunately, for most of my life, (while my head may have been full of iron men and ultras), my body hadn’t actually moved a lot. A three kilometre trudge around the block was about the extent of my efforts. With the odd five km thrown in over the Xmas break. Still. . . the intention was always there. One day I would run a marathon. One day. Some day. . . When there was time and space. And inclination. I obviously had the rest of my life to get to the start line, so there was no hurry. Right? But as the years jogged on by it felt like the ‘rest of my life’ was drawing close. And by the time I reached my 50’s I felt an increasing sense of urgency. If I was serious about this marathon thing I needed to get my skates on. Or, at least, shake the dust off the old blue pumas lying in the back of the wardrobe. And so, in 2019, with my 60th birthday looming, I...
How to run a marathon (Post-race reflections) The marathon was three weeks ago and the body is slowly falling back into place. I can’t believe it’s been 19 weeks since I first embarked on this adventure. In the beginning it seemed an impossibility and it was with great trepidation that I began my training. But. . . I have always wanted to run a marathon and with age 60 looming large I knew it was now or never. I followed the schedule with the aim of increasing my mileage and endurance to the point where I could contemplate going the distance. The long runs became steadily longer - 60 mins became 70 then 80 then 90. Two hours loomed at the six week mark. The improvement was gradual and I tried not to think about the 36 kms that would be required at the end of week 13. While I learned to push myself just a little bit further with each and every run I still had grave doubts that my 60 year old bod would ever cope with 42.2 kms. The truth was, the runs were ha...