It's 5:30am on a Sunday morning. I've got a number scrawled on my hand and a bad feeling in my stomach. It's just like the good old days. Except I'm getting up instead of going to bed and the number on my hand is only three digits long. 282, my number for my first ever [...]
In the theatre world they have a saying: Bad dress rehersal, good opening night. For a while I was taking solace in this saying, reassuring myself that my triathlon 'opening night' would go without a hitch. But there's been no dress rehersal, I've broken all the rules about trying all your kit before race day [...]
On the Sunday of the London Marathon I cheered from the sidelines for a few hours then went home and watched the recorded coverage. At the men's start some chancer flew off the start line to try and beat all the elite men. I laughed, not knowing that that chancer was someone I knew from [...]
"The lake is open but likely to be a bit choppy. It'll be fine but just to warn you - good race practice!" came the text message on Thursday morning. I checked the weather forecast for the evening - 22mph winds and some rain.This was weather meant for staying indoors, lighting a fire and having [...]
The last time I went swimming in open water was in a river in Cambodia. I learnt an important swimming lesson that day: keep your mouth shut. I spent the following day sat on a chair half way between my bed and a shared bathroom unsure which way to go. Yesterday, as panic began to [...]
The Road to Manchester Marathon I stared at the clock on the wall above the door to the operating theatre and watched the second hand tick round. "Breath deeply and count backwards from 10.""10, 9, 8, 7...." I was gone. The anaesthetist that had just put me to sleep had earlier answered my questions. Will I [...]
Race Report: Greater Manchester Marathon At 8:56 on Sunday morning, I was sprinting up a duel carriageway with my friend Liz to get to the start of the Greater Manchester Marathon. We joked that in a few hours we'd have technically run an ultra by the time we added on this 'warm-up' mile. We got [...]
With just days to go until marathon number six, taper madness has fully set in. This week it's manifesting itself in the following behaviour.Filling every available weekend until October with a race or event.Refreshing the weather page of the BBC website.Poking my foot in the hope that will cure it of plantar fasciitis.Not cycling to work [...]
If you've never stood by the side of a marathon and clapped and cheered as runners made their way past, you really should.There's two kinds of reaction that you can have standing up close and personal with marathoners on race day:"Oh my, these people are amazing, I don't know how they do it. I could [...]
26.2 miles is a long way to run. For first-time marathon runners, when you line up at the start the most you'll have ever run before is probably 18 or maybe 20 miles. You'll wonder whether you can find it in you to run those extra miles on the day - after all you felt dreadful at the end [...]