(no subject)
In the spirit of recording one's life, I have decided to start writing about the oncoming marathon, and to make space in my journal for a record of my training, for that as well as triathlon. Today I ran about 14miles in the evening. I was running with a great chap called Andrew who joined me at Hammersmith Bridge, and his terrier called Twiglet, which kept up with us at quite a reasonable pace. He was also training for triathlon, so we had a good chat before he left me in Chiswick. At Hammersmith (on the way back) it started to rain which was quite depressing but I managed to finish, though somewhat weary and wet.
Why am I doing this? Well firstly the sponsorship bit. Asthma is a condition affecting a large number of people throughout this country and the world, to varying degrees. I love sport - I think its something that everyone should at least have the opportunity to get involved in, and asthma is something that negates this opportunity. Sport is a completely positive activity; it makes you healthy, it gives you the opportunity to socialise, competition brings people to excel in ways they might never have thought possible. The work of Asthma UK has the potential to bring this to a far greater number of people, that is why I have chosen to run for them.
For me, obviously the marathon is good preparation if I am going to do Ironman in the future, but there is something more. There is something in the mind of every long distance runner which sets them apart from other people. A determination to achieve more and more, to be free from the world's physical constraints and just to run. It is such a liberating activity. People get scared of the pain; they say they don't like it or that it is not for them. I beg them to reconsider. When I was little, I hated cross-country and looked down on those who enjoyed it. I was not fat, by I was by no means slim. I was like any other prep school kid. In my third year at senior school something changed. I realised that I actually quite enjoyed running, either with people or on my own, as it gave me an opportunity to get away from the worries of everyday life. I certainly wasn't any good at it, but I trained, and trained more, and got better as a result. The more I did it, the more I became hooked. I have continued to run since leaving school, sometimes competing and sometimes not, but now I have come back to the competition and realised how much I enjoy it. Not so much the running itself - it is pretty mindless for me, though to some extent that is the attraction. It is more the feeling of having done something completely of my own achievement, something difficult - a mountain which I alone have conquered. Jogging for half an hour is not the same - to really feel running must hurt; it is only then that you will reach the state of semi-Nirvana which it brings.
To conclude I have 2 messages for those reading;
1. Start running, join a club and get going - you will not regret it. Conquer your inhibitions and, as the boys from a well-known company say "Just do it."
2. Please sponsor me!