If you watched the brilliant BBC documentary "Mind over marathon", then you will know that ten of the runners on that start line were running to raise awareness for the "heads together" campaign championed by the Royal family. They are encouraging people to talk about mental health and championing the benefits of physical exercise is one way in which they are doing so.
It is perhaps apt that the heads together campaign should be this year's charity of choice for VLM. The marathon is such a unique, exhausting, relentless and unforgiving challenge at times - not just physically, but mentally also. You always know there will be a point in the run when doubt, and questions will pop into your mind, you just have to overcome them.
If you didn't catch the programme, please catch it on the iPlayer, it really is a fantastic watch. You can see through the first part how they have all already bought into a shared sense of belonging, community and purpose.
In my opinion, we have a truly special community in the running world, and despite any little rivalries that we all have, at the end of the day we all want to see each other do well, improve and most importantly enjoy our running. Speaking from a personal perspective, running has helped shape me into a much more rounded and better person I hope. When I first started, I was in kind of a state of flux, having left school and drifted away from previous friendship groups, I struggled at university and didn't really fit in. Joining a running club gave me a new focus and direction. It has also provided me with countless opportunities and has seen me meet and befriend some of the best people I could wish to meet. And of course I met Moll!
One of the best moments and a highlight of this mornings race was seeing Matthew Rees of Swansea Harriers (team mate of first GB athlete Josh Griffiths, who had a sensational run - what a day for Swansea!) forfeiting his own finish to help a struggling runner over the final stretch down the Mall to the finish. It was a great show of sportsmanship and humanity that I believe is unique to the running community, and which makes me feel so proud to be a part of what we have.
I would also like to say a big well done to all of my team mates at Wesham that represented our club so well there today, I hope you all enjoyed your day (minus the running pain!) and are happy with your results. Also well done to Ugis at Blackpool marathon this morning too, running sub 3 hours.
I think we are in the midst of an upturn in performance in the UK at the minute too with distance running, some of the times recorded by the elites this morning were fantastic, and the amount of sub 2:30 efforts was brilliant to see. Locally, Ben Johnson of Southport and Waterloo had a barnstorming run in 2:21:46 - phenomenal!
There was no marathon for me today, mine is 154 days away and counting, and training will kick into full swing for it in about 6 weeks time - scary stuff!
I upped my mileage up above the 80 mile mark for the first time this year, this week, as I aim to try and get my body adjusted and ready for the heavy miles ahead - I don't want it to come as too much of a shock to the system so hopefully I can ease my mileage up gradually before I get my proper marathon training underway.
On Monday I ran a total of 13 miles, with my usual half hour jog before meeting with the running club to add on 9 miles with them.
On Tueday I did a similar speed session to the previous week, by doing the same 3 minute on, 1 minute off, fartlek session. As I wasn't racing this week I added a couple of extra reps and did 8 in total, giving me 24 minutes of effort in total at an average pace of 5:07. Including the warm up, cool down and recoveries, I managed to complete my 10 mile loop in just under the hour so was pleased with the session as a whole.
I ran easy on Wednesday, ticking over for an hour and managing just over 9 miles for 6:38 pace.
Thursday was my usual meet up with Rob Affleck, and we turned our attentions towards some upcoming shorter distance races, so did a shorter, sharper session of 2 x 1.5 mile reps. I clocked 7:23 for both reps and was happy with my pace and consistency throughout. I will need to go a bit quicker on race day to get the times I want, but hopefully with the race day adrenaline and competition around I will find a little bit more.
Again I ran easy on Friday with 8 miles at 6:35 pace, before doubling up on Saturday by doing the Lytham park run as a tempo workout (15:48), whilst Moll ran a new best time of 27:58(!) and then doing an easy 5 miles in the evening.
I ended the week with my long run on Sunday morning - I got it out of the way nice and early to make sure I didn't miss any of the marathon coverage! I was pleased with how relaxed and comfortable I felt and I just ran nice, steady and consistent for the 17.5 miles at 6:15 pace throughout.
Total mileage for the week: 80
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:28
Total mileage so far this month (April): 249
Total mileage for 2017: 1109.5
Average miles per day 2017: 9.82
