Marathon - The Story so Far

My regular reader(s) will know that upon viewing 'Run for Glory' on the BBC earlier this year I was inspired to run the London Marathon, loose a load of weight and get super-fit in the process.

However by May I had managed to get a stress fracture on the outside of my left baby toe. I'm not sure if this was due to playing cricket in shoes that were too small or walking to work (4 miles up and down hills) a few times.

In the time I was 'rested up' I wallowed in my own self pity and not only put on more weight but started smoking as well.

By the time the toe had healed I was probably the heaviest I've ever been. I say probably as I couldn't even bring myself to check on the scales.

Anyway after a series of unfortunate events over the summer (Like being unable to fit into the seat of an adult sized go-kart at a stag weekend) I managed to motivate myself to re-join the gym and start a diet.

I've put the full marathon bid off for a year as the stress fracture meant I couldn't get ready for a 'warm-up' event in time.

The diet is going extremely well, I've lost roughly two stone (I say roughly as I didn't weigh myself in the beginning so I've taken a guess) in just over six weeks and I've entered to run the Plymouth half marathon in May 2007.

The plan is to get in at least one more half marathon between then and the London marathon itself in spring 2008 - fingers crossed I will make it through the sift.

I went on the treadmill for the first time in years last Wednesday (I'd stopped because I could feel it wobbling due to my weight). I ran a mile in just over 9 minutes and felt suitably knackered. It was quite daunting when I realised I had to do 13.1 times the distance!

Yesterday I dropped the pace a bit to focus more on endurance. I did 20 minutes and covered 1.8 miles (2.90 km to be precise, the bloody things are all metric!). On my next trip (hopefully tomorrow) I plan to do 30 minutes at a similar pace (5mph/8kph).

Because my diet has been going so well, I treated myself to a brand new iPod shuffle last week, which made the running even easier. If anyone reading this is struggling to motivate themselves then trust me; a featherlight mp3 player filled with tubthumping rock tracks gives you that extra lift that you need.

If I achieve 30 minutes on the treadmill then I'm going to start running outside on Plymouth's hilly terrain. Preferably away from the roads as I think running next to a bunch of filthy exhausts is somewhat counter productive.

All is going well, I'm setting myself little targets and meeting them. Only one thing stands between me and physical perfection ... Christmas.

If only I was a celebrity, I'd have a fitness DVD out by Christmas 2008.